Amanda Marcotte

Amanda Marcotte (born September 2, 1977) is a blogger best known for her writing on feminism and politics.

Background

Born in El Paso, Texas, she was raised in the small town of Alpine in the west of the state. She went on to study English Literature in St. Edward's University in Austin. While an employee of the University of Texas at Austin, she began a blog called [http://mousewords.blogspot.com/ Mouse Words] , which focused on both music and feminism. Having won the Koufax award for Best New Blog of 2004 for her work on the site, she began to write for the popular weblog Pandagon, one of the first feminist blogs. She has written about political differences with her small-town family.

Edwards Campaign controversy

On January 30, 2007, the John Edwards 2008 presidential campaign hired Marcotte to act as the campaign's blogmaster. [cite web |url=http://www.pandagon.net/2007/01/30/pandagon-changes/ |title=Pandagon changes |work=Pandagon |accessdate=2007-03-01 |date=2007-01-30 |last=Marcotte |first=Amanda]

Soon after the announcement of the hiring, many bloggers began to negatively quote blog posts which Marcotte had written, most notably posts in which she attacked the Catholic Church's position on birth control and access to abortion; these quotes were then covered in mainstream news media as anti-Catholic quotes. Columnist Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote, "Her hostility to religion and in particular the Catholic Church should alarm Edwards." [ [http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjYzN2FiZjFmOGIwZDcyZDQ1NzM1MDU5OGM2MzljZTE= "Unholy Hire"] , Kathryn Jean Lopez, "National Review", February 6, 2007] Journalist Terry Moran wrote, on an ABC News blog, "her comments about other people's faiths could well be construed as hate speech." [ [http://blogs.abcnews.com/terrymoran/2007/02/does_john_edwar.html "Does John Edwards Condone Hate Speech?"] , Terry Moran, "Pushback", February 6, 2007] Marcotte's most outspoken critic, however, was Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, who publicly demanded that the Edwards campaign terminate Marcotte's appointment, claiming that she was anti-Catholic. [ [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17023960/ Catholics slam bloggers hired by Edwards. MSNBC.com (AP February 7, 2007)] ] [cite web |url=http://www.catholicleague.org/07press_releases/quarter_1/070206_Edwards.htm |title=News Release: John Edwards Hires "Two" Anti-Catholics |accessdate=2007-03-01 |date=2007-02-06 |author=Catholic League] [cite news
first = John
last = Broder
title = Edwards's Bloggers Cross the Line, Critic Says
url = http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/us/politics/07edwards.html?ex=1328850000&en=baafdb9e8f35272a&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
work = The New York Times
date = February 7, 2007
accessdate = 2007-05-04 ] Following a day of public speculation that she had been fired, an Edwards campaign press release on Thursday, February 8, 2007 stated that while Edwards was "personally offended" by some of what Marcotte wrote, her job as the campaign blogmaster was secure. [cite web |url=http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/2/8/113651/4503 |title=Statement on Campaign Bloggers |work=John Edwards Campaign Blog |accessdate=2007-03-01 |date=2007-02-08 |last=Edwards |first=John |authorlink=John Edwards] [cite news
first = Nedra
last = Pickler
authorlink = Nedra Pickler
title = Edwards to Retain Embattled Bloggers
url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/08/AR2007020800878.html
work = The Washington Post
publisher = Associated Press
date = 2007-02-08
accessdate = 2007-05-04 ] [cite news
first = John
last = Broder
title = Edwards Learns Blogs Can Cut 2 Ways
url = http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/09/us/politics/09bloggers.html?ex=1328677200&en=bc555f23c328d4ac&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss%E2%80%9D
work = The New York Times
date = 2007-02-09
accessdate = 2007-05-04 ]

On February 12, 2007, the Catholic League denounced a new film review of "Children of Men" by Marcotte [cite web |url=http://pandagon.net/2007/02/11/review-of-children-of-men/ |title=Review of Children of Men |work=Pandagon |accessdate=2007-04-03 |date=2007-02-11 |last=Marcotte |first=Amanda] as "anti-Christian". [cite web |url=http://www.catholicleague.org/07press_releases/quarter_1/070212_strikes_again.htm |title=News Release: Edwards Blogger Strikes "Again": They Must Be Fired Now |accessdate=2007-04-03 |date=2007-02-12 |author=Catholic League] On that day, Marcotte announced on Pandagon that she had resigned from the Edwards campaign, accusing Donohue of a sexist perspective in the calls for her resignation.

The campaign accepted her resignation. She returned to her work on other blogs. [cite news
first = Mike
last = Baker
authorlink =
title = Targeted Blogger Quits Edwards Campaign
url = http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8N8H2D00&show_article=1
work = Associated Press
date = February 12, 2007
accessdate = 2007-05-15 ]

Appropriation controversy

In April, 2008, Marcotte posted an essay entitled "Sexual Abuse Fueled by Abusive Immigration Language" on Alternet which generated controversy on feminist blogs. In the article, she discussed the intersections of racism and sexism as experienced by female illegal immigrants to the United States, cite web |url=http://www.alternet.org/rights/81275/?page=entire |title= Sexual Abuse Fueled by Abusive Immigration Language |author= Amanda Marcotte |date= 2008-04-07 |publisher= AlerNet |accessdate= 2008-04-13] "without," in the words of Brownfemipower, the blogger making the original accusation, "one attribute to any blogger of color, male or female."cite web | title= (untitled) |url=http://bfpfinal.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/3/ | author=brownfemipower |accessdate=2008-04-17]

