Humph ([info]spiralsheep) wrote,
@ 2008-04-25 15:17:00
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Current location:America
Current mood:Disgusted
Entry tags:anti-racism, feminism, insert sensible tags here

In which our heroine hopes no-one ever fµcks Seal Press again
I certainly wouldn't touch Seal Press, or any of their products, even with the proverbial barge pole. They publish blatantly racist imagery and this is merely the latest in what has grown to be a catalogue of white supremacism from Seal Press and its current employees. The book's author, Amanda Marcotte, is also a serial offender (even though she probably wasn't responsible for these racist images being spread through her book) who, among other problematic behaviour, has publicly confessed to appropriating the work of Nina Perales without credit (here).

http://dearwhitefeminists.wordpress.com/update/
Background reading: http://dearwhitefeminists.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/an-open-letter-to-the-white-feminist-community/

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/04/25/i-guess-its-a-jungle-in-here-too-huh/

http://viv.id.au/blog/?p=1646

I'm still a feminist and, no, I'm not surrendering MY word or MY history to some unreconstructedly white supremacist women and their allies.


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[info]violetisblue
2008-04-25 03:02 pm UTC (link)
And of course, every time someone calls AM on any of this she repeats her rant about how she's being "bullied" by a "playground cabal" of women of color who are of course just "jealous" of her immense influence and success. That doesn't sound familiar or anything, does it?

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-25 03:26 pm UTC (link)
The whining, especially from someone who supposedly sees herself as a professional journalist, was astonishing, unless she's aiming at the tabloid muck-raking end of the journalistic spectrum.

As I commented elsewhere, someone should do Marcotte a favour, confiscate her keyboard, and not give it back to her until she's read the last six months of race discussions in the big lj fandoms. That might put her in danger of learning at least the basic rules of PR even if she failed to understand the underlaying issues.

The irony of her book being subtitled "The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments" when she's one of the major contributors to perpetuating an inhospitable environment for WOC in the white USian feminist blogosphere is overwhelming.


Edited at 2008-04-25 03:27 pm UTC

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[info]violetisblue
2008-04-25 03:31 pm UTC (link)
AM's response (in part): "I think nowadays retro imagery used by avowed liberals can safely be assumed to be at least an attempt at coy irony." Thank you, Amanda, for reminding me why I consider "liberal" to be a personal insult and am rapidly not knowing what to do with the word "feminist" either!

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-25 04:00 pm UTC (link)
Marcotte and Seal Press can claim the blonde busty Barbie standing by her man is (post-feminist) irony if they want to try it but there's nothing ironic about the racism (and where, I wonder, are Barbie's feminist sisters in those images?).

Post-feminism: keep your bra, burn your brain.

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[info]dracothelizard
2008-04-25 03:24 pm UTC (link)
Wait, wait, that book was written now? In 2008? And not in, say, the 1950s?

The fact that the empowered woman is blonde, thin, and sexily dressed isn't really helping their case either.

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-25 03:37 pm UTC (link)
Seal Press decided to re-use pictures from an old Marvel comic called Lorna the Jungle Girl which began in 1953. They'll probably claim it was supposed to be "ironic", which it is but not in the way they possibly intended.

The fact that the empowered woman is blonde, thin, and sexily dressed isn't really helping their case either.

The use of that imagery was already criticised when the originally planned cover was released and then changed a while back. The fact that it's busty blonde Barbie and her Ken doll against the caricatured indigenous brown people makes it sooo much worse. I note that feminist!Barbie doesn't seem to have any white female friends either.

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[info]dracothelizard
2008-04-25 03:59 pm UTC (link)
Well, at least I was right in recognising the 50s comic style.

Yes, good move, Seal Press! Ignore the justified criticism and go ahead anyway!

And of course there's a Ken doll. I mean, what's a confident, feminist woman without a man, right?

