I would just like to inform my readership that, after careful consideration, I have decided to remove the link to Alas, a Blog and remove my postings there from when I guest posted.
Ultimately I have done this because I am against companies such as the one that bought amptoons.com. This is both because it purchased his domain specifically to use his popularity to artificially inflate the rankings of its clientele in search engines as well as because his clientele includes mainstream pornography that is blatantly anti-woman.
I feel that if I leave my material up there and continue to link to him, then I am being complicit in my silence. The company was attracted to amptoons because of its readership — they wanted to use the popularity of his site to their advantage. If the part of the readership who is against companies like these stands by and does nothing, then what message is being sent? That these practices are okay, and even profitable.
I do not think the practices are okay, and I do not want them to be profitable. And so I am doing the only thing I can — removing my content and my support of the site.
October 13th, 2006 at 4:05 am
[…]
October 13th, 2006 at 4:12 am
Just so you’re clear, Amptoon’s buyer doesn’t care about the readership of Alas, only it’s links. In fact, from the client’s POV, the fewer readers, the better, because they just take up bandwidth.
October 13th, 2006 at 4:22 am
Amp gets his links from his readership. If no one read his blog, no one would link to it. Hence, the readership is what I referred to.
October 13th, 2006 at 8:33 am
[…] Like saying no when it’s easier to say yes. in the words of Twisty Faster [back]see Creative Destruction’s account of the controversy surrounding the selling of feminist blog Alas’s URL for porn promotion. The post links to posts discussing the hoo-haa. The strongest condemnation has come from Heart. Other posts (each with a different take) by Sour Duck, Hugo, and contributors Tekanji and Earlbecke are also worth reading. [back]see this thread over at Happy Feminist [back] see this post from Jill at Feministe, a discussion inspired by this post from the wisest of Spinster Aunts. You can also read zuzu there too [back] […]
October 13th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
I didn’t visit Alas often, but when I did, I looked for your posts.
Thank you for doing this.
October 13th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Cheers Andrea
anna
October 13th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Thank you Andrea. Your feminist integrity speaks volumes to patriarchal capitalism.
Thank you.
October 14th, 2006 at 12:33 am
I had been wondering what you thought of this whole thing. Your reasons for taking down your posts are pretty much the same as mine; I’m glad to see I’m not the only guest-blogger who no longer wanted to be affiliated with the amptoons.com domain. I’m surprised by some of the other Alas bloggers who seem totally unfazed, even though he never informed them. (I’m not so upset about not being informed beforehand, though it would have been appreciated, because I didn’t contribute much. But if I’d been able to be more active, you can bet that would bug me.) I don’t understand why anyone would want to be affiliated with either the content being promoted or the sleezy business practices involved, but that’s their choice.
I think what bothers me the most about the whole thing is that this is mainstream porn. It’s hateful, racist, and anti-woman, and…what is considered “normal”. That’s seriously f-ed up. That racial fetishization is mainstream, that misogyny is mainstream. Sigh.
October 14th, 2006 at 12:53 am
I do wish that I had been informed; I didn’t start my blogging spot until after the deal seems to have gone through.
Yeah. I should have mentioned the racist part of it too, ’cause that’s another factor in me not wanting to support it.
October 14th, 2006 at 2:37 am
We are de-linking for basically the same reasons you give. I find the whole thing quite mind boggling though. It’s like he went and found pretty much the worst possible thing he could do!
October 14th, 2006 at 4:28 am
It sucks that you didn’t know when you were guest blogging tenkanji. I did know before I started guest blogging again. I don’t know if that would have made a difference in my response.
I’ve written a long rant over at Alas, but I’m a little bit nervous about it. I’m worried that it comes across more as an argument than as an explanation of my own opinion. I totally understand why you see keeping your posts as being associated with what is being promoted. But that’s not really my analysis/reaction
Although that could be at least partly because I’m on blogspot at the moment, they host a fascist website that has a picture of the grave of my friend’s mother - rejoicing that she died because she was a jew. I don’t know what their profit model is, but I’m pretty sure I don’t want to.
October 14th, 2006 at 6:26 am
The internet is so suffused with horrific websites that I doubt any of us can remain “pure,” as long as we continue to blog we will in some way be implicated in something nasty somewhere. The whole Alas thing has made me think about this issue as well.
October 14th, 2006 at 9:48 am
Yeah, if I’d started blogging after he sold the site and nobody told me, I’d be much more upset about it. If I’d been asked to guest-blog now (and he did ask me to return and do a second month at some point, so that was a reasonable way to view it), knowing what’s going on, I’d decline, so, given that, I thought there was no reason to leave my posts up just because the situation was different in the past. If that’s at all coherent.
October 15th, 2006 at 3:45 am
Thank you.
It is comforting to know that integrity is not a lost art.
October 18th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
[…] http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji/2006-10-13_426 […]
January 7th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
[…] * Note 11/5/06: Link to tekanji’s post referenced here has been edited, reflecting that the article is no longer available at Alas, for some excellent reasons she discusses here. Tags: Adrienne Rich, feminism, Jennifer Saginor, Literary, memoir, Minnesota, Overtly Political, pornography, privilege, racism, sex industry, silencing, The Past is Not Dead, Web/Tech […]
January 8th, 2007 at 1:24 am
Eeek. Sorry about that last trackback - I was editing the post in question and didn’t realize it would automatically send!
But anyway, I appreciate this post (and the Shrub.com site as a whole), and look forward to having my link to you restored once I’m done with my site’s overhaul. (Part of what I was, in fact, in the midst of when that long-ago post sent the errant trackback. Ah well.)
Best wishes - Victoria
January 8th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
No problem. I had seen the post, but this was the first time the trackback sent, so I was good with letting it through even though it was an old post.
Be sure to let me know when you’re site is finished with it’s overhaul!