Libby Chamberlain Sells out Pantsuit Nation

Pantsuit Nation was a Facebook page phenomenon for every women and woman leaning man who ever felt disenfranchised, put upon, victimized, discriminated against, or merely emotionally flummoxed. So, a ton of people. They put their hope in Hillary Clinton as their agnostic Lord and savior, though they will tell you to a woman that the community was more about supporting one another through their daily slog through virtual slavery and glucose spikes. 

The group itself began to fracture as various factions of victims began to call one another out for not doing suffering right. In a world of only the beaten down, there’s still going to be a need to claim higher levels of suffering. The minority women started busting on the white women for not getting it, large women took on small women, heavily inactive people blamed other slacktivists for whining but not actually getting anything meaningful done, and gay men tried to attach themselves to every Les Miserables opening but were ultimately shunned for having dicks. 

The final days of Pantsuit Nation occurred when the Facebook group founded Libby Chamberlain announced she was claiming the movement for herself in the name of a book deal she’d just signed with a New York publisher to bring Pantsuit Nation to book form. Publishers aren’t stupid. They’re going to feed the anti-Trump emotional depression at $19.95 a copy. The Pantsuit Nation faithful exploded in a mass of angry marmalade viscera. Harry Lewis (student activist, sexual assault survivor, #BlackLivesMatter supporter, lover of all things Beyoncé) wrote a moving piece on his disappointment in Pantsuit Nation on HuffPo, the original pantsuit palace. Everybody felt betrayed by Chamberlain’s assumption of the grand movement for cash and abandoned ship.

It’s hard not to feel wistful for a time when angry and disappointed people could get together in groups and support one another by advice not including get a haircut and get a job. Pantsuit Nation may be crumbling, but the unhealthy circle of rationalization and empty blame it stood for will surely live on at Buzzfeed, Vox, HuffPo, Slate and other keepers of the bitter flame. Pantsuiters, hold tight, a handout is on the way. Give an angry woman a fish and she will sue your ass.