This, and the similarity of Marcotte's arguments to ones offered by other bloggers, were offered by Brownfemipower, as the basis for allegations that Marcotte had appropriated the work of bloggers of color: "I do not accept," wrote Brownfemipower, "that the author of this article made a mistake in not publishing any links to the work already being done by pro-immigration bloggers, nor do I accept that the author came up with these ideas all on her own." Numerous feminist bloggers interpreted Marcotte's actions as symbolic of a wider process of cultural and racial appropriation, in which the words and work of feminists of color are both given less value than those of white feminists, and co-opted by them. [cite news
author = Holly
authorlink =
title = This Has Not Been a Good Week for Women of Color Blogging
url = http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/04/10/this-has-not-been-a-good-week-for-woman-of-color-blogging/
work =
date = April 9, 2008
accessdate = 2008-04-13 ] cite web|title=Looking to the Future, Feminism Has to Focus |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/06/AR2008060603494.html?sid=ST2008060900950 |author=Linda Hirshman |date=2008-06-08 |publisher="The Washington Post" |accessdate=2008-06-09]

Several bloggers even accused Marcotte of directly plagiarizing Brownfemipower's work.cite news
author = Gwen
title = Intellectual Theft is Still Theft
url = http://highonrebellion.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/intellectual-theft-is-still-theft/
work =
date = April 9, 2008
accessdate = 2008-04-13 ] Bloggers pointed to Brownfemipower's extensive history of highlighting immigration as a feminist issue [cite web| url=http://problemchylde.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/dont-hate-appropriate/ |title=Don’t hate; reappropriate. |author=Sylvia/M |date= 2008-04-08 |accessdate=2008-04-13] and Marcotte's lack of history dealing with immigration on her blog, [cite web | url=http://diaryofananxiousblackwoman.blogspot.com/2008/04/blog-wars-and-silencing-of-women-of.html |title=Blog Wars and the Silencing of Women of Color |author= Anxious Black Woman |date= 2008-04-12 |publisher = Blogger Pages | accessdate=2008-04-13] as well as Marcotte's previous admissions that she had read Brownfemipower's blog regularly. In comments at the Feministe blog, Marcotte denied these allegations, claiming that she "came up with the idea before BFP made her speech." [cite web| author=Amanda Marcotte| title=comment |url=http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/04/10/this-has-not-been-a-good-week-for-woman-of-color-blogging/#comment-163413 |date=2008-04-10 |accessdate=2008-05-15] Rather, Marcotte stated that she was inspired by a speech on a related subject delivered by Nina Perales of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. [cite web| author=Amanda Marcotte| title=comment |url=http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/04/10/this-has-not-been-a-good-week-for-woman-of-color-blogging/#comment-163394 |date=2008-04-10 |accessdate=2008-04-13] However, Marcotte's response was still met with charges of appropriation, as Marcotte's article had not cited Perales's influence.cite web |url=http://girldetective.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/the-heeb-100-and-brownfemipower/ |title=The Heeb 100 and Brownfemipower |author= The Girl Detective |date=2008-04-11 |accessdate=2008-05-04] [cite web |url=http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2008/04/10/regarding-appropriation-brownfemipower-and-amanda-marcotte/#comment-321910 |title=comment |author=littlem |date=2008-04-13 |accessdate=2008-05-04]

"It's a Jungle Out There"

In 2008, Marcotte published her first book, entitled "It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments". [ [http://worldcat.org/oclc/173299421 It's a jungle out there : the feminist survival guide to politically inhospitable environments [WorldCat.org ] ] Jill Filipovic of AlterNet described the book as a "how-to manual for feminist-minded women to take on a sexist society and have a good laugh along the way."cite web| url=http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/83049/ |title=Survival Guide for Life in a Sexist Society |Author=Jill Filipovic |publisher=AlterNet |date=2008-04-25 |accessdate=2008-05-09] In August of 2007, Marcotte posted an image of the chosen book cover on her blog; the image "was a retro-Hollywood pulp cover of a gorilla carrying a scantily clad woman." cite web|url=http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2007/08/20/book-cover/ |title=Book cover!| publisher=Pandagon| date= 2007-08-20 |author=Amanda Marcotte| accessdate=2008-04-25] The image immediately came under fire for perpetuating racist tropes, and, consequently, Marcotte and Seal Press changed the cover image.

When the book was finally released, it again set off controversy in the feminist blogosphere for use of images that many saw as racist. [cite web| url=http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/04/25/i-guess-its-a-jungle-in-here-too-huh/ |title= I Guess It’s a Jungle in Here Too, Huh? |author= Holly |date= 2008-04-25 |publisher= Feministe |accessdate=2008-04-25] [cite web | url= http://dearwhitefeminists.wordpress.com/update/ |title= Update |author= Dear white feminists |date= 2008-04-24 | publisher= wordpress.com|accessdate= 2008-04-25] To illustrate the volume, the publishers used images taken from the 1950s Joe Maneely comic, "Lorna, the Jungle Girl", [ [http://www.comicvine.com/comic/lorna-the-jungle-girl/1632/&i=36796 "Lorna, the Jungle Girl"] , "Comic Vine" (website). Accessed, 2008-04-26.] which was chosen for its retro comic art look. The illustrations used included stereotypical images of "savage" black Africans being beaten up by a white, blonde, superhero, described as "racist cartoons of "natives" in a jungle setting." Marcotte subsequently issued an apology, adding that a second printing of "It's A Jungle Out There" will not contain illustrations. [cite web| url=http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/04/25/im-sorry/ |title= I'm sorry| author= Amanda Marcotte |date= 2008-04-25 |publisher= pandagon |accessdate=2008-04-25]

References

External links

* [http://www.pandagon.net Pandagon blog]
* [http://blog.johnedwards.com/ John Edwards 2008 Presidential Campaign Official Blog]
* [http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/02/16/marcotte/ Why I had to quit the Edwards campaign] article by Marcotte in Salon