Favorite Comments of the Week: “Sometimes I like to eat waffles and sometimes spaghetti.”

Since I’ve been inducted as Community Moderator here at Feministing,
one of the perks of the job is reading so many poignant
and thought-provoking comments that add vital elements to the
discussion on post threads. And as I begin to delve deeper into the
commenting community, I thought it would be great to highlight these
comments in a series — not only to give some of readers props where
it’s due, but to showcase them as a reminder of how vital you all are to
the Feministing community.

So this is the official kick-off post of our Comments of the Week
series where I’ll be highlighting some of
my favorite comments. I want to bring these comments
(and comments that are just hilarious or get a lot of praise from other
readers) to the forefront and celebrate our commenting community!

This week: Icy Bear, nattles thing, Heina & liv79…

“I agree with the sentiment in this post, but at the same time, I feel
it ignores some important things. All the people I knew who commented on
Ricky Martin “finally” coming out were gay. That certainly doesn’t make
it right, but I think it’s important to remember that in some
situations, for some individuals, this sort of thing can have more
impact than it might seem For some, creating a sense of community, of shared knowledge that others don’t have, can be crucial. While claiming knowledge of other people’s identity may be wrong, it can also be incredibly painful to know that there are people out there with power you never had, who by a simple statement on their website could make the world maybe a marginally bit safer for people like you. You might be thinking back to when you were a few years younger and the world would have seemed that much more hopeful if you had known of another gay pop star. Etc., etc. I am most definitely not saying this is right, but I do think we have to consider how some things may be important even if they are technically problematic. The way I see it, it’s sorta similar to people expressing hatred or even a wish to do violence towards an entire oppressing group – not right, but something we have to understand if we want to think deeply about oppression.” -Icy Bear on Lori’s Disclosure & Choice: When Do We Deserve to Know Someone’s Sexuality

“I didn’t see any virgin/prude shaming in the OP, and I’m interested to know what bothered you. I have a high number that has caused a few of my partners some angst so I do have an opinion on this. I don’t think anyone can vanish away jealousy just by being sex-positive enough, so I understand why a high number could distress someone. That said, there are a number of assumptions people make about me because of my number that aren’t true at all. Compatibility is a very legitimate concern, but that’s the sort of thing you can’t really deduce from someone’s number. That’s something you need to actually talk about, regardless of your numbers. Me and my ex-boyfriend had the exact same number and we were completely sexually incompatible. Numbers without context mean nothing, and numbers with context don’t mean a whole lot if the person has since grown or changed or moved into a different emotional place, as people are wont to do. ” – nattles thing on Lori’s In Today’s Alternative Advice Column, What Lies Behind “Slut”

“I can think of one circumstance in which the analogy makes sense: Men are like waffles and women are like spaghetti. Sometimes I like to eat waffles and sometimes spaghetti.” – Heina on h.buck’s “Men are like waffles, women are like spaghetti” Community post

“Why? Why “trust” her? what on earth does she know about how life without support is not pretty? Why trust someone who says “Do as I say, not as I do?” Why trust someone who preaches abstinence with a babe in her arms? We don’t accept hypocrisy from legislators or politicians, why accept it from Palin? We all make mistakes, but we don’t get paid to make self-reverential PSA’s about our mistakes and then preach to the less fortunate about seeing the error of our ways. It’s crap I tell you, plain and simple.” – liv79 on Jos’s Bristol Palin: Don’t get pregnant unless you’re privileged

Note: We’re having a really hard time thinking of a catchy/witty title for this series, so if you have any suggestions we’d love to hear it! Please leave suggestions in comments or email me at anna [at] feministing [dot] com.