At 1:01 AM, Gawker night editor Ryan Tate ran a post entitled: "The Internet: Worst Overshare Anywhere Ever." The entry features a photo of Sex and the Ivy author and Harvard junior Lena Chen, who, at all of 20, has achieved a fair amount of virtual notoriety for writing explicitly about her sex life online. The photo was taken from Chen's Tumblr, The Ch!cktionary, which Chen created as an alternative to SATI after an ex-boyfriend spread naked photos of her across the Web.
The original photo is here. In it, Chen has an unidentified male's money shot on her face. As part of his Gawker post, Tate ran the photo. Apparently, Fleshbot isn't the only Gawker Media site in the business of posting graphic sexual photos in pursuit of revenue-generating traffic. Tate concluded Chen's post "advanced the art of narcissistic self exposure."
I don't quite get how reposting a photo declared an overshare on a high-profile blog doesn't square the original overshare by exactly how many Gawker eyeballs will ogle Chen's photo. So far, commenters have deemed it boring, gross, and lacking in self-respect.
In response, Chen wrote a spirited defense of what she'd done: "Quit Gawking: It's Just Sex." Yesterday, I interviewed Chen for a story I'm writing on "Sex and the City: The Movie" for Salon. Chen was thoughtful, articulate, and unlike another woman I interviewed yesterday, pretty unconflicted about who she is and what she's done. And she's 20. I mean, she's not even old enough to drink. Legally, at least.
Anyway, it made me sad to see her called out on the rug like that on Gawker. Frankly, I was surprised the post was still up this morning. I guess I thought Denton would have pulled it. But I guess he didn't. I also interviewed the legendary Susie Bright yesterday. I grew up in the Bay Area, and Susie was the original sexpert. At some point, many, many years ago, I went to a book signing of hers and had her sign my left breast. I didn't post a photo of it to the internet, but that was in the days before blogs. During our interview, Bright referred to something that she called "slut-baiting," and while I wasn't sure exactly what she meant when she said it, what Gawker did with Chen is sure it.
The fact of the matter is that writing about sex isn't easy. Chen is a human being. And while I won't be posting photos of myself with a pop shot on my face anytime soon, you gotta respect the girls who have the balls to do it. Why? Because you don't.