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-25 04:08 pm UTC (link)
I think the 1950s US pop culture retro-look is fine provided, if one wants to use an actual historical example, one picks an appropriate image for the context. I frequently post older images and I have no difficulty finding cool pics (or including lol-critiques with images which are painfully reflective of their time of origin but I want to post anyway).

The current employees of Seal Press are getting themselves a bad reputation. Their parent corporation is even worse.

I mean, what's a confident, feminist woman without a man, right?

Ken doll: can't live with him, can't let the ooga booga natives cook him for dinner along with the missionaries. It's a no win situation for friendless white feminists everywhere. /irony like what she is done

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[info]dracothelizard
2008-04-25 04:12 pm UTC (link)
Oh, Superdickery.com is hilarious, although once you've seen one WANK as a sound-effect, you've seen them all.

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-25 04:26 pm UTC (link)
I remember She Hulk getting a "SKANK" sound effect once, presumably before that word acquired its current connotations, heh.

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[info]beccatoria
2008-04-25 03:34 pm UTC (link)
My, this is an upsetting mess. :(

I think the clearest indication that it's not "ironic" imagery is "reversing" it. I don't think I'd find images of subordinated "retro" women used to elevate the power-status of brown people particularly hilarious either. In fact...it would be offensive to all groups portrayed there. But the point is, I bet that feminists would notice that sort of imagery instantly, but can still be blind to its racial analogue.

For clarity, I know that "reversing" trick doesn't always work because racism =/= sexism. There are things that are racist which would not be sexist if a brown person were replaced by a woman, and vice versa. But I figure that when that trick does work, it's probably a sign that there's something wrong and it's not something particularly subtle, either.

And um...yeah. That's a mess.

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-25 03:48 pm UTC (link)
When this whole set of shenigans kicked off a few weeks back I was angry but now I've been pushed all the way through angry and out the other side into numb shock.

I bet that feminists would notice that sort of imagery instantly, but can still be blind to its racial analogue.

Jill @ feministe, Twisty @ iblamethepatriarchy, and Hugo Schwyzer all reviewed advance copies of the book and not one of them commented on the racist images. The two of them I've seen comment both claimed they didn't even notice and they continued to promote the book at every opportunity. Hugo has partially called himself out for that and Jill says she'll post about it later today. I haven't seen any word from Twisty yet but I haven't actually searched so she might have responded, or be planning to respond, to the criticisms.

That's a mess.

Yes. /still gobsmacked

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[info]violetisblue
2008-04-25 04:10 pm UTC (link)
Twisty is kind of known for dismissing racism as an "inferior" concern, though, or at least that's the impression I always got from her blog.

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-25 04:23 pm UTC (link)
Yes, but she's also capable of turning her powerful critical abilities on herself when she decides to do so. The fact that she's fauxpologised etc in the past doesn't mean I'll automatically dimiss everything she might potentially say in future (and, yeah, I know that wasn't what you said. I'm merely clarifying for the lurkers I know are reading this).

Edited to add: Twisty said http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2008/04/23/schooled/


Edited at 2008-04-25 05:10 pm UTC

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Note mostly to myself (and for the record)
[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-25 05:13 pm UTC (link)
Twisty said: http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2008/04/23/schooled/

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[info]louisedennis
2008-04-25 03:42 pm UTC (link)
I'd not even heard the phrase "white privilege" until a year ago and even I can see this one.

*is amazed*

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-25 03:57 pm UTC (link)
I try not to casually wave the r-word about but those images are all about white supremacist attitudes and colonialism and they're racist. Seal Press can claim the blonde busty Barbie standing by her man is (post-feminist) irony if they want to try it but there's nothing ironic about the racism (and where, I wonder, are Barbie's feminist sisters in those images?).

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[info]shaggydogstail
2008-04-25 04:00 pm UTC (link)
Fucking hell. I'm having trouble processing just how stupid, privileged, or just plain racist someone has to be that they fail to see how horribly offensive those pictures are. Yuck.

