What Everyone Else Is Saying

Here's what everyone else around the blogosphere is saying about women lawyers, women and the law:

The good:

• Over at Build a Solo Practice, LLC, Susan Cartier Liebel points out that many women lawyers are finding true independence through solo practice: More Female Attorneys Hanging Shingles for the Benefits of Solo Practice
• The Wall Street Journal Law Blog asks: Legal Academia — Family Friendly, or Not?
• Via Ms. JD comes an interesting post about lawyers marrying their own: The Green Monster: When Your Significant Other Is a Lawyer

The bad:

• I'm more than just a bit uncomfortable with the underlying (and unsupported) assumption found in both of these posts at the Beckner-Posner Blog which discuss the gender gap in education:  namely, that girl students are more docile, unaggressive and patient than boy students.  I think that the term "docile" is the term that troubles me most.

The ugly:

• Let's start with the title of this post over at the Legal Satyricon:  Who doesn't love Yale sluts?  Then let's move onto this comment: Then again, I wouldn’t really call any woman a slut (unless it was a term of endearment - some women giggle when you call them that).  A "term of endearment"?  Oh, I see.  Well, if that's the case, I'll be sure to try that one out on my kindergartner tomorrow when she gets home from school.  And who are these women giggling in response to that "endearing" language?  Must be some of those docile young things.  And, finally, the assertion that calling a woman a loaded term like "slut" doesn't harm her reputation is, quite simply, ludicrous.

--Nicole Black is, among other things, a Rochester, NY DWI defense lawyer, and is of counsel to Fiandach & Fiandach, one of the largest and most experienced DWI defense firms in New York State.  She also co-authors the Thomson-West book Criminal Law in New York and writes a weekly column, "Legal Currents", for The Daily Record.

Comments

[Marc J. Randazza]

Nicole, very poor ethics in quoting me there. If you continued, you'd see that the paragraph continues:

I just don’t make value judgments about someone’s sexuality. If a woman or a man is promiscuous and they are happy — they can be a slut if they want, or not.

You'll also note that I said "women," not kindergarteners. Nevertheless, for the record... my girlfriend and I both giggle when we call each other "slut." I could (but wont) name at least a half a dozen female friends who use the term endearingly and humorously.

The point is, the word means what you want it to mean. If you want to give it such talismanic power, go ahead. But don't judge me (or anyone else) for not being so willing to give it that kind of power.

I can embrace your point, without agreeing with it, that I'm wrong about "slut" being a defamatory term. But your post is not really about the issue I discussed, is it?

If you are interested in promoting some kind of agenda, at least be ethical about it.