Thursday, August 20, 2009

Got Skank?

Dear Friends,

Have I told you lately how highly I think of you and of your fine moral character? No? Forgive me, for I have been remiss.

The blogosphere is a abuzz with a recent case where, according to published reports, a beautiful model was called a skank, a ho and other unflattering terms in a blog called "Skanks in NYC". Yes, Skanks in NYC. Apparently this is what people resort to when "Motherhood in NYC" is already taken.

So, for some strange reason, the model didn't enjoy being defamed and called a skank so she went and got a court order for Google to turn over the name of the anonymous blogger who wrote that and just a few days ago, the court came out on the side of pretty, so now the model knows who the bitchy blogger is. And whether she had displayed the Blogging with Integrity badge on her blog.

I'm on record as being super-supportive of model rights, but there is something about this that bothers me.

And it's not just that I had to look up "skank" in the dictonary and the first two definitions referred to some kind of a dance.

Nor is it that the New York Daily News apparently outsources its photo caption writing to parts of the world that have only vaguely heard of the English language:

Model Cohen is forgave a blogger who called her a skank. Marinka is read the article with disbelief.


It's not even that the media has taken to referring to this lovely model as a Vogue model, when she only appeared in Australian Vogue and everyone knows that Australian Vogue is just not the same at all. (Ok, I totally made that up. I have no idea if Australian Vogue has the same cachet as American, Italian, French or North Korean Vogue. Please don't sue me. You are of a very high moral character and filled to the brim with virtue. All of you. Yes, you, too.)

What bothers me is this article, quoting the model citizen Cohen, regarding the identity of the soon to be unanonymous blogger:

Cohen said it was a woman she hadn't seen in about a year, but who was a regular fixture at dinners and parties, but she was not, as Cohen had feared, someone who was close to her. "Thank God it was her… she's an irrelevant person in my life," Cohen said. "She's just somebody that, whenever I would go out to a restaurant, to a party in New York City … she was just that girl that was always there."


She feared that the person who set up an anonymous website calling her a skank ho was close to her? I am so grateful that I grew an enormous nose and was forever precluded from this modeling business. Because that's tough to deal with.

Although, in the "good news" department, look what blog name is available now:



It's not too late to sign up for the blog!

Love, Marinka

Labels: ,

26 Comments:

Blogger Kari said...

I've been thinking about what to name my blog in the long term - the kids won't be in preschool forever, as I so astutely determined a few months after starting my blog. I think now I've found it! It's a nice transition, don't you think? I left my heart at preschool is now Skanks in NYC!

August 20, 2009 at 12:25 AM  
Blogger Renee said...

Can you imagine what someone close to her would say? Yikes! (I am sure she is a lovely person...)

August 20, 2009 at 1:03 AM  
Blogger Kat said...

If you can't trust your friends not to call you a skank online, maybe you should find new friends...just sayin'.

August 20, 2009 at 4:20 AM  
Blogger Liz Wilkey (a.k.a. A Mom on Spin) said...

Oh, I'm sure that Vogue Australia is filled with nothing but UGGs. . .

August 20, 2009 at 7:08 AM  
Blogger Vodka Mom said...

I'm here for the skank meeting.

August 20, 2009 at 7:13 AM  
Blogger Beth said...

And all along I thought a skank was a lizard like thing. Who knew?

August 20, 2009 at 7:18 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Ahhhh, bless her heart!

And I like "Skankrinka" better.

August 20, 2009 at 7:47 AM  
Blogger Gone, long gone. said...

I'd like to point out that no where does any of the news say that she denies being a skank. She just wanted to know who wrote it.

August 20, 2009 at 8:24 AM  
Blogger Kabbalah Rookie said...

Isn't a skank a black and white mammal that emits a nasty stink?

Oh no, that's a skunk. Sorry.

August 20, 2009 at 8:40 AM  
Blogger *Akilah Sakai* said...

