Alas a Blog ~ Sold out To Pimp My Ride
October 9, 2006 by sparklematrix
I have recently discovered via Women’s Space that Amp has sold his website. Namely “Amptoons” for cash to a buyer, who - have created a page featuring links to reviews of pornography, including misogynist, teen and racist material.
Amp has long been recognised as a feminist website, though to be honest I have had my doubts for quite some time now, and I stopped visiting several months ago.
Check here (potential trigger, if you click on the inside links as there is pornography. The first page gives you a good idea of content): Link
He says at the end of the announcement in which he cites financial problems for the reason of his selling out…
I was assured by the buyer that he would never host porn sites on “amptoons.com.” And I wrote into the contract that his link on “Alas” could never be a direct link to a porn site. But beyond that, I have no ability to control what the buyer does with his pages - the deal is that he has absolutely no say in what’s on “Alas,” but we also agreed that I have no say over what he does with his own property. And - as a couple of “Alas” readers have noticed - some pages I don’t own include links to porn.
I’m essentially in the same position as someone with a blog on “blogspot.com” - I don’t own the domain, and although I control what’s on my own blog, I don’t have any say over what’s posted on the domain other than my little piece of it.
I realize that some “Alas” readers will feel that I’ve sold out, or that this puts me beyond the pale. I’m genuinely sorry for that. For the record, I don’t feel I’ve been victimized (as one person suggested in email), nor do I feel like I’m a total sell-out. What I feel is this: I’ve made a compromise, one that I probably wouldn’t have made in a perfect world.
That’s all. And now, back to your regularly scheduled political rants.
(Comments are closed on this thread. If you want to talk to me about this, please drop me an email.)
Crocodile tears Mr Amp, you couldn’t give a flying fuck about how “Alas” readers may feel that you have “sold out” That’s a bog standard request for reassurance that events were out of your control. You want affirmations that you were not to blame for your decisions.
Well sorry but you ARE responsible for selling out to the pornographers.
Alas now features links for…. Hardcore pornography.
“Hot Latina Babes.” “Hot Ethnic Babes.” “Hot Girl-on-Girl Action.” and the teen “Liz Vicious”
Cheers Amp *clink*
(edit) Communications now open…
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2006/10/11/i-sold-amptoonscom-comments-are-now-open/
I have decided not to be approving any pro-pornography comments to this thread.
Sparkle*
Sparkle, you won’t be getting any pro-porn comments from me (but you knew that already *grin*)
What an absolute betrayal, a sellout, and an MRA-style “I’m sorry to shaft you anally” situation.
I agree with Phemi (another thread), that I never cared for it much anyway. Hopefully cosmic justice will be dealt out in a big dollop.
Remind me again why I should automatically trust pro-feminist men, without any proof?
Yeah I never liked Alas, and now after seeing the MILF Nestdoor links I really don’t.
What would Kaka call it?
Fuckery, that’s what.
Yup PURE fuckery!
Thanks for the chuckle sparkle, accompanying photograph says it all!
I think in the back of our minds, we all knew that all the major ‘feminist’ websites were a bunch of sell outs. It’s too good to be true when you have more MEN posting at the major feminist blogs than you do women.
That’s the first sign of a problem. Two when Playboy names you one of the top ten blogs on politics, like they have pandagon - that’s fairly revealing.
It’s interesting how as anti-porn feminists other feminists would rather build alliances with major corporations that EXPLOIT women than build bridges with us, all the while laughing at us for supposedly allying with the right.
Fuckers.
As Eddie (a client and personal friend of mine) would say from AbFab - BuggeryBollox.
Fuckery-Lite, or Fuckery-Max?
I’ll be filing it under Fuckery-Max.
FuckeryBuggeryBolloxSuperMaxUltraPremium
Panda - like Dita Von Teesie - saw daddy’s playboys when a small child, and never quite got over it. (Pats panda and dita on head - such good/bad girls daddy loves you for being what he wants.)
Ampersand has never been a feminist, depsite what he claims. One feminist famously called him “a piece of shit remora” and that pretty much sums him him. If you want to see more background on his assholery go here -
http://community.livejournal.com/mf_unicorns/593.html
His blog is a actually a platform for misogynists who want to have a go at feminists. Feminists who respond angrily to the bigotry are slapped down.
OH dear, the sinister twist of men (and some women) pretending to be fems in order to shoot down real fems. This is war. Again.
[...] But then it was revealed that the blog’s creator, Ampersand, sold his domain to a pornographer, so that they could use the site’s hit meter to inflate the pornographer’s hit ratings. [...]
