Obviously her fact-checking leaves something to be desired. So does her prose. "Three-quarter-profile thrust-pose"? Seriously? I suspect this is what happens when one's writing becomes an outlet for barely contained sexual frustration. The rest of us keep our commentary and our sexual fantasies somewhat more separate.

Shut your mouth, Lindstrom!

words cannot describe how angry that article makes me feel. It's such bullshit. I don't understand how people can honestly agree with that woman. *sigh* I need to calm down.

Now... she IS aware that SOME women OCCASIONALLY by some sad misfortune of nature are, y'know, born with breasts, right? It's not just the ones that care about women's rights. In fact, I'd venture a guess that she might even have a pair that she's not telling us about.

Allen actually makes feministing sound like a porn website with all of her ranting about breasts and suggestive posing! After reading her commentary, checking out her "proof" (A woman wearing a t shirt and the feministing logo. Seriously?) and then actually seeing the picture, I almost wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. That, or cry because it's so depressing.

I have never actually seen the 'boobgate' picture before. After all the commentary it's gotten, I thought it would be extreemly lowcut, sufficatingly tight, with boobage spilling out everywhere. So imagine my suprise when I saw that Jessica was dressed conservatively. I don't see a hint of boob, anywhere.

But wait, I forgot, we're young women, we are supposed to be ashamed of ourselves and take every effort to hide our 'dirty pillows', Jessica got what she was asking for! /sarcasm/

I'm not going to dignify their bullshit with a response. All I have to say is this:

Jessica and all the feminist ladies are fucking awesome.

Give 'em what fer Ms. Lindstrom!

Yes..women have breasts. Its an amazing revelation.

The revelation that Charlotte Allen and others seem to be missing is that just because women have breasts doesnt mean they constantly have to be seen as sexual objects.

Jessica apparently from now on you should tape down your breasts and wear sports bras if you're around a man. Because by letting them run around unchecked you are practically humping their leg

Silly Jessica, what are you thinking, having big breasts in public?

I do. not. get. it. The "boobgate" picture? I see a woman wearing a shirt. I am completely and utterly baffled. I cannot even begin to understand where Ann Althouse and Charlotte Allen are coming from in their criticism.

god, she really is stupid. Jessica is looking at the camera. Her back is to the President. THEREFORE, hers were the breasts he was LEAST able to see.

I don't know why I went and reread that whole Althouse thread; even now it just makes me want to kill people.

I'll second Nekkid Nancy's (wonder what they'd make of that one?) post. Feministing kicks ass.

It's okay, I don't take anything Charlotte Allen says seriously, because she wrote in her column in the Washington Post that she's dumb. I'm just taking her and her entire canon at her word at this point.

Just wanted to post my support of Jessica in this whole ridiculous mess. I can hardly believe there are women out there like this, it so ludicrous, and the fact that there are is just so depressing.
Just shows how important it is to be a feminist, now, isn't it?!

Well...she was right about you wearing your little sister's shirt. Other than that? Meh.

Is this supposed to be a FEMINIST site?

I saw that photo and I didn't see what the big deal was then. Jessica looked very presentable but of course a woman can't have breasts without being a whore. And "Size double-D's"? Thats some hard hitting journalism right there.

I'm with the other commenter up there because saying anything more about them would mean that you give a lick about that obvious bullshit that they have to say.

I love the logo and I hope it stays with the new website revap Jessica!

I just want to say that this forum makes me want to laugh and cry. Just when I'm seething over Charlotte Allen's piece, ready to drive by her house with my boobs bared like Jenny Schecter, I get brought back to Earth by your comments "I don't know why I went and reread that whole Althouse thread; even now it just makes me want to kill people." from Misspelled.

I chuckled at that, because I did the same thing. Feministing reminds me that there are women like you ladies out there, not just idiots like Allen.

Jessica, you fucking rock. And so do your boobs.

