Apology-Free Feminism

Amanda Marcotte, the author of “It’s a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments.” (Image courtesy Seal Press)

Amanda Marcotte has proven herself to be a sarcastic, no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners, cuss-spewing, bullshit-calling, prank-inventing, riot grrrl-loving, kick-ass-and-take-names kind of feminist. This is Marcotte’s brand of politics and feminism—it’s funny and accessible.

Last year’s popular feminist book, Jessica Valenti’s "Full Frontal Feminism," sought to persuade young women to reclaim the word “feminism” and convince them that the term is cool. But Valenti’s book was best received* among young women who were already devoted readers of the blog she edits, Feministing.com. Apparently learning from this, Marcotte has written a book, "It’s a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments," that is geared toward women who already self-identify as feminists—those who have decided to reclaim the word. These women don’t need feminism’s potency explained to them; they already get it. And this book is for them.

Marcotte is no stranger to controversy. She’s been a blogger for years (which means she has dealt with her fair share of nasty commenters) and edits Pandagon, named one of the top ten political blogs in 2006 by Playboy. (She even gets the misogynists that run a porn rag to laugh.) She also got hired to blog for John Edwards’ presidential campaign, but was quickly fired after her enemies dredged up old anti-Catholic, pro-birth control posts she had written. Marcotte has also been accused by other feminists of plagiarism from the now-defunct BrownFemiPower blog in an AlterNet article. Marcotte disputes these accusations.

Even more recently, the art in Marcotte’s book has been labeled as racist—the cover depicts a Marvel comic-book blonde bombshell in animal print about to spear an alligator. In response to the attacks, Marcotte issued a post on Pandagon titled “I’m sorry” in which she said, “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.” Marcotte’s co-blogger on Pandagon, the illustrious Pam Spaulding, said, “[S]ince Amanda obviously wasn’t attempting to promote a white supremacy theme in the book, [the mistake is the result of]  the blind spot of white privilege.” Even her book about overcoming controversy created a controversy. In other words, Marcotte is something of an expert of on surviving “politically inhospitable” environments.

The book is structured like a series of themed blog posts. Each chapter is only a couple of pages and there are about eight or ten chapters in each section. Marcotte tackles everything from dealing with annoying relatives to anal bleaching. What is billed as a guide is really just Marcotte’s humor coming through at full throttle. Marcotte invents a series of pranks to challenge anti-choice advocates. For instance, she suggests prank-calling Pregnancy Crisis Centers, or “clinics” that masquerade as abortion providers but instead exist solely to talk women out of abortion. These pranks aren’t intended to serve as actual maps to fighting the anti-choice movement. They’re more ways for self-identified feminists to chuckle and remind ourselves of how ridiculous and inconsistent conservative, anti-feminist ideology can be.

Her attacks aren’t simply leveled at the anti-abortion crowd. She also takes on PETA, a radical animal-rights organization that has used misogynist ads in an attempt to be provocative. Marcotte begs, “Feminists, pro-feminists, feminist allies, and assorted liberals—do not give money to PETA. Please. Someone is still giving them money, and it has to stop.”

The last portion of the book, called “Resources,” outlines the kinds of movies, television shows, music, and blogs every feminist should read. But this section tends to reflect the cult of personality that Marcotte embodies. She outlines a lot of really great cultural milestones—but clearly the kinds of milestones that Marcotte herself loves. A feminist following in Marcotte’s footsteps loves “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Ugly Betty,” Bikini Kill, and calling people “tools” to insult them. Embarrassingly enough, Marcotte says BrownFemiPower “leaves no stone unturned in articulating [its author’s] vision for a broader international movement for social justice” in this final section. Now the website is down, thanks to a controversy involving Marcotte.

When Bitch magazine reviewed the book, the major complaint was that it felt like it was written as “a manual for collegiate-feminist set.” That’s code for, "It’s not very accessible to older feminists." But why should it be? Some of the second-wave feminists like Gloria Steinham, Deborah Dickerson, Linda Hirshman, and Camille Paglia have been disseminating some pretty reductive ideas of feminism these days. The infighting over what young women should care about is a pretty tired argument, especially since most young feminists, like me, aren’t really confused and don’t need guidance. We have a lot of opinions of our own and the blogs to prove it.

Marcotte’s book has earned a great deal of criticism, some of it well-deserved. But this is also the most accessible and hilarious book written by a feminist for feminists that I’ve read in a long time. She tried to reach a lot of feminists that are, quite frankly, a lot like me. Blogging is nothing if not a cult of personality, and Marcotte understands hers. She didn’t write her book for the feminist mommy or the wide-eyed sorority-pledging college freshman. Marcotte wrote her book for young feminists who get it, laugh about it, and don’t apologize for it.

Kay Steiger is an Associate Editor at Campus Progress.

*This text has been edited from the original.

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