Jenni’s Neighborhood

Love.

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my kingdom for a vowell.

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I've been keeping a juicy, titillating secret from you the past six months.

Her name is BitchBuzz, and she is going to be your new favorite website. Trust me.

BitchBuzz is written by myself and a group of passionate, feisty writers that are fed up with blogs and magazines for women that promise to be different, and end up making us feel like crap.

We're not interested in being perfect feminists: We knit, we bake, we fuck, and we blog. In short, we do whatever makes us happy and encourage other women to do the same.

We're going live on August 4th! Join the BitchBuzz group on Facebook and become our fan! Befriend us on Myspace, follow us on Twitter, and drool over our photos on Flickr. Stalk us! Love us! Read us!

We're currently looking for more writers to join the team, so please let me know if you're interested!

Last week I had a special little visitor. She brought me Turkish coffee and bought me about 1,000 caramel macchiatos from Starbucks, and in turn, I let her sleep on my king size Aero Bed and touch my left boob.

(It was a fair deal. Both are soft and lovely.)

The special guest would be a certain Secret Agent's BFF4L, Nadia, and all I can say is that I love her to infinity. Nadia is a fancy schmancy Anthropologist and is about 1000x smarter than I am - but I am proud to say that she is not above fart jokes, and forgave Iain when he pushed her down a flight of stairs. (Just kidding! She fell! And it wasn't a flight! It was like 4! Really, our house is safe, come visit!)

Anyway, she was in London because Very Important People wanted to meet with her about Very Important Things and I was thrilled because not only would someone FINALLY be coming to stay with us, but I would have a friend to play with for three whole days.

We giggled and swapped sex secrets and learned all about 3-ways (according to Company Magazine). We drank copious amounts of coffee and oooooo-ed and aahhhhhhh-ed over random light installations in London, and the stencil art on Leake Street that's still up from the Cans Festival.

All in all, it was a kick ass three days and I am very thankful that I had another American to be loud and crass with in small, quiet, British public places.

This summer I have already caused three road kills...it makes me so sad, even though I don't need to blame myself, but still...it's never nice to hit an animal with your car. When I went to driving school my instructor told me that one should never dodge anything that is smaller than a dog, and I have followed that advice. According to my driving instructor one might cause more damage by dodging a small animal, than by simply hit it with your car...suppose that's true, as you might drive in a ditch if you dodge a squirrel.

Well, any way here are the three road kills I've caused so far this summer...

1. A bird flew straight in my windshield and died (so practically there was nothing I could have done to avoid it...)
2. Drove over a tiny bird, which didn't manage to fly away as the other birds that where sitting on the road...(I did slow down, but not enough I guess...)
3. I hit a Raccoon Dog with the back tyre of my car...I noticed the raccoon dog playing at the roadside and slowed down. When I slowed down the raccoon dog started running towards the middle of the road an suddenly stopped when I was about at the same spot as it, so I thought everything was fine (thought that the raccoon dog was standing by the car) and hit the gas. Just half a second later I noticed a bump hitting the back tyre...and as I had a look in the rear-view window I saw a dead raccoon dog laying in the street...Tears fell from my eyes as I really didn't want to hit that cute looking raccoon dog...but what can one do, animals minds work in mysterious ways.

I've been feeling so sad since these incidents...and they've all happened within 10 days.

My sympathies go out to all the animals in the woods of Janakkala who have lost a friend or more during these 10 days I've hit animals with my car. You do not know how sorry I am, and I ensure you that I did everything in my power not to hit these poor little creatures.

Lookie what I found at the grocery store today! Sourdough bread!

Show us a better way to spend $300 than on the iPhone 3G.

*Things I would say if I were on a Reality TV Show.

I have never won anything in any kind of competitions. With competitions I don't mean any kind of sports competitions or what so ever, but competitions where you give your own opinion on something and then like in a lottery might have the chance to win something.

This summer I have participated in a Finnish radio channel's (The Voice) competition where you can win tickets to a rock festival. The only thing one had to do, was to pick the rock festival to which you wanted to win tickets to and  send your contact details via the website. There where several rock festivals (only the ones in Finland), which you could choose from. I chose Wanaja Festival, as it is near by my parents place, where I'm living at the moment.

Just after 11 am this morning my phone ringed. It was an unknown number for me so I answered with my whole name. And the lady at the other end said: "Hi Annika, it's Satu Järvinen from radio Voice. How's it going?" I froze at the very moment, and I can't even remember everything the lovely lady asked me, but one thing I do remember (and it's the most important part): I won tickets to the Wanaja Festival! :D

Wanaja Festival is arragened in Hämeenlinna on the 19th to 20th July, so in one weeks time. It will be so much fun, and I don't have to sleep in a tent as I live near by :D

The best thing is that I have never ever before attended a rock festival. So this will be my very first time.

Currently, I'm sitting smugly in my office and pumping my fist in the air because FINALLY it would appear that the world and the rest of the *feminist* blogosphere are finally waking up to the fact that Jezebel is run by a bunch of fucking morons.

I've disliked them for a long time for various reasons:

They repeatedly stole content I wrote on Dollymix and NEVER linked back to me. They ignored the friendly emails I'd sent them. They glorify drug use. They exude this overly snarky, exclusive Gawker-ish attitude and stick their nose up at smaller blogs.

Yet for some reason tons of women like them, and even media outlets like Fox News act as if they are the first group of women to ever blog about women's issues. My god, those Jezebels are different! They're apparently anti-"body snarking" (like hell they are) and delete mean comments! (Or, comments that criticize them.)

I've always had a problem with them, I've always stood by the fact that they're not as revolutionary as everyone would like you to think they are. I've always felt as if they don't actually give a shit about women's issues, and LO AND BEHOLD IT WOULD SEEM THAT I AM RIGHT.

