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Amanda Marcotte

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Amanda Marcotte
Amanda Marcotte at WIS2 5-18-2013
BornAmanda Marie Marcotte
(1977-09-02) September 2, 1977 (age 46)
El Paso, Texas
OccupationBlogger
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma materSt. Edward's University
SubjectFeminism, politics
PartnerMarc Faletti[1]
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Amanda Marie Marcotte (born September 2, 1977) is an American blogger best known for her writing on feminism and politics. In 2004 she won a Koufax Award for her blog Mouse Words.[2] Time magazine described her in 2007 as "an outspoken voice of the left," and said "there is a welcome wonkishness to Marcotte, who, unlike some star bloggers, is not afraid to parse policy with her readers"—while also describing her blogging as "provocative and profanity-laced."[3]

Marcotte is the author of It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments (2008) and Get Opinionated (2010).

Marcotte currently blogs at The Raw Story,[4] contributes to Slate,[5] The Guardian,[6] and does a weekly podcast RH Reality Cast.[7]

Marcotte has given presentations at Skepticon, SXSWIII, Women In Secularism 2,[8] and SkepchickCON.[9] She is on the speakers bureau of the Secular Student Alliance[10]

Personal life

Born in El Paso, Texas, Marcotte was raised in the small town of Alpine in the west of the state. She graduated from St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas with a degree in English literature.[11] Around 2004, she began writing for the liberal blog, Pandagon.net, then later for Slate and The Guardian.[12] As of 2011, Marcotte lives in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.[13]

Writing

Feminism

Marcotte's writing includes articles on the treatment of women in the secular and skepticism movements,[14] issues surrounding reproductive health,[15] and the efforts to limit access to reproductive health services in the United States.[16] She has written opinion pieces on ways to promote healthy sexual behavior.[17]

Statements on Duke lacrosse case

Marcotte attracted criticism in January 2007 for her views on the March 2006 Duke lacrosse case, when three students were accused of rape; the students were charged, but the charges were later dropped and the players charged were pronounced innocent by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.[18] Marcotte declared on her blog that people who defended the accused were "rape-loving scum."[19] One comment in particular attracted attention:

I've been sort of casually listening to CNN blaring throughout the waiting area and good fucking god is that channel pure evil. For awhile, I had to listen to how the poor dear lacrosse players at Duke are being persecuted just because they held someone down and fucked her against her will—not rape, of course, because the charges have been thrown out. Can’t a few white boys sexually assault a black woman anymore without people getting all wound up about it? So unfair.[20]

All charges were finally dropped and several months later the lead prosecutor Mike Nifong was disbarred for heavily interfering with the normal course of a police investigation and "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation". [21] Marcotte later said "I do not support Mike Nifong’s choices in this case and wish generally that rape cases could be handled with due process instead of tried by a public that has politicized what should be a matter for the criminal justice system. Any suggestion that I feel any way about this case outside of that is false."[22]

Journalist Cathy Young described Marcotte as a leader of a "cyber-lynch mob," writing that, "in Marcotte's eyes, the real crime of the independent feminists is helping preserve the idea that the presumption of innocence applies even in cases of rape and sexual assault."[23] The post attracted so much commentary, including from The New York Times, that Marcotte ended up deleting it.[24]

Blogging for the Edwards campaign

On January 30, 2007, the John Edwards 2008 presidential campaign hired Marcotte to act as the campaign's blogmaster.[25] Soon afterward, many bloggers began to quote Marcotte's blog, especially posts in which she criticized the Catholic Church's position on birth control and access to abortion.[26] One Marcotte blog post that was criticized included: "Q: What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit? A: You’d have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology."[27] Columnist Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote that Marcotte's hostility to religion should alarm Edwards, while journalist Terry Moran argued that Marcotte's comments could be construted as hate speech.[28]

Marcotte's most outspoken critic was Bill Donohue of the Catholic League; he asked that the Edwards campaign terminate Marcotte's appointment, and called her a "vulgar trash-talking" bigot.[29] The campaign responded that, while Edwards was "personally offended" by some of Marcotte's remarks, her job as their blogmaster was secure.[30] On February 12, 2007, the Catholic League called Marcotte's review of the film Children of Men "anti-Christian".[31] Later the same day, Marcotte announced that she had resigned from the Edwards campaign, accusing Donohue of a sexist perspective in the calls for her resignation. She returned to her work on other blogs.[32] In an article for Salon a few days later, she said the reaction to her comments on the Duke lacrosse case was the first in a series of "shitstorms" that had prompted her to resign from the campaign.[33]

File:Marcotte.jpg
One of the images from It's a Jungle Out There

Books and cover controversy

In 2008, Marcotte published her first book, It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments, and her second, Get Opinionated, in 2010.[1] Jill Filipovic of AlterNet described the first as a "how-to manual for feminist-minded women to take on a sexist society and have a good laugh along the way."[34]

