Bloggers, Breasts and Bill - Bull

"It's so nice to see women being judged by more than their looks. Oh, wait..." Jessica Valenti

Attention all feminists: Women have breasts. Women also have brains. The two (facts) are not mutually exclusive. So for the luvagod, please stop acting as if they were. It demeans all of us ... and you.

On that subject, the feminista blogosphere is in a tizzy over the appearance of one of it's most articulate young members--Jessica Valenti--in a photo with Bill Clinton. Said tizzy was initiated by Wisconsin blogger and law professor Ann Althouse, a self-consciously strident liberal feminist if ever there was one.

Ms. Althouse, in a self-described "breastblog" titled Let's take a closer look at those breasts, takes aim at Ms. Valenti:

Jessica: I'm not judging you by your looks. (Don't flatter yourself.) I'm judging you by your apparent behavior. It's not about the smiling, but the three-quarter pose and related posturing, the sort of thing people razz Katherine Harris about. I really don't know why people who care about feminism don't have any edge against Clinton for the harm he did to the cause of taking sexual harassment seriously, and posing in front of him like that irks me, as a feminist. So don't assume you're the one representing feminist values here. Whatever you call your blog....

Whoa. Ann Althouse needs to take a deep breath. And another look at her own feminist values.

For the record, Ms. Valenti has feminist creds out the kazoo. She's got a Masters in Women's and Gender Studies, is founder and executive editor of Feministing.com, a fresh new blog for young feminists. She blogs for Alternet, Salon, The Guardian and the Huffington Post, and is writing a book on feminism for younger women.

And Ms. Valenti, 27, is clearly attractive. She also has rather attractive breasts. However, all idiotic blogger comments on Althouse's "breastblog" to the contrary, Mr. Clinton is not staring at them in the "controversial" photo. Judge for yourself.

Ms. Valenti was part of a group of Democratic bloggers invited to an informal luncheon meeting with the former president, as shown in another photo above. Ms. Althouse either was not invited, or chose not to attend.

Perhaps if she had, she could have challenged Mr. Clinton on his blow to the sexual harassment cause (so to speak). But no, she chose instead to chuck brickbats from afar at a young woman she doesn't know. And make defamatory assumptions about that woman based on a picture.

Let me tell you something, Ms. Althouse. I've worked in political hallways from the State House to the White House. I've seen firsthand how seductive power can be. And how willingly young women throw themselves at powerful men.

It's bad enough Republicans used the Lewinsky affair to grind the country to a halt. I am really sick and tired of liberal feminist bleating about Bill Clinton's sexual harassment of Monica Lewinsky. It. Didn't. Happen.

Their affair wasn't about sexual harassment, it was about sexual dalliance. Inappropriate to be sure, but not criminal. Monica Lewinsky's job was never in danger. Her reputation was ... at her own hand. Bill Clinton certainly rocked his marriage, but the only person who damaged Ms. Lewinsky was Ms. Lewinsky, with her inability to keep the details of the affair discretely to herself.

Jessica Valenti takes her education, ideals, ambition and goals seriously enough to participate in the process. And when she showed up at a meeting of liberal Democrat bloggers with the former President of the United States, she posed prettily for a group picture.

A blow to feminism everywhere? No. But apparently, a blow to some feminists' egos.