The blogosphere is on fire with comments and complaints and anger from Jezebel readers and other feminist bloggers...and, you know, women who don't believe rape is a joke, and don't give interviews on serious issues drunk off their ass. (And say things like if you get raped then you just "live through it" or "I guess I regret being date raped".)

Tracie Egan and Moe Tkcaik went on Lizzie Winstead's show Thinking And Drinking to discuss "sexuality, feminism, freedom, power and responsibility".  According to Lizzie, both women were both given information about the nature of the show and what they would be talking about, and Lizzie explained that:

"Tracie assured us she would be cool with anything we talked about in the feminist, political arena, that she was an expert on China, and that they had been talking a lot about rape lately."

Sounds great, right?

Watch the clips above (if you can stomach it) and I'll give you £20 if your head doesn't explode.

A great moment for me was when Tracie explained that women shouldn't just get abortions instead of using birth control because it's "too much of a pain". I also enjoyed when Moe explained that she didn't turn in the guy who date raped her and "go through fucking shit" because it was "a load of trouble" and because she "had better things to do, like drinking more".

Tracie "Slut Machine" Egan (who I have talked massive shit about before, then felt bad, and apologized to her in an email and a column which she never responded to and now greatly regret ever doing so) said that she "hates talking about rape" and that she knows it happens to "smart girls" but that, personally, she's never been "put in that situation" and she's had "lots and lots and lots of sex". (Also, she "doesn't hang out with frat guys".)

She thinks this is down to like, you know, like maybe "education" and because she's just "smart about it". Then, Tracie retracts these statements and defends herself by saying that

"i really, really, really didn't want to talk about rape, and i said so on stage. i also admitted that i can't relate to the whole issue because i've never been raped, and couldn't begin to understand what that's like... i was trying to keep my mouth shut during that whole discussion. (at one point, i even put my head in my hands.)"

Hmmmm....so, who is it that needs some education on rape again? It is ye old Slut Machine who says stupid, horrendous shit about rape because she "can't relate to it" - or is it the women who have been raped?

WHAT. THE FUCKKKKKK!?!?!?!?!?!

Also, if you were wondering who the rapists of our generation are like, Moe and Tracie, like, totally know and shit:

Tracie: "I live in Williamsburg, there aren't very assertive men there"

Moe: "The thing about the rapists of our generation, is that they all use drugs, they all have some sort of drug they use on you, so it's good to feel, and I don't know if this has happed to me or if I just drink too much...

Moe: "It's really hard to prosecute them (rapists), so you should try to avoid them at all costs."

Tracie: "I once paid someone to rape me once."

Tracie: "Well, I didn't pay for it, I had a magazine pay for it

Tracie: "I moved here when I was 18 and you think you would encounter more rapists in a big city like this, but, I don't know, I just haven't."

Personally, if it were up to me, and they were my writers, I would have them fucking fired. But, I suppose Nick Denton is too high and mighty to do that. (Wonder how long it will take for his Google Alert to pick up on what I said and for how long it will take for him to leave me another comment about how Gawker is so IRONIC and FUNNY and how they were JUST KIDDING AND BEING IRONICAL.)

They're the two most popular editors of a WOMEN'S ISSUES blog that has loads of traffic and that tons of women (blindly...maybe stupidly) trust, and here they are, wasted, and talking flippantly about date rape and how rape is basically a woman's fault.

Fuck you, Jezebel and an even bigger fuck you to Gawker Media.

I'm not saying that they should only employ people who report rape or who are "perfect feminists", but Jesus-Fucking-Christ. Wake the fuck up and smell the responsibility you have as a role model for women. (And YES, you are a role model whether you wanted to be or not.)

A fucking million points to Lizzie Winstead for screaming at them about how their entire blog is based off of EMULATION. On The Huffington Post and Shoot The Messenger, Lizzie Winstead expressed her disgust with Moe and Tracie by saying:

I don’t know if they came to the show drunk, or just ended up drunk by the time they hit the stage, but what I do know is that the discussion that ensued was deeply disturbing to me for a few reasons:

Because they had no regard for the people who came that night and paid money to hear them speak.
They do not understand the influence they have over the women who read them, nor do they accept any responsibility as role models for young women who are coming of age searching for lifestyles to emulate. 

Words and actions matter, and those of us who are given a forum to share opinion should always be mindful of that, and those of us who are trying to be watchdogs for the truth, should always call out harmful inaccuracies when we see them. I feel a responsibility to hold these young women accountable for the statements they make as they seem sure to keep repeating them.

As a perfect example of the power these two bloggers have, when one college student expressed her criticism and disappointment with the Jezebels, Tracie and Moe left a comment on her blog defending themselves, she backpedaled and made excuses for the pair. Apparently poor Tracie just doesn't like talking about rape! It's not her fault!

To be fair, as she pointed out in the comments of this post, Tracie was very skittish about discussing the topic of rape because she fully admitted she knows nothing about it. The whole discussion was just very awkward.

And also, it's not their fault they were drunk and saying stupid things! They thought it was a comedy show! Like ,why the hell were they made to talk about all that serious stuff!?

...This show was supposed to be a COMEDY show, which explains why all the intensity took me by surprise, and also kind of explains why Moe and Tracie weren't necessarily prepared. I don't think any of us were ready for the maelstrom of seriousness hurled at the panel/audience.

I don't care what the fuck kind of show you're on, you DO NOT imply that women who have been raped just weren't being SMART ENOUGH or say that if you're raped, you just "live through it".

These women are SO MISINFORMED. And here they are, in the position to reach out to thousands and millions of women online who are starved for something real, for something honest and funny and different....

And they've obviously just shit all over it and shown their true colors.