Amanda Steps In It Again…

Evidently a rather large proportion of those wimmen calling themselves feminists are genuine morons.

This point is amply illustrated by the illustrations used by Seal Press in Amanda Marcotte's utterly dreadful tome, It's A Jungle Out There. Prior to having canine dental surgery performed upon my copy, one of the first things that struck me about It's A Jungle Out There was the fact that the artwork was, in and of itself, a ticking time bomb. As your basic insensitive, insecure, capitalistic, patriarchy embracing, steeped in white male privilege white male, I couldn't help notice that several of the illustrations seemed to be unsuited for the sensitive, multicultural, racially inclusive and proudly progressive eyes of Amanda's intended audience.

In keeping with the obvious, unoriginal and trite nature of Marcotte's writings, her publisher, Seal Press, decided to illustrate the book using a White Amazon Woman (and White Male Hunter) motif rendered in a faux-1950s Marvel Comics style. Unfortunately, neither Amanda Marcotte nor anybody at Seal Press seemed to grasp that they were dealing with an exceptionally touchy cadre of readers. This Marcotte/Seal cluelessness is doubly amazing when you consider that the original cover art for the book was scrapped last year due to blogospheric outrage (at Pandagon, of all places) over its obvious (?), if subtle, racist imagery…

You'd think, given that little episode, that both Amanda and the grrrls at Seal Press would have their multicultural antennae in the wind to ensure that nothing about the new artwork could be remotely considered racist. Well, that's what you'd think. What actually ended up in It's A Jungle Out There was this:

Gee, who'd a thunk you couldn't sneak that by ten thousand or so pathologically race/creed/color/gender/orientation/class obsessed grievance-mongering Leftists, eh? Like I said, we're dealing with morons here.

Anyway, Amanda has issued an abject apology over at Pandagon:

I’m sorry. Plain and simple. I didn’t pick the offensive imagery in my book, but I should have caught it sooner than now. I didn’t and there’s no excuse. It was my first book, I was excited and happy, but I needed to have a more critical eye. I would do anything to remove racist images from the first printing of the book if I could, and I am relieved and happy to say that they will be removed from future printings. Seal Press has their note of apology up too, and they accept full responsibility for these mistakes. I really recommend reading it.

Amanda's apology goes on for another two paragraphs, and while she does try to weasel out of trouble by blaming Seal Press, it's clear her heart isn't into it. It's almost as if she's sitting there going, "Just what did I do to irritate the Negroes?"

On the other hand, Seal Press, which describes itself as "…devoted to publishing titles that inform, reveal, engage, delight, and support women of all ages and backgrounds…" is in full sacrifice-a-virgin-to-appease-the-angry-Gods supplication mode:

We are taking action immediately to remove the offensive images from It's A Jungle Out There. We are currently reprinting, and we will make these changes now. We apologize for any pain or concern these images have caused.

We do not believe it is appropriate for a book about feminism, albeit a book of humor, to have any images or illustrations that are offensive to anyone.

Some have asked the valid question, "What were you thinking?"

Please know that neither the cover, nor the interior images, were meant to make any serious statement. We were hoping for a campy, retro package to complement the author's humor. That is all. We were not thinking.

As an organization, we need to look seriously at the effects of white privilege. We will be looking for anti-racist trainings offered here in the Bay Area. [my emphasis - DTP] We want to incorporate race analysis into our work.

Attaboy… er, Attagrrrl! When in doubt, call in the diversity trainers!

But just what is this "White Privilege" that makes Leftists so blind and not see? I mean, after all, "White Privilege" sounds pretty Republican, and as such wouldn't afflict a bunch of scowling feminist wimmen (with tiny mustaches), right? Wrong! It seems that white feminists and Leftists are a big bunch of racists, too. Try this explanation of White Privilege - courtesy of feminist Twisty Faster of I Blame The Patriarchy - on for size:

That’s right! White privilege! It’s just like male privilege, except in this context it’s just for white chicks. Where dude bloggers may exercise control over women according to their status, white feminist bloggers may exercise control over women of color according to their status.

……….

In the example cited above, the one where I allude to having posted a pro-Marcotte book dealio, the “control” aspect was expressed in my failure to address the current controversy. In so failing, I effectively endorsed white privilege in feminist bloggery, and closed down a potential avenue of discussion. That this was unintentional is of no consequence; it was perceived by many, and rightly so, as an example of what has been popularly referred to as “circling the wagons.”

……….

The sad irony is that I never cut dudes the tiniest bit of slack in the male privilege department. They write in and say, “But Twisty, I never rape my girlfriend, aren’t you being just a little shrill?” And I always reply, “You might,” I used to tell them, “be the nicest male dude on 9 planets, but the fact remains that you’re a dude, so you automatically benefit from male privilege whether you actively choose to or not, and unfortunately this privilege, though it may be invisible to you, is experienced by women as misogyny [my emphasis-DTP], again, whether you like it or not.”

