Career Bitches?

Somebody sent me the Forbes article that's causing all the buzz on the Internet.  Basically, some douche editor cleared an editorial by some douche entitled "Don't Marry A Career Woman", or something llike that.  The article took reasonable research,slanted the results of that research towards some very sexist conclusions, and put it in a magazine not normally know for publishing stuff like this. 

Naturally, many weblogs and gossip pages went nuts about it, decrying its blatant stupidity.  The furor was such that Forbes initially took the article down, then put it back up with a counterpoint from a female columnist. 

A couple of things struck me immediately.  First of all, like Jack Shafer of Slate, I fail to see what the big deal is; the headline, plus the slideshow accompanying the article (which is now gone) were far more offensive than the article itself.  The article didn't quote researc that was inaccurate -- it simply drew a dumb conclusion from it.  Unlike The Bell Curve, it didn't push pseudoscientific, watered-down research onto the reader mixed with antiquated stereotypes.  Instead, it took some well-established facts and absolved men of all responsibility, and also glossed over the benefits to women of being more willing to leave a bad marriage.

Second, the Huffington Post's response to all this was a classic example of every negative stereotype about left-wingers that Republicans cling to.  The post is called "Disgusting Misogynistic Forbes Article Taken Down!", and the content literally crows about the 'victory' of Forbes removing the article (temporarily) from their site.  

In reality, the only thing more disgusting than the article itself was this Hufffington Post response to it.  Sorry, Ariana (if you actually put up posts in this section of your site) -- there is nothing "awesome" about censorship of ideas you don't like.  If you don't agree with what someone is saying, the goal should never be to censor the person's message.  The goal should be to simply ridicule and argue against that message so convincingly that nobody takes your opponent seriously anymore.  That's how we all win in a free society.   Is it really a victory to say that Forbes doesn't "condone" "misongynistic" articles?  Or did a lot of people overreact to an article that -- once you get past the headline -- really shouldn't have received this much publicity in the first place?

There's a difference between liberalism and liberal fascism.  Maybe one day the good folks at Huffington Post will figure out the difference.

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