"Feminazis," and the return of the son of the bride of Juno

Dana Stevens’ recent Slate column on Juno drew my attention to your review of the soundtrack. I have to side with Stevens in my assessment of the film. It was fun, not great; and the dialogue is quite annoying. Likewise, I agree with your implication that anyone who actually believes teens talk like this really doesn’t know any teens. Still, I have a question, and a few comments. You say that, As an unapologetically old-school feminist you hated this movie. I’ve read your column, and specifically this comment, twice and still can’t figure out what you mean. Is Juno’s, a teenager who should not be having a baby, opting against an abortion not old-school enough for you? Either I missed something or I don’t understand old-school feminism. I’m asking sincerely, what do you mean? Also, I believe the caricature of a nave, religious teenager protesting outside the abortion clinic is quite appropriate for this movie. I grew up in suburban Kansas. Believe it or not, even there, violent lunatics did not constantly mob the local abortion clinic. In fact, more often than not chanting protester like Juno’s Su-Chin. It’s fair to dislike Juno and its miserable Moldy Peaches. Still, I think you misunderstood the film. Robert Seefeldt St. Louis, Mo

Robert — Thanks for reading, and for taking the time to write. What I was trying to say, and perhaps I was not clear enough about this and/or compressed or assumed too much, is that Juno’s glib, seemingly off-hand dismissal of abortion does a disservice to the many women who agonize over that decision and the many people who work to provide that option, sometimes at considerable risk. There is no discussion in the film about why this character did not make that choice — a choice that, even now, is only ever one Supreme Court justice’s vote away from being taken away. Screenwriter Diablo Cody considers herself a postfeminist — this means she has accepted the victories won by the feminist movement and moved beyond that, to to the point where she happily worked in Minneapolis as a stripper. She contended that this act of pleasing men with her sexuality empowered her, because she was in control of her own exploitation. By old-school feminist, I meant that I think exploitation is still exploitation, and that we cannot accept as a given that women will have a choice about ending a pregnancy. I did not mean to imply, as the National Review recently said of me in a blog on its site, that I want women to have as many abortions as possible (and yes, they actually said that, in branding me a feminazi). Finally, I objected to the glib, superficial, and ultimately insulting portraits of both the women inside the abortion clinic — the goth girl working as receptionist and the casual women waiting for their appointments — and the lone protester outside. Both sides were sold short in the movie. I worked in Minneapolis for several years in the early ’90s, and every day, I drove past a sizable, clean and modern women’s clinic (nothing like the rather seedy facility Juno visits) and saw anywhere from a dozen to nearly 50 protesters chanting, picketing, waving ugly signs and sometimes personally berating women entering those doors. It was nothing short of assault — and nothing like the one meek and essentially friendly protester outside Juno’s clinic. If girls Juno’s age see this film, and this is their first serious look at the issue of choice, it is a warped perspective indeed. Anyway, that is some of what I was trying to say. All the best — JIM