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-25 04:16 pm UTC (link)
It's not only Seal Press either. Jill @ feministe, Twisty @ iblamethepatriarchy, and Hugo Schwyzer all reviewed advance copies of the book and not one of them commented on the racist images. The two of them I've seen comment so far both claimed they didn't notice (although Hugo says he saw animal rights issues, yeah, animals > brown people, apparently) and they continued to promote the book at every opportunity. Hugo has partially called himself out for that and Jill says she'll post about it later today. I haven't seen any word from Twisty yet but I haven't actually searched so she might have responded, or be planning to respond, to the criticisms.

I empathise with your brain's current processing difficulties. I'd seen all the lead-ups to this and I'm still in a state of shocked disbelief.

Edited, out of my sense of fairness, to add: Twisty said http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2008/04/23/schooled/

Edited at 2008-04-25 05:34 pm UTC

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[info]seebrirun
2008-04-26 12:56 am UTC (link)
Wouldn't 'an attempt at coy irony' involve sexist art rather than racist? I find it hard to believe that was the only 'ironic' public-domain image they could find.

Lawsuit! Who's with me?

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-26 01:12 pm UTC (link)
Wouldn't 'an attempt at coy irony' involve sexist art rather than racist?

The art is sexist too. Happy now? ;-)

I find it hard to believe that was the only 'ironic' public-domain image they could find.

Via tigtog, who said the search took minutes, here: http://viv.id.au/blog/?p=1646#comment-27863

http://comicbookcatacombs.blogspot.com/2007/09/1970s-flashback-shanna-she-devil.html

http://www.dynamiteentertainment.com/images/JungleGirl2choCov.jpg

http://uk.comics.ign.com/articles/824/824712p1.html

http://www.newsarama.com/dynamitenew/JungleGirl/previewbook/JG0-03.jpg

http://www.libertymeadows.com/covers/JungleGirl04BW.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bf/Shanna1.jpg/250px-Shanna1.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bf/Shanna1.jpg/250px-Shanna1.jpg

Lawsuit! Who's with me?

OMG Seal Press has damaged me AND MY UNBORN CHILDREN for life! Won't someone think of the children?! ::clutches head and faints::

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[info]seebrirun
2008-04-26 09:33 pm UTC (link)
And that's all the same comic, even!

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-26 09:48 pm UTC (link)
Hmm, I don't think so. Some of those look like Shanna the She-Devil to me. You need to realise that there've been a truly gobsmacking number of White Chick in Jungle comics over the years (and even a few Black Chick in Jungle comics). ::uses appropriate icon::

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[info]neadods
2008-04-26 02:10 am UTC (link)
*sigh* Well, I dropped Shakespeare's Sister a while back... I'm probably going to have more time if the only blog I read outside LJ is pharyngula.

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-26 01:04 pm UTC (link)
When I read USian feminist blogs I mostly read geeky feminist blogs anyway. They seem to have fewer problems identifying with other socially disprivileged people than many mainstream USian feminist bloggers.

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[info]neadods
2008-04-26 10:50 pm UTC (link)
This latest purge drops all of the women-written feminist blogs (I'm leaving Shakes Sister alone until after the election). Phar-I-can't-spell-it is written by a man, and is mostly about creationism and atheism.

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-26 11:10 pm UTC (link)
I've enjoyed the links you've posted that were garnered from Pharyngula (which I can't spell either).

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[info]chronographia
2008-04-26 06:12 am UTC (link)
Yeah . . . not making me want to buy any of their books. Well done marketing department.

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[info]spiralsheep
2008-04-26 12:59 pm UTC (link)
The weirdest part was when actual official representatives of Seal Press commented on blackamazon's blog with personal insults fronting up their racist attitudes. They're either completely media unsavvy, which seems unlikely for professional publishers, or they're genuine white supremacists who believe that insulting woc in public won't effect their business.

/still gobsmacked by the whole series of incidents

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