It isn't even well written. That's pretty telling.

holy crap, she is one ugly hater. and I'm not talking about her physical appearance - I could really care less about that. when one descends below basement level all it does is display desperation, a craving (coulter-like) for attention.

this charlotte utilizes the type of rhetoric that picks at one imagined unraveling thread, and from it, creates a whole cloth whose integrity is not only questionable, it is invisible. where's the rationality, char? or does that get deposited in return for a paycheck?

and t-monster? - I agree. to charlotte, I'd just like to say (and have these delightful visions of her and others shrinking back, palely (with maybe a tinge of green)):

BREASTS. VAGINA, even.

holy crap, she is one ugly hater. and I'm not talking about her physical appearance - I could really care less about that. when one descends below basement level all it does is display desperation, a craving (coulter-like) for attention.

this charlotte utilizes the type of rhetoric that picks at one imagined unraveling thread, and from it, creates a whole cloth whose integrity is not only questionable, it is invisible. where's the rationality, char? or does that get deposited in return for a paycheck?

and t-monster? - I agree. to charlotte, I'd just like to say (and have these delightful visions of her and others shrinking back, palely (with maybe a tinge of green)):

BREASTS. VAGINA, even.

What is wrong with that woman?

"Do we really want as our first female president a woman whose husband hosts parties attended by inappropriately attired young women who run websites featuring naked gals with large racks making obscene gestures?"

WHAT THE FUCK! (and no, i will not censor myself as the idiots at IWF would prefer)

there are SO many things wrong with that question BUT behind all of this is the idea that, of course, we should be ashamed of our bodies...i call BULLSHIT!

and anyway, what the fuck does hillary clinton's potential to be a good president have ANYTHING to do with her husband at all??

i'm sorry...i just can't help but want to yell obscenities right now...

Apparently seeing the outline of breasts = pornography now?

Give me a break! This Allen woman is NUTS! I remember Jessica talking about the picture in her book.. and I wanted to see it. I'm flabbergasted that people made that much noise over a shirt that covers so much!

Like, sorry.. we're now supposed to wear baggy clothing to ensure that our BREASTS which are NATURAL (or, in some cases, not.. but WHO CARES) because we're feminist?

Chauvinist female pig much?

What horribly rude and badly written tripe. Does Ms. Allen always write this badly? Yes, probably. I've been reading some anti-feminist blogs and sites for research, and the writing skills are so substandard. And Ms. Allen is not alone is messing up people's names (and how do you mistake Lindstrom for Valenti?). There is one female blogger who writes scolding screeds against women who work outside the home, and every time she mentions a known women in one of her posts, she completely messes up the spelling their names. I'm starting to think she does this on purpose.

And you know what? For someone who's supposedly such an expert in satire, Charlotte Allen spends an awful lot of time completely missing the satire of the Feministing logo. Er, excuse me, I mean the "naked gal with a large rack making an obscene gesture."

Also, for someone who accuses you of being so inappropriate about everything boob-related... why can she only talk about boobs?

For what it is worth that whole "boobgate" thing is what got me into reading this site. Early on in my blog reading days I noticed bloggers I liked making fun of Ann Althouse. I decided to see what the fuss was about. This was right when this whole issue was going on. I read Jessica's comments and response and it was clear to me who was right. Since then I have been a regular reader. Before my concerns for social justice were almost entirely based in terms of racia and class. Sexism only got my attention when it was completely over the top. Now I have insight into how big of a problem sexism is. So at least one good thing came out of that whole mess, you converted this guy into a budding feminist.
Also, Ann Althouse is one of the few things I am not proud about at the UW.

Do we really want as our first female president a woman whose husband hosts parties attended by inappropriately attired young women who run websites featuring naked gals with large racks making obscene gestures?

Um...yes. Yes, we would, if one were on offer--I'm all in favor of a libertine in the White House. But here in the real world we have a woman whose husband hosts meetings with professionally-attired younger feminists, one of whom runs a website whose logo is a subversive take on the standard mud-flap girl. I know, I know--that sounds a lot less fun. Real life is so often like that, unfortunately.