It’s the same exact thing with white privilege. So, if you’re a white feminist blogger: you may not choose it, you may hate it, you may ignore it, or you may not even see it, but you do exercise your white privilege daily, and it is absurd to expect that this exercise would be perceived by women of color as anything but racism. Because it is racism, dum-dum. [my emphasis-DTP]

So there you have it. White Privilege was to blame… No wonder Amanda Marcotte thinks Free Will is overrated. If you buy into the above flapdoodle, there is no place for such a thing: You're not racist because of the content of your character, you're racist because of the color of your skin! Male Privilege works the same way. You're not a misogynist because you act like a misogynist, you're a misogynist because you're male!

Isn't that great?

Given that Amanda Marcotte believes in this sort of crap, the fact that she couldn't figure out that illustrating her book with threatening Mau-Mau warriors might give offense is little more than astonishing. Beyond that, it's fun to note that these folks - both the white privileged feminist bloggers and the controlled by racism Radical Women of Color - can't understand why nobody in the real world pays the slightest bit of attention to them…

Complete. Utter. Morons.

The artwork for the second printing of Amanda's book...

FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF THINGS THAT ARE UTTERLY BRILLIANT DEPARTMENT:

Shamelessly lifted from the Protein Wisdom Pub...

Hats off to Serr8d, everyone!

Comments

[Q]

Oh, to be a fly on the wall at the Seal Press office:

"What's that? You mean the images of blonde amazons beating-up black guys with spears didn't go over too well with the hypersensitive multiculturalist types? We must take extra care in future to not offend anyone. Except for whites and Christians and men and heterosexuals- hey, somebody write this down!"

Additionally, I kind of wonder something about the first cover. How is it that somebody can look at the image of a gorilla, instantly think "black people", and then condemn OTHER people's latent racism?

[jcw]

The blogosphere war going on over this is incredibly funny. I've been occasionally reading Amanduh's foolishness for years and one of the things I've taken from it has been she honestly hates being white. The piling on by the "Women of Color" must be killing her.

[Q]

By the way, could it not be charged that one of the rationales of female-only feminist gatherings-- that of creating a "safe space"-- is just a roundabout manifestation of their sublimated desire to exclude black men?

Come to think of it, they don't criticize the misogyny of rap lyrics too much. Are they secretly terrified that some Negro rapist will come after them in revenge?

[Dennis The Peasant]

Q-

Asking those sorts of questions will only get you in trouble.

By all means continue...

[Tim P]

You can't make this stuff up.
It's beyond parody!

[Allen]

For her next book Amanda will grace us with: "How to piss off your intended audience in 5 easy steps."

I swear her thought processes remind me of a Pachinko machine, you never know where the ball is going to end up.

[TerryH]

oh oh-- you've made the natives restless.

Snappin' Amanda bungles the jungle

http://proteinwisdom.com/pub/?p=921

[Dennis The Peasant]

Believe me, the last person and place I thought I'd get a link from was Jeff Goldstein and Protein Wisdom... Guess that just shows you the power o' Amanda.

[Pablo]

Suicide is painless, Mandy.

[Pablo]

Oh, come now Dennis. Certainly, PW isn't the last place you expect a link from!

[Dennis The Peasant]

Pablo-

Jeff and PW used to be a very vocal part of Pajamas Media, and as such I'd venture I was not viewed with sympathy or understanding during my Ragging On Raj phase. Plus I'd been told by other bloggers that Jeff didn't care for me or my stuff. Hence my amazement.

[Pablo]

Yeah, I get that Dennis. I was just thinking that there'd be at least a couple of less likely places from which you'd expect to feel the linky love. Goldstein is a pretty open minded cat, though I believe he's still cashing their filthy, dirty, nasty, awful checks.

[Dennis The Peasant]

Pablo-

Picked up links from Red State and Ace of Spades. Will wonders never cease? Here I was thinking I was an apostate...

Amanda, the great uniter!

[Jeff G]

I always liked your stuff, Dennis. Don't know who told you differently. I just don't read many blogs. Hell, I barely have time to read or write on my own.

[Dennis The Peasant]

JeffG-

In all seriousness, you've made my day! Thanks.

[John Finger]

Sorry I'm late to this. Hey 'Q', in response to your, not so subtle, backhand I quote Tsun Tsu; "So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will fight without danger in battles." I'm thinkin' this is one of those 'Know your enemies' moments.

JF

[Will Wonders Never...]

And the Instapundit link has cometh. Verily.

[will Wonders Never...]

I think Reynolds might've read through to the comments and decided you were asking for it, as he does have a sense of humor, and surely his was the last, or third to last at the very least, link you could ever expect.

[will Wonders Never...]

I think Reynolds might've read through to the comments and decided you were asking for it, as he does have a sense of humor, and surely his was the last, or third to last at the very least, link you could ever expect.

[Eric Blair]

And you got an instalanche this morning! Will wonders never cease?

[Will Wonders Never...]

I think Reynolds might've read through to the comments and decided you were asking for it, as he does have a sense of humor, and surely his was the last, or third to last at the very least, link you could ever expect.

[Will Wonders Never...]

Apologies for my multiple posts. I would blame the Instalanche but todays about building bridges.

[M. Simon]

You have now been endorsed by the Big Pajamas himself. That has got to hurt. :-)

BTW loved the illustrations and the post. Evidently the Chickens are coming Home to the Roosters.

[Dennis The Peasant]

Da Raj must be lovin' this...

[M. Simon]

Linked you at Pajama's site Classical Values.

I don't know how you will ever get over the shame. :-)