Blog
Lama Hajj

Dear Beirut.com: “Do You Only Hire Sluts As Writers?”

You can all breathe a sigh of relief and rest assured that misogyny is alive and kicking in Lebanon.

A recent message to the Beirut.com Facebook page posed the following question: “Do you only hire sluts as writers?” after which the user disabled their profile.



Well, first of all, you sound like a great guy; and second of all, thank you for your very accurate depiction of a group of 17 contributing writers that are constantly changing. Why yes, we are all sluts! How did you find us out you silly-billy? Did you see us sucking dicks at the local Beirut.com/truckers dick-sucking convention? And have you considered a job with the FBI?

You are an idiot.

Reading through the medley of content put out by Beirut.com five or six days a week, you will notice coverage of national events, social commentary, issues of gender politics, several articles about domestic workers and their rights, as well as a million other things.

The only contribution your pea-sized brain managed to produce was to call the writers sluts. It is fine if you disagree with content, or if you find the content unentertaining – but you don’t have anything to say about the content, do you?

At the off-chance that this person was referring to actual sexual innuendos and ideas presented in many of the articles, it merely reinforces a point we’ve made once before. In a previous piece, “What makes a girl a slut in Lebanon? Mostly, just being female” we discussed how women discussing sexual matters is deemed inappropriate and “slutty” by some who have a prescribed role for the woman, as a puritanical and non-sexual being.

So f*ck you very much, trolling coward, for reducing several hundred thought-provoking pieces, many of which directly related to women’s rights, to a slut-shaming cliché. Your assertions about women and about our writers speak very little about the influence of women within our website, but speak volumes about how you probably had to pay for your very first handjob. Next time, spare yourself the embarrassment and just unfollow the page if you dislike the content.

And sorry Mario, Jad, Nadim, Ahmad, Ari, Tarek and Yaesoun, you’re all sluts now.