Better watch your ass when it comes to Free Speech.

People take (real) celebs to task on the web and maybe they'll start chasing down everyone for calling them a home wrecker, a whore, etc.

August 20, 2009 at 9:19 AM  
Blogger Keyona said...

That's a damn mess. So now you are telling me I can't call someone a SKANK without being dragged to court?

Shit.

Is there a way to delete comments I leave on blogs......

August 20, 2009 at 9:37 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Okay, really? That is going overboard! What about freedom of speech?

Is being a skank all that bad anyway?

August 20, 2009 at 10:06 AM  
Blogger blognut said...

I am outraged! By the model, by the photo caption, and by blogger for giving up the identity of the soon to be unanonymous.

What is the world coming to when we can't call a model a skank?

August 20, 2009 at 10:11 AM  
Blogger tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

Let this be a word of warning to those who think they can write whatever they want without recourse.

On that note, I'm off to take down my "skanks in Chicago" blog...

August 20, 2009 at 10:47 AM  
Blogger Gone, long gone. said...

Oh, but you CAN Keyona, you just can't do it and expect to remain anonymous. See, watch:

Liskula Cohen is a skank.

Now you try it.

August 20, 2009 at 12:07 PM  
Blogger Maureen@IslandRoar said...

Why oh why does she want to know who called her a skank??
I don't want to know who calls me names. Except for Beautiful and Darling, and no one does that.

August 20, 2009 at 12:50 PM  
Blogger Aunt Becky said...

Aunt Becky is a fucking skank.

August 20, 2009 at 1:47 PM  
Blogger Carolyn...Online said...

This is the most publicity this poor model will ever get and now she'll get old and saggy and no one will even want to call her a skank anymore and then she'll be sad.

August 20, 2009 at 1:48 PM  
Blogger Maddness of Me said...

I guess freedom of speech doesn't exist in Socialist countries. That's what we are right? I read it in the media anyway. Source was annonymous though so you never know. It was probably my dad or, I fear, somebody closer.

August 20, 2009 at 2:52 PM  
Blogger Heather said...

Obviously this anonymous blogger isn't too irrelevant in her life. I haven't been called a skank yet in the blogosphere, but there's still hope.

August 20, 2009 at 4:48 PM  
Blogger 39th and Broadway said...

Hello, as a fellow NYC blogger, I was thrilled to find this blog after reading the most well written recap on GWOP that I've seen! Working in fashion and writing about the Garment Center, I feel for the model and the writer, but honestly in the fashion industry being called names is really just another day in the office.

August 20, 2009 at 5:07 PM  
Blogger Jeanne Estridge said...

Thank God, only my nearest and dearest refer to me in those terms! Yeah, that's really not so good, is it?

August 20, 2009 at 6:41 PM  
Blogger bernthis said...

did u happen to see if skanksinla is already taken? I know myexhusbandsgirlfriendisaskank.com is and trust me when I say there were A LOT of women fighting over that one.

August 20, 2009 at 7:44 PM  
Blogger the mama bird diaries said...

i wish someone would call me a skank and then I'd be on Australian Vogue and on the cover of the Daily News and the NY Post.

August 20, 2009 at 11:20 PM  
Blogger Elisa @ Globetrotting in Heels said...

In a way I think she should be thankful, because noone else except the blog lady had probably ever heard of her. Oh, and someone at Australian Vogue I guess.

Though a blog called Skanks in NYC? I don't even know how people come up with this shit.

August 22, 2009 at 3:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So when this news story first broke, and they did those things where they just say one sentence about it -- to tease you into watch the rest -- the said that there was some sort of showdown between a model and an anonymous blogger and it was going to court.

And I turned to my husband and said, "Oh NO! Marinka is going to go to jail for what she said on twitter and her blog about that model!!!"

Because obviously everything is about me and my friends, right?

Glad it wasn't you :)

August 28, 2009 at 3:03 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home