Boobgate was apparently before my readership here, but suddenly, every time I've been analyzed, harassed, or manhandled has just paled in comparison. You level of badass-ness went through the roof for being able to handle this issue in the right way--dignified, analytically, and without having to critique someone else's appearance to make a (poor) point.

Also, after eight years of forgetting women are people too, and an administration that won't even teach kids about sex, I'd be all for even a President partying inappropriately. It can't be any worse!

Give 'em hell, Lindstrom!!

Ok, how the hell does Valenti (Italian, yes?) turn into Lindstrom (definitely Swedish)? I admit I've had brain farts in my time as a journalist, but that's ridiculous. But silly me -- Ms. Allen is no journalist, even though her drivel did get published in a newspaper I USED to respect.
PS Ann Althouse sucks.

You have to wonder if Charlotte covers all the furniture legs in her house with little slips, a la the Victorian age.

So uh...
Did I misread that or does it really say "Hillary Clinton should not be president because Jessica brought her boobs with her when she met Bill Clinton?"

W.T.F? Did that lady seriously write an entire article about your t-shirt? Does she have nothing better to do? Is she nuts? Jennifer, I am sorry this happened to you. We should make a annoucement that from here-on in all women in the vicinity of Bill Clinton should wear thick woolen turtlenecks just in case...
Maybe she is as dumb as she states in that AWFUL WaPo article.....sigh...

W.T.F? Did that lady seriously write an entire article about your t-shirt? Does she have nothing better to do? Is she nuts? Jennifer, I am sorry this happened to you. We should make a annoucement that from here-on in all women in the vicinity of Bill Clinton should wear thick woolen turtlenecks just in case...
Maybe she is as dumb as she states in that AWFUL WaPo article.....sigh...

She must have been desperate for something to write about. I mean, you would have been within your rights to wear a low-cut or form-fitting shirt, and yet I wouldn't have been surprised to see an anti-feminist say that it was horrible. But your shirt was beyond reproach even by them; the only reason anyone noticed your breasts was that the other people were wearing clothing or standing in a position that hid the boob shadow. Having a boob shadow is an unavoidable consequence of having boobs. Unless you have translucent boobs, I guess. I kind of feel stupid even discussing this writing, though, it's just so juvenile, and what your shirt looked like shouldn't even be up for discussion. Well, hopefully she pushes smart people towards feminism.

yeah, the feministing logo is real porn. one-dimentional silhouettes of proportional, purple cartoon spoofs is sooo erotic.

it's transparant that that women is obsessed with boobs. she looks at a tank top with a logo and thinks it's a boob conspiracy? where is the logo supposed to go, on the inside of the shirt?

and jessica, the first time i read about this i was almost nervous, like you were going to be wearing a knit corset, and when i saw the photo my jaw literally dropped. that woman could not have been more full of crap.

i really want to get that allen woman in touch with some therapeutic massage or something, teach her to chill out about icky boobies and naughty smiles.

Obviously Courtney Allen knows nothing about looking fierce. Everyone knows the "three-quarter-profile thrust-pose" is flattering for all body types...especially for those hussies with their shameful double-D's.

Siiiigh. Jessica, thank you for putting up with this crap to bring us feministing.

How the fuck did she get "Lindstrom" out of "Valenti"?

Seriously?

It's so fucking ridiculous I want to laugh, except that it's real and therefore kind of heartbreaking. What is WRONG with people? I'm sorry she launched a personal attack at you, Jessica, but I'm impressed your boobs are apparently enough to bring down a presidential candidate. I'm not sure mine have that much power!

When you link to places like Charlotte Allen's and other similar bullshit you should use the nofollow tag for google's bot. Otherwise, being linked from a high profile website like Feministing make their websites more prominent in search ranks when someone is searching for feminism or the like.

