Long-Term Loss of Short-Term Memory...

Leave it Amanda Marcotte to push the envelope of idiocy...

Now she's got her frillies in an uproar over the 2009 Pirelli calendar. For those of you that aren't in the loop, you should know that every year the Italian tire maker sends a calendar (of beautiful female models photographed by a famous photographer) to auto industry muckety-mucks. Over the years, the calendar has become a bit of a big deal both as a status symbol and a showcase for cutting edge photographic art.

Anyway, the 2009 calendar was shot by a while male by the name of Peter Beard, and evidently he's almost as famous a photographer as Glenn Reynolds. And what did Peter choose for the theme of his photographic art? How about this: Naked, and semi-naked international models running around Botswana acting all jungle girl on us... You know, communing with wildlife, being menaced by the local negroes and looking euro-sexy.

Here is a sample from the calendar:

 

 

 

And of course, my personal favorite: Women being menaced by negroes...

 

You can imagine the reaction of one Amanda Marcotte to such images... Her undies are knotted!

But I’ll tell you what, none of this [Pirelli's other sins of being elitist and male-oriented - DTP] even holds a candle to how horrible and offensive the images in the Pirelli calendar are this year.  I have to warn you that these are upsetting, if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing.

Just in case you aren't upset (or sensitive), here's more:

I’m at a loss for what to say about this, besides just marveling at how the audience for these images is being invited to downright revel in this racism and misogyny.

And more:

Gosh, it’s almost like pornographic imagery gets meaner and more racist the more that people of color and women start to challenge male dominance at the highest levels of power.  I can’t help but continue to think that for a lot of men, pornography is about a lot more than just seeing sexual images.  It’s about using sex as a way to demean those that are not them.

What's really funny about Ms. Scrunchknickers' outrage is this is the same bimbo who was ready to publish her first book with this cover:

It is worth remembering that it was not Amanda's sensitivities that got the above cover shit-canned; it was her audience at Pandagon. She thought it was really keen in a retro sort of way.

Putting that misadventure behind her, she then thought this cover...

 

combined with these illustrations...

 

 

 

...was really keen in a retro sort of way. It took several other feminists and much of her previously offended audience at Pandagon having fainting spells and cramps to clue her in on the, um - insensitivity - inherent in such retro keen-ness.

It should be noted that the above illustrations weren't produced by your basic establishment publisher dripping white privilege... No, it was thought up and executed by a bunch of lefty bull-dykes in San Fransisco.

I don't know about you, but if I were Amanduh, and I'd come across the images of the 2009 Pirelli calendar, I'd have let them pass without comment. And I'd do that because I'd be pretty sure there would be some fat, middle-aged white guy out there on the internet just waiting to pounce on the hilarity of my genuinely clueless outrage...

 

Comments

[Flyby Reader]

Minor point, but did you catch this contradiction? In the main post, she writes, "this calendar is a VIP exclusive, sent out to the elite in the auto industry." But then in comments she writes, "What’s also fascinating to me is that this isn’t a specialty item. It’s sent out en masse to everyone on the list. It’s a classic example of how everyone is pressured to conform to the lowest common denominator of masculinity." So the calendar is an example of elite conformity to the lowest common denominator?

I'm starting to feel awkward reading her. There has to be a joke here that I'm just not getting.

[Eric Blair]

The joke here is her, sadly. Or maybe not sadly.

Now, I don't think Ms. Marcotte actually knows about what Dennis is writing about her--I'd be mightily entertained if I knew she did, as I imagine that she would not physically be able to prevent herself from replying, and that of course, would give Dennis more opportunites, but hey, one can always hope.

[jcw]

Flyby, she is the joke. I don't like visiting the site, anymore, even for the laughs. The hatred there starts to affect the way one thinks about people. Dennis is made up of sturdier stock than me.

