New Philly.com Columnist Won’t Read Philly.com Commenters


Two weeks after her debut as a a columnist for the revamped Philly.com website, “sexologist” Jill McDevitt is already fed up with the Philly.com commenters. At least, that’s what this headline makes me think:

Which: She’s probably right! McDevitt’s crime was posting a column about what she saw as sexist Super Bowl advertising (something I may have written about here at The Philly Post, as well). The response? A bunch of sexism and misogyny. To be fair, that’s pretty much par for the course not just for Philly.com, but for the entire Internet. The problem? Philly.com is never better than the rest of the Internet. So today, McDevitt vows to keep writing—but never, ever to read the comments.

Everyday I get to talk and write about things like orgasm, vibrators, masturbation, sex positions, and people pay me to do this! Why would I do less of that? So I can spend more time reading ugly, violent things from anonymous prudes acting out their own internalized sexual shame and insecurity? No thanks. I have compassion for them. I’m not angry at them. I am happy to help them when they’re ready for it. But I don’t want to read their venom in the meantime. Feel free to comment below. Of course I won’t read it, but feel free anyway.

Which means that McDevitt is a better person than most of us. Because everybody knows that Philly.com commenters do not deserve any compassion at all.