I have a really hard time believing that people like Ann Althouse and Charlotte Allen exist in real life. I guess it's just wishful thinking.

I'd also like to further investigate Charlotte Allen's terrible fear and deep hatred of breasts.

hey. i've been reading this for a while but this made me have to register to leave a comment. i'm really sorry. the only comment that should have been made about you in that picture is "that is great that a young woman is accomplished enough to be invited to such a meeting or it is nice that young women are involved in progressive issues and providing a place for them on the internet." but no. instead there was a long thread about your appearance. it is really upsetting that places like althouse and ifeminism claim to be real feminism.

Ugh, I hate it when people try to discredit each other based on looks. The whole "women must hide the fact that they are woman because if they don't the poor men won't be able to control themselves" argument is ridiculous.

That lady must be very bored

"Feministing is all about breasts"

Lol!! This article is so silly, it's almost comedy (almost).

Apparently if you have breasts, you're meant to stand like a hunchback instead of practicing good posture. God Jessica, I can't believe you didn't know that.

And it's true that your website is covered in boobs. It's almost as if you were constantly discussing women.

Not sure that really merits a thanks. :D

Wow, that boobgate was so incredibly pointless.

Although you do have nice breasts.

How dare you have nice breasts in front of the former president! /mock horror

And it's true that your website is covered in boobs. It's almost as if you were constantly discussing women.

lolol

It really makes me laugh out loud that these adult women are so afraid of breasts.

And Jessica, thank you for representing us at events like that and talking to influential leadership about young womens' issues. I think that point got lost in the Boobscaria. You fucking rock.

"Monica Lewinsky look alike"? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Aw, poor Charlotte. All these Democrat brunettes just look the same to her.

Maybe she has some eyesight problems (that'd explain the Lindstrom too) – I've heard that can be a side effect of all that frustration. ;)

Charlotte Allen was just so surprised to see that there was a feminist outside of her narrow-minded understanding that led her to ask this stupid question: "Why does feminism have to mean the triumph of the ugly and the surly?"

Underneath it all, perhaps she is just jealous that Jessica has great breasts and doesn't even have to wear a low-cut shirt! (But where does she get double d's from?!)

lol, who knew that breasts could be the most exciting thing for conservatives writing about a Bill Clinton luncheon with bloggers.

Charlotte Allen was just so surprised to see that there was a feminist outside of her narrow-minded understanding that led her to ask this stupid question: "Why does feminism have to mean the triumph of the ugly and the surly?"

Underneath it all, perhaps she is just jealous that Jessica has great breasts and doesn't even have to wear a low-cut shirt! (But where does she get double d's from?!)

lol, who knew that breasts could be the most exciting thing for conservatives writing about a Bill Clinton luncheon with bloggers.

"Scroll down past the ad for the pro-choice shindig and you'll see an ad for a Jessica-designed tank shirt featuring the same silhouette stretched across the model's....breasts. Feministing is all about breasts, and so, at the Clinton lunch, was Jessica."

LOL !
ok.. let review her logic:
Jessica has breasts. The model wearing the Feministing t-shirt has breasts. The mudflap girl has breasts. So, duh, feministing is allll about breasts.
uummm... im pretty sure WOMEN have breasts ...?
stupid fuck.

it's people like her who made me want to get a reduction for so many years. Now my proud, feminist, 34Fs roll their eyes. and so do I.

This whole thing is just insane to me. Putting the obvious aside (how dare you bring your breasts to meet the President), I think the best part was that somehow, in the end, Jessica is responsible for Hilary not being electable. Totally didn't see that coming.

Little known fact:

When Charlotte was 4 years old, some hateful breasts killed her brother. That, and given Bill's great knowledge of science, if Hillary get's into the White House, he will create a giant bossom, created from lesser bossoms that will take over the world.

If you can't see the threat, you're just a stupid girl under the spell of your own boobs. Stop listening to them!!!! They hate freedom!

how can any self-respecting journalist begin an article with "hee hee!" ?