In August 2007, Marcotte posted an image of the chosen book cover for It's a Jungle Out There on her blog; the image "was a retro-Hollywood pulp cover of a gorilla carrying a scantily clad woman."[35] The image came under fire for perpetuating racist tropes, and as a result Marcotte and Seal Press changed the cover image.[35] When the book was released, it again set off controversy in the feminist blogosphere for use of images that many saw as racist.[36] The publishers had used images taken from the 1950s Joe Maneely comic, Lorna, the Jungle Girl.[37] The illustrations depicted stereotypical images of "savage" black Africans being beaten up by a white, blonde, superhero, and was described as "racist cartoons of 'natives' in a jungle setting."[34] Marcotte issued an apology, adding that a second printing of It's a Jungle Out There would not contain illustrations.[38]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Marcotte, Amanda (2010). Get Opinionated – A Progressive's Guide to Finding Your Voice (and Taking a Little Action). Seal Press. ISBN 1580053491. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  2. ^ Drum, Kevin (23 February 2005). "Koufax Awards". The Washington Monthly. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  3. ^ Calabresi, Massimo (2007-02-07). "Bloggers on the Bus". Time.
  4. ^ "Pandagon". Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  5. ^ "Amanda Marcotte". Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  6. ^ "Profile: Amanda Marcotte". Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  7. ^ "RH Reality Check". Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  8. ^ "Amanda Marcotte Profile". Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  9. ^ "SkepchickCON at CONvergence". Skepchick.org. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  10. ^ "Amanda Marcotte". Secular Student Alliance. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  11. ^ http://www.sealpress.com/book.php?isbn=9781580053020
  12. ^ "Amanda Marcotte at Slate".
  13. ^ Amanda Marcotte. Secular Student Alliance. Accessed May 30, 2012.
  14. ^ Marcotte, Amanda (7 August 2013). "Skepticism and Secularism Have a Serious Sexual Harassment Problem". Slate. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  15. ^ Marcotte, Amanda (5 August 2013). "The Pill, the Rhythm Method, and Why "Nature" Isn't An Argument". The Raw Story. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  16. ^ Marcotte, Amanda (9 August 2013). "Virginia Crisis Pregnancy Centers Caught Lying About Abortion and Contraception". Slate. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  17. ^ Marcotte, Amanda (14 August 2013). "Teens and sex in Dad's house: Column". USA Today. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
  18. ^ Beard, Aaron (April 11, 2007). "Prosecutors Drop Charges in Duke Case". The San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press. Archived from the original on May 26, 2007. Retrieved April 11, 2007.
  19. ^ Last Call for "Rape-Crisis" Feminism? - Reason Magazine
  20. ^ Kurtz, Howard. "The Press, Turning Up Its Nose at Lame Duck". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  21. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/16/us/16cnd-nifong.html?_r=0. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/16/us/16cnd-nifong.html?_r=0
  22. ^ "Feminism, the Duke Rape Hoax, and Searching for Empathy".
  23. ^ RealClearPolitics - A Feminist Flare Up
  24. ^ Stuck at the airport again….. at Pandagon
  25. ^ Marcotte, Amanda (2007-01-30). "Pandagon changes". Pandagon. Archived from the original on 2007-02-17. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
  26. ^ Alex Koppelman; Rebecca Traister (February 7, 2007). "Edwards campaign fires bloggers". Salon.com. Retrieved 31 August 2011. The right-wing blogosphere has gotten its scalps ... [Marcotte and McEwan] had come under fire from right-wing bloggers for statements they had previously made on their respective blogs.
    • Beyerstein, Lindsay (February 26, 2007). "Why I refused to blog for Edwards". Salon.com. Retrieved 31 August 2011. Bill Donohue of the Catholic League and the right-wing blogosphere aligned for an all-out assault on Amanda. If it had just been the right-wing bloggers gunning for Amanda, the problem would have been short-lived. ... What Bob didn't seem to realize is that the right-wing blogosphere was going to try to get Edwards' bloggers fired no matter what.
    • Parker, Jennifer (February 8, 2007). "Edwards Reprimands Campaign Bloggers". ABC News. Retrieved 31 August 2011. Salon reported that the women had come under intense scrutiny from right-wing bloggers for statements they had previously made on their respective blogs.
    • Tapper, Jake (February 13, 2007). "Edwards' Campaign Blogger Quits Amid Controversy". ABC News. Retrieved 31 August 2011. On the Internet, outrage erupted. ... But that did not quell the Internet storm as Marcotte continued to write in her no-holds-barred style.
  27. ^ Marcotte, Amanda (February 16, 2007). "Why I had to quit the John Edwards campaign". Salon.com. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
  28. ^ "Unholy Hire", Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review, February 6, 2007.
  29. ^ Catholics slam bloggers hired by Edwards. MSNBC.com (AP February 7, 2007)
  30. ^ Edwards, John (2007-02-08). "Statement on Campaign Bloggers". John Edwards Campaign Blog. Archived from the original on 20 February 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-01. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  31. ^ Marcotte, Amanda (2007-02-11). "Review of Children of Men". Pandagon. Archived from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2011-12-29.
  32. ^ Baker, Mike (February 12, 2007). "Targeted Blogger Quits Edwards Campaign". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 14 April 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-15. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  33. ^ Why I had to quit the John Edwards campaign - John Edwards - Salon.com
  34. ^ a b Jill Filipovic (2008-04-25). "Survival Guide for Life in a Sexist Society". AlterNet. Archived from the original on 14 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-09. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  35. ^ a b Amanda Marcotte (2007-08-20). "Book cover!". Pandagon. Archived from the original on 30 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  36. ^ Holly (2008-04-25). "I Guess It's a Jungle in Here Too, Huh?". Feministe. Archived from the original on 30 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
    • Dear white feminists (2008-04-24). "Update". wordpress.com. Archived from the original on 11 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  37. ^ "Lorna, the Jungle Girl", Comic Vine (website). Accessed, 2008-04-26.
  38. ^ Amanda Marcotte (2008-04-25). "I'm sorry". pandagon. Archived from the original on 29 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-25. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

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