Purpose and audience

Valenti began Feministing in 2004 while working at the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, where she felt that young feminists were being excluded from feminist discourse. She describes Feministing's purpose as "a way to get through the mommy filter" and make feminism more accessible to young women through giving an Internet presence for young feminists. Feministing covers topics ranging from outrage on measures to restrict reproductive rights or pay equity to irreverent or bemused coverage of pop culture and art, such as urinals shaped to look like vaginas. The writing on Feministing is not exclusively political, but also concerns feminist perspectives and observations from the staff's daily lives. Sex and sexuality are another frequent topic of discussion; it is sometimes cited as an Internet extension of the third-wave feminist

Third-wave feminism

Third-wave feminism is a term identified with several diverse strains of feminist activity and study whose exact boundaries in the historiography of feminism are a subject of debate, but often marked as beginning in the 1980s and continuing to the present...

 movement. It is wildly popular among young feminists. Feministing also has a comments section. Readers post (sometimes heated) comments on posts by the editorial board and post their own writing at their community portal.

Staff

Feministing has four staff editors / writers and eight credited staff writers. Editors include executive editor Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Vanessa Valenti, Miriam Zolia Perez,, Courtney Martin,., Chloe Angyl and Jos Truitt. Writers include Lori Adelman, Maya Duesenbery, Eesha Pandit and Zerlina Maxwell. The site is supported by advertisements but all of the writers have day jobs.

Retirement of Jessica Valenti

Creator Valenti retired from Feministing in 2011. In a statement issued on February 2 Valenti announces her retirement arguing that her intention for the site was to provide a space for younger feminists outside the elite. Valenti states:

"Today, almost 5,000 posts later, I’m a 32 year-old feminist with a voice that is listened to. Largely because of the work I’ve done with Feministing, I have a successful platform for my work – I’ve published books, written articles, and built a career as a speaker. Because I feel Feministing should remain a place for younger feminists to build their careers and platforms, I think it’s appropriate to our mission that I step back."

Valenti continues to respond to articles using the comments forum, and current Feministing writers frequently post links to other work by both Valenti and Friedman.

Praise and criticism

Feministing has received a Blogger's Choice nomination for its political and editorial content. Writer Danelle Morton described one Feministing contributor as "righteous" in a commentary piece in the San Francisco Chronicle.

In 2006, Feministing was involved in a controversy when founder Jessica Valenti was criticized by law professor Ann Althouse

Ann Althouse

Ann Althouse is an American law professor and blogger. Raised in Newark and Wilmington, Delaware , Althouse has a degree in fine art from the University of Michigan, B.F.A. 1973, and graduated first in her class from New York University School of Law, J.D. 1981. She clerked for Judge Leonard B...

 for posing with others for a picture with former president Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

 while wearing, as she described, "a tight knit top that draws attention to her breasts". Althouse also criticized Feministing's logo (a version of the Mudflap girl

Mudflap girl

The mudflap girl is an iconic silhouette of a woman with an hourglass body shape, sitting, leaning back on her hands, with her hair being blown in the wind. The icon is typically found on mudflaps, clothing, and other items associated with trucking in the United States...

 holding up her middle finger

Finger (gesture)

In Western culture, the finger , also known as the middle finger, is an obscene hand gesture, often meaning the phrases "fuck off" , "fuck you" or "up yours"...

) for being too sexualized, and suggested that Valenti and Feministing were not authentically feminist.

Glenn Sacks

Glenn Sacks

Glenn Sacks is an American men's and fathers' issues columnist and media spokesperson. He is the first columnist specializing in men's and fathers' issues to be published regularly in Top 100 American newspapers...

has criticized the site for supposedly downplaying violence against men, which he believes reflects society's preference of women.