Oh, right. Charlotte isn't self-respecting because she hates how she's a woman and all women are dumb.

"The reason that Jessica posted on Ann's blog in the comments in because she wanted to draw attention to herself. "Look at me!"

The reason that Jessica "posed" in front of the president? Same thing, "Look at me!"

The reason that Jessica's blog is all sexed up is because it draws attention to her..."Look at me!"

This isn't about feminism or even about Presidential luncheon etiquitte. This is about Jessica's immature cries for attention.

She's simply using feminism as a front to achieve that goal."

I saw this comment on that blog and to me,it summed up the intire thing. complete and utter ignorance and assumption. They take huge leaps and bounds in assuming WHY you are doing what your doing "posing in a 3 quarters turn" so on so forth. Being an artist and theatre person, I was always trained to never face the camera straight on so in photos, even mundaine ones of a group of people I subconsciously stand 3 quarters.

When looking at the website, it seems all they did was look at the pictures as it was all they talked about, and failed to see that this website is larger than Jessica so it null and voids the last statment about her doing this website for attention. this went from a well dressed young woman in a room full of men and older women, to her every action a way to flaunt herself for attention???!!

Honestly. check out the men in the room. there quite a few if not most of them dressed really badly. does anyone slam them? The one on the right not only missing a tie, needs a serious iron.

what a classic rebuttle for persons who have no real arguement "shes just jealous, and wants attention" bla bla bla

I apologize for not knowing the names of everyone in the photo (so I won't even try to mess them up), but no one roasted that woman on the right for showing her knees! (gasp!) And nothing was said about the man on the far left gripping a rather *ahem* phallic-looking-something in his pocket -- and he's on a 3/4 turn to the camera! (makes ya wonder what HIS blog is all about...) And, as for the "random" posing, shouldn't the public be more worried if Jessica was standing BESIDE Clinton, in the back, where no one can see what shenanigans were going on as the photo was being snapped? (any opportunity, right?) Puhleeze. I have to say that I agree with the perspective given by ponypants -- congrats, Jessica (whateveryournameis) for representing. Without women like you, and the whole gang at feministing, we'd have less of a defense against the poisonous bullshit being spewed by the Charlotte Allens of the world.

This is prime example of not properly checking your sources/facts -- my apologies for referencing ponypants instead of grippers. yeah, I'm a new to leaving comments, too.

This is a prime example for properly checking your sources/facts -- my apologies for referencing ponypants instead of grippers...forgive the newbie!

Double-D's? For reals? That sounds like boob-envy to me, quite honestly. I'm a small breasted gal myself, but that seriously sounds like Miss Charlotte is pissed off that you have bigger boobs than she does, and she's pissed off that you dared wear them out of the house to remind her that her boobs aren't as big as yours, b/c anyone who flies into a tirade over what looks to be a C-cup in a pretty shirt and starts screaming about Double-D's sounds like she's got issues with her own body.

I thought you looked really nice in the picture, and I was more focused on your pretty hair. Probably b/c I'm growing mine out.

Who died and made her the bouncer for your vagina?

Seriously, at what point did sexist women decide they got to choose the sexual behavior of other women? I know you weren't, but even if you were out fucking Bill Clinton or anyone else, it's none of her damn business.

Besides that, how damn sexist is it of her to assume that because you're a woman, and you dare to have the body you were born to have, you're automatically a mindless bimbo? And how sexist is it for her to assume that just because Bill Clinton is a man, and hasn't been faithful to his wife, all women are, to him, merely sexual objects. Women can be sexually desirable and ALSO intellectually respected and otherwise valued for other things.

God, from her article I thought you were going to be wearing at least a V-neck. But a...t-shirt? Oh the horror! All of those exposed arms!

Also: what is the problem with boobs? Seeing as how this is a feminist website, and women have breasts, what is the problem? Apparently they are something that should never not be seen or mentioned.