[Dennis The Peasant]

Actually, I'm pretty sure our Amanduh knows who I am and has seen at least some of what I've written about her. As to her not responding to what I write, that probably has more to do with the fact that I'm a Z-lister with virtually no traffic worthing mentioning. Amanduh considers herself big-league (or on the verge of big-league), and given that, she wouldn't be caught dead slumming around these parts. Which is fine, I'm not interested in engaging her in any sort of dialogue or whatever.

[Flyby Reader]

Eric and jcw, I guess you're right. And I think I've finally figured out what puzzles me about Pandagon. Most self-parody is made unaware, but extreme self-parody usually is not.

Incidentally, Marcotte had another post this week on caganers, defecating figurines typically hidden in manger scenes, and the blowhard Bill Donohue's hissy fit over a California museum display of them. Now I'd agree this Catalonian tradition can be a playful reminder of both the humanity and rude estate to which the biblical Jesus ("like us in all things but sin") was born. But one "far cooler than any American Christmas traditions" and that cannot possibly be "more awesome," as she claims? Um, not as long as Santa Claus, Xmas Eve family readings of "A Night Before Christmas," singing of "White Christmas," the Apollo Chorus of Chicago singing Handel's Messiah every December, showings of any number of holiday movies ("It's A Wonderful Life," "Miracle on 34th Street," even "A Christmas Story"), and who knows what I'm forgetting continue as U.S. traditions. But, of course, she claims Donohue is the "tone-deaf" one on this . . .

[Uncle Fester]

"or whatever" - DTP

Uhm, is Muffy aware of this?

[Dennis The Peasant]

By "or whatever" I meant whatever sort of semi-coherent ramblings she might come up with.

You should wash your mind out with soap.

[D Johnston]

@Flyby Reader: Marcotte doesn't seem to be too fond of Christmas celebrations, and not just the more commercial aspects. If there were any lingering doubts that Amanda is a bitter, spiteful crank, her post on Christmas diamond advertising will drive those doubts away. The first sentence: "It’s the holiday season, which means a series of annoyances, including the fake War On Christmas, relentlessly stupid Christmas carols, trying to figure what to buy your loved ones whose taste is impossible to guess, and the fucking cold weather." (Which, at 41 words, is also a classic sentence)

I've been going back to Pandagon from time to time because Jesse Taylor finally started writing there again, but each post of his is accompanied by at least two tirades from the Queen of the Permanently Aggrieved.

[Flyby Reader]

D.--Yeah, I saw that. I think the only thing that makes her crankier is Valentine's Day. Of course, she managed to drag V-Day into the post as well. (In fact, V-Day might even be a bigger source of her ire in that post.)

Anyway, as has been mentioned here before, perhaps the second-most astounding thing about Marcotte is she attended a Catholic university. (That's a distant second to her having taken an English degree there.) It's not astounding because she's abandoned the faith. It's astounding because she is so clueless why it and its traditions--yes, even some of the commercial ones that develop around them--can appeal to anybody. I really do know resolutely atheist professors at state universities who can explain quite well the (non-"patriarchal") reasons Catholicism in particular and religion in general appeals to adherents. I guess that's because they have something St. Edward's also failed to give Marcotte: an open mind.

[TmjUtah]

"I’m at a loss for what to say about this..." = "Here comes two thousand words, at least. And four, maybe five periods."

It's like there's a rule or something, isn't it?

[Tim P]

... that probably has more to do with the fact that I'm a Z-lister with virtually no traffic worthing mentioning. Amanduh considers herself big-league (or on the verge of big-league)...

That you are a so called z-lister illustrates the fact that the better product is not necessarily the most popular product. Kind of reminds me of Microsoft.

The fact that she can even take her self (let alone her writing) seriously illustrates how far denial, a huge ego and absolutely no sense of self-awareness or irony can get you.

[Tim Worstall]

"better product is not necessarily the most popular product"

Quite. Far more Chevy Cobalts (?) are sold than Aston Martins after all.