#xojane — Public Fediverse posts

This was the era when the online confessional was popular, especially on women's blogs or #LadyBlogs like #Jezebel. Women were writing in a way that felt honest about taboo topics like #HookUps and #DrugUse. Sometimes this writing felt like women's attempts at trying to be Cool Girls™️​ or One of the Guys™️​, but these confessionals were also often about #SexualHarassment, assault, consent, sexual exploration and empowerment, body insecurities, traumas, and family strife, among other topics. For better and for worse, Jezebel, #XOJane, and similar publications taught me what it was to be a woman, and they also helped me feel less alone as I was navigating my college and young adult years, as officially left girlhood behind and became a woman.

This was the era when the online confessional was popular, especially on women's blogs or #LadyBlogs like #Jezebel. Women were writing in a way that felt honest about taboo topics like #HookUps and #DrugUse. Sometimes this writing felt like women's attempts at trying to be Cool Girls™️​ or One of the Guys™️​, but these confessionals were also often about #SexualHarassment, assault, consent, sexual exploration and empowerment, body insecurities, traumas, and family strife, among other topics. For better and for worse, Jezebel, #XOJane, and similar publications taught me what it was to be a woman, and they also helped me feel less alone as I was navigating my college and young adult years, as officially left girlhood behind and became a woman.

I'm still processing the news that #Jezebel is shutting down. Tbh, part of me is surprised it lasted this long, given the decline of text-based media on the internet and Peter Thiel's attempts to kill #GawkerMedia.

Yes, sometimes it was too snarky and superficial. It wasn't always as #feminist as it claimed, but it had solid coverage of #ReproductiveRights and sometimes it was good for a laugh. Plus, it defined my generation of #Millennial #women, for better or worse, in a way that I'm still trying to understand a decade plus later. I learned a lot from the Jezebel writers over the years, some good lessons and some not-so-good. I wrote a huge paper in graduate school about the cultural significance of #LadyBlogs, including Jezebel, #XOJane, #TheHairpin and other publications that are now long gone. Now I'm left wondering what the cultural significance of Jezebel's demise is. Online media and online spaces are so often ephemeral.

I'm still processing the news that #Jezebel is shutting down. Tbh, part of me is surprised it lasted this long, given the decline of text-based media on the internet and Peter Thiel's attempts to kill #GawkerMedia.

Yes, sometimes it was too snarky and superficial. It wasn't always as #feminist as it claimed, but it had solid coverage of #ReproductiveRights and sometimes it was good for a laugh. Plus, it defined my generation of #Millennial #women, for better or worse, in a way that I'm still trying to understand a decade plus later. I learned a lot from the Jezebel writers over the years, some good lessons and some not-so-good. I wrote a huge paper in graduate school about the cultural significance of #LadyBlogs, including Jezebel, #XOJane, #TheHairpin and other publications that are now long gone. Now I'm left wondering what the cultural significance of Jezebel's demise is. Online media and online spaces are so often ephemeral.