The F-Word, Amanda Palmer, & Astroturfing

[sebastienne]

I was bemused to see that the F-Word (a UK feminist blog) were hailing Amanda Palmer as a feminist icon.

I thought it was pretty common knowledge that, amongst many other things, she mocked "disabled feminists" on national TV in Australia.

As I re-read the post, I suddenly realised what was bugging me about the language, and the content - it read like a press release. There's lots of baseless puff-piece talk about how "great" and "inspiring" Amanda Palmer is, and only a superficial engagement with her work. There's a random plug for a guitar website in the middle of the text.

It is, in fact, a press release. I googled the author, and found that she works in internet marketing.

This article is nothing but astroturfing, and the F-Word need to sort it out, pronto.

Because comments on the F-Word are often left in moderation hell for days, here's what I posted:

Some of Amanda Palmer's music is very feminist. As well as the examples you cite, I'd also mention "Ampersand", which is about heteronormativity and street harassment.

But Palmer herself, a feminist icon? I can't agree with you there.

How about "Evelyn Evelyn", the project she began in 2007? She pretended to have "discovered" a pair of disabled performers, and to be "promoting" their work (http://blog.amandapalmer.net/post/392050312/the-story-behind-evelyn-evelyn) - but it turned out that it was just her and a friend dressing up and making fun of conjoined twins. When she was called on it, she used "lol, disabled feminists!" as a punchline on national TV: http://hoydenabouttown.com/20100302.7291/not-your-punchline-amanda-palmer/

Also, why the plug for a guitar company in the middle of your post? Looking at @tahera on Twitter, it seems that you work in internet marketing - and the more I think about how one-sided this post is, the more I think that it's nothing more than a press release.

Yes, a press release. A lot of little errors in this post suddenly make sense to me as well! Someone who'd listened to "Oasis" more than a couple of times would likely notice that the protagonist does not "become a crack whore", as you state - in fact, she gets bullied at school by people using those words, because she was raped and became pregnant.

This is astroturfing. I am disappointed, and hope that the fword will post a retraction and explanation.

Comments

[miyakohideaway.livejournal.com]

... Even more specifically, a couple of places down on the Googles: "Tahera Dudhwala - Online Marketing Manager - Dawsons Music". That's dodgy as hell.

Butyeah, even without that, after the above fuckery about "lollllll disabled feminists!!1!", the "KKK are ironic!", the edgy dead women photography & the auctioning Neil's daughter off & the ... Help Your Black Ass & the rubbish response to criticisms of Sex Changes -- in fact, the utter inability to acknowledge that she might ever do anything wrong evereverever... well, sure, I can still see how people could feel inspired by this & that, but to see her still touted unambiguously as a feminist icon makes me feel a bit ill.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this comment - the only reply I've had from the F-Word is "Hopefully the comments will be published soon, and the concerns addressed (https://twitter.com/#!/thefworduk/status/199072040098070529)", and I was starting to think that I was being paranoid.

But there is something really off about this, and I hope it gets sorted out quite publicly - debunking comments posted 48 hours later aren't going to be enough to repair the misinformation.

[miyakohideaway.livejournal.com]

... Well, it looks like comments are now up, and overwhelmingly not very happy, which is kind of heartening. On the astroturfing: the most generous possible explanation is that someone has written an article about someone they like, in the marketing style they know, and used it to promote the company she works for. Looking at the self-descriptions on a couple of the other pages on the first page of Google results, I think even that is a very generous explanation indeed.

[deathbyshinies.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, the F-Word can go and jump so very hard.

[(Anonymous)]

I see they've removed it and apologised. From what you said, I'm glad!

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

To be fair to them, they've realised their mistake, deleted the post, and apologised.

But, still! It was an unexpected post title to wake up to this morning...