Girls, it is generally thought, are bitchier than boys. As a gender, we gather in small groups to destroy our fellow females’ characters, attacking, in minute and painstaking detail, every aspect of said females – from their choice of handbag to their choice of man.
And, when faced with this accusation from a member of the opposite sex, even the nicest woman in the entire world cannot defend herself. It is, unfortunately, incredibly hard to pinpoint an exact moment in time where a man behaved in a bitchy way, akin to that of a woman, even though we all know – deep down – men are just as spiteful as women.
But they no longer need to despair… an excellent example of a man’s ability to bitch is available to anyone with internet access.
Pointed out by blogger Perez Hilton a few days ago, Alex Bilmes – features director of men’s mag GQ, contributing editor at Vogue, writer for papers such as The Observer etc etc – wrote what can only be described as a rather mean piece attacking Beth Ditto.
For the record, my standpoint is this: I don’t particularly understand why Ms Ditto is a fashion icon, but then again I am also rather left behind as to why people like Pixie/Peaches/Puddle/whateverthehellhernameis is considered a style icon. Indeed, any number of these style icons could be ripped to shreds for what they seemingly represent (in many cases, it appears, a healthy case of anorexia).
Thing is, the man didn’t only insult Ms Ditto (insults: “fat lesbian” and “fashion ‘icon'” and “pathologically exhibitionist”), but the fashion world (all “so stupid”) and feminists (“feminazis”). And all this within the first paragraph.
Problem is, the interesting bit of the article – the conclusion of sorts, drawn from the rant – comes in the second paragraph, but is lost because of the bile Mr Bilme’s spouted in the first, and, subsequently, the third paragraph.
Because many people would agree girls who fall in between the two extremes are ignored, problem being, by Bilmes couching this between such venom, he makes sure the average girl is being ignored as well, thereby completely defeating his own argument.
It is OK for Bilmes not to like The Gossip‘s music, it is OK for him to question the woman’s validity as a fashion icon (although, I would be interested to hear his thoughts on Sophie Dahl pre-weightloss – does she attract the same level of hatred, or is it simply confined to fat lesbians?), and it is OK for him to be quite clear about this.
But it seems a good point has been sacrificed in the name of writing a “shock-blog”. Would the blog have not been as good had some of the vindictive comments been a little less, well, vindictive? Did it actually need to be that spiteful, or hitting that many targets in one paragraph? Mr Bilmes is, after all, an award-winning journalist who, I’m guessing, doesn’t need to resort to these kinds of comments to get people to read his blog.
Anyway, all this will soon be lost in the bitchy blog-war which seems likely to kick off between Bilmes and Perez, after Bilmes wrote a piece in defence of Perez’s “douche” comment on Friday.
As I said, perfect example for any woman to prove that men are just as bitchy as women.