Caitlin Moran Apologizes For Slurs

I think this was important to note: Caitlin Moran, author of How To Be a Woman, apologized via Twitter for her use of homophobic and ableist slurs. I'm not sure if this is a case of "too little, too late." I actually like her, and I think she's funny, but I can't recommend her books, even as an introduction to feminism.There's no excuse for using the "T" and "R" words, even if they're left over from your childhood, or you learned them from drag queens. (I think she has a point that the "t-word" has a slightly different connotation within the drag world; however, that doesn't mean it's not still a slur.) it If she thinks that's it's the only reason for the push-back on her Twittersilence campaign, she's wrong. Ana Mardoll has written a great post on why having a Twitter abuse button isn't a one-step solution, and it can further silence those whose voices are seldom heard as part of Big Feminism.

"However, the solution proposed to this situation by a lot of high-profile feminists with, it must be pointed out, a lot of relative privilege (including in many cases, but not limited to: cis privilege, white privilege, class privilege, urban privilege, thin privilege, religious privilege, and straight privilege) was to not demand that Twitter revise its terms of service to disallow rape- and death- threats and then proactively respond to tweets reported to the help team via email, as well as possibly making a special class of closely-monitored accounts for protection (much as Twitter already maintains "Verified" accounts for celebrities and political figures) where Twitter could proactively locate, remove, and ban rape-threats from frequently targeted accounts whose owners request this service."

Mardoll also points out the ludicrous idea of putting Twitter behind a pay wall, which could leave out a lot of people who can't afford the fee. (Hey, I'm probably one of them.)

Even with the apology -- and don't get me wrong, I'm glad she did apologize, the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth, and I've been pulling away from feminism, at least online feminism, for some time now with each intersectionality fail.