How do bloggers and readers feel about no-comment-allowed blogs available for linking? It isn’t ideal (and doesn’t work for some of the possible concerns above), but it might be the only thing practicable for public communication if the owner doesn’t want to police the blog and boot offenders.

There seems to be no ideal solution in the real world, as long as readers refuse to grow up.

It’s a crying shame that people can’t think before they push the submit button - is this hostile? is this cruel? am I being both obtuse and repetitive? have I considered that there’s a living, feeling human being on the other end of this blog?

We ought not to be driving people out of blogging - BfP and Blackamazon had much to contribute and will be missed by many.

Again?

Re-centring the issue on Amanda by focusing on a very small section of comments and demanding that they be addressed first.

Again, again?

I live in a country where land has been stolen from indigenous people in the last five years. Amanda Marcotte lives, and Seal Press operates, in a country where the history of stealing land from indigenous people stretches back five centuries. We all live in a world where the distribution of wealth was established, and justified, by colonialism. The white woman, and man, in those pictures were stealing land and resources - everything Africa had that they could use (a century earlier, of course, they would have also been stealing people).

Thank you for saying this. It needs to be said. Too often our historical context gets elided, trivialized or ignored altogether. I think there is room for irony and humor, but it has to be used carefully and balanced carefully with other images that more positive. It’s one thing for a feminist humorist to use the Sheena stereotype, because it is silly yet appealing in some senses as a strong female character. But the “jungle” context should not be so easily reduced to a people-less territory - or worse, as a land to be taken away from “savages” who stand in the way of “progress.” [Glegh! It’s stomach-churning just to write that, even within ironizing quotes employed.] The production team behind this book design really did not think this through, and insodoing reflect an unconscious bias born of the colonialist memes in the dominant culture. I guess I could expect that from Regnery, but you demand more from a progressive publisher.

Dear Seal Press,
There’s nothing “groundbreaking” (nor *cough* “subversive” or “ironic”) about undeniably racist imagery. What the bloody blue hell were you thinking?

Warmest regards,
matttbastard
P.S. You mig…

I can’t imagine who the hell thought those illustrations were at all acceptable. What is wrong with those people?

If you really like the quality and style of Amanda’s writing but question the use of the imagery, don’t buy the book, go to the publisher (Seal Press hurr) and tell them why you’re not buying the book, and see if you can get a reprint with just as much irony without any racism. And buy it then. I think that’s possible, especially since there’s no longer King Kong on the cover.

I thought that was a great way of dealing with the situation.