http://womensspace.wordpress.com/2006/10/08/alas-a-blog-reviews-hardcore-pornography-websites-did-everybody-but-me-already-know-this/#comment-3416
http://sourduck.blogspot.com/2006/10/alas-porn-site.html
http://womensspace.wordpress.com/2006/10/08/the-revolution-will-be-commodified-alternatives-to-selling-feminist-websites-and-blogs-to-the-man/
http://hugoboy.typepad.com/hugo_schwyzer/2006/10/ampersand_male_.html
http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/?p=411
http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/?p=412
http://laurelin.wordpress.com/2006/10/10/alas-a-sell-out/
http://viv.id.au/blog/?p=88
http://angryforareason.blogspot.com/2006/10/no-really-im-feminist.html
http://sparklematrix.wordpress.com/2006/10/09/alas-a-blog-sold-out-to-pimp-my-ride/
http://ginmar.livejournal.com/909066.html
http://witchywoo.wordpress.com/2006/10/10/fuckery-and-betrayal/
http://rocr.xepher.net/weblog/archives/001793.html
http://womensspace.wordpress.com/2006/10/12/pimp-my-domain-for-dummies-not-mysterious/
http://fauxrealtho.com/2006/10/10/um-yeah/
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2006/10/11/bad-ideas/
http://community.livejournal.com/mf_unicorns/7838.html
http://incurable-hippie.blogspot.com/2006/10/alas-bastard.html
http://community.livejournal.com/mf_unicorns/8004.html
http://www.slanttruth.com/2006/10/11/confused/
http://community.livejournal.com/mf_unicorns/8258.html
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/42929/
http://danaseilhan.livejournal.com/98287.html
http://melancholicfeminista.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-feminist-blogosphere-blowup-porn.html
http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/index.php/2006/10/13/the-fascinating-tale-of-pro-feminist-male-blogger-and-the-porno-sell-out/
http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji/2006-10-13_426
http://www.feminish.net/2006/10/13/another-world-is-possible/
I don’t see why you should. Not even with proof. It’s not like we can just choose to opt-out of the collective. We can slip into it at will, and I think feminists should be prepared to drop us like a rock when we do (no matter how many boo-hoo sob stories we tell).
John
In what way can you not *choose* to drop out a collective, and by merely slipping into things at will sounds as though you really do beleive you are in control? Please do NOT bother me with this shit.
sparklematrix: The “collective” would be men (as a result of male privilege), you cannot *choose* to drop out of it short of changing your sex, and you can slip into it at will (regardless of knowing better) through, among other things, willful ignorance. Subconsciously as well.
Since your questions pretty much covered my comment, I’m not sure which “shit” you don’t want to be bothered with.
Okay first things first *my* take on collective (as in the collective unconsciousness, because of my background) I did not recognise the male privilege of which you spoke. I assumed (forgive me) you were assuming that you had no other choice but to peruse a male dominated view of life. Though I disagree that your subconscious and wilful ignorance has that much power…..*if* you really want it to change…everybody is capable of change.
Anyway pleased to meet you Sparkle*
Nice to meet you, too. Looking at it, I can see that my original comment was cryptic and easy to misunderstand; I apologize. I should have started with “great post”, too.
It was.
Anyway, I completely agree that everybody is capable of change. I didn’t mean to imply that anything controls a man’s behavior and attitudes but himself.
What I meant was that I believe every man is part of a collective, and the purpose of that particular collective is the subjugation of women. Recognizing what it is and rejecting it as illegitimate can be done at the individual level, and obviously that’s an ongoing (never-ending, really) process.
At the same time, I don’t think that rejecting it removes us from that collective. We still benefit from male privilege, we’re still socially conditioned to follow certain patterns and roles, stereotypes that have been beaten into our heads from day one can persist at an almost hidden level, etc.
So for me, it’s important to remember that I’m part of that collective and continually ask myself if what I’m doing/saying/writing is perpetuating sexism or partriarchy.
If I wasn’t keeping vigilant like that, I would most assuredly fall back into old patterns that I’ve rejected. And that’s where the choice lies. I can willfully relax that vigilance, I can relax the examination of my subconscious reactions. In short, I can slip back into the ignorance of male privilege simply by doing nothing.
Ampersand seems to think he lives on an island. From his weak-sauce rationalizations, it’s seems he may have asked himself questions like, “how damaging is porn, really?” or “Is this really a net gain for porn producers?”, but what he very clearly did NOT ask was “Would doing this perpetuate the collective male strategy to subjugate women?”.
This is the problem, IMO, with the individual man presenting himself as only an individual, as though he had just opted out of a collective that he still benefits from every day. And now he’s serving the purpose of that collective, overtly, every day - thinking of it as an “individual” compromise.
Anyway, that’s why I see no reason why feminists should trust pro-feminist men. I think they have every right to be cynical, especially with pro-feminist men who just happen to be taking leadership positions among them and speaking publicly on their behalf(which makes me start thinking about displacement of women, which I haven’t quite sorted out yet). -j
John
Yes, your initial post was a bit obscure, and it was quite surprising that Ms Sparkle didn’t turf it into the Troll Bin!
I got most of it, but what wasn’t clear in the original post (addressed in the latter) was the determination and self regulation to override the collective.
You were #142 in Alas’ post?
Certainly more pro-fem men should be screaming loudly at ‘the ones who fall from the wagon’ (yes, it is a cop out to say that the individual slip of one person will not have repercussions). And I guess it is up to the feminists themselves to ‘police’ the actions of other feminists.
I was quite disgusted with some ‘rad-’fems flocking around poooor widdle Barry, bloody Amp’s Handmaidens.
Bottom line is that a rad-fem CANNOT defend any man in this position, even if deemed borderline. Men’s actions have always been excused.
At some stage, if I get time, I wanted to blog about the impact of Ampgate on pro-fem men (I still haven’t got the thing straight in my head yet).
*Blink*
Ahh yes day light again, well actually it is getting dusk, but we are talking last night here.
John I have measured some fine tweaking into the Sparkle*patriarchy radar and I can understand your intent. Read your last paragraph posted here again.
Three:am and a couple of vodis tend to mess up this fine instrument of detection.
To be honest you are the first MAN I have had (as in comments) on here that has not been a Troll. Now this is an achievement, which has led me to question whether sparkle* is giving up the habit of a life-time and non-dysfunctional XYers are homing in to her wholeness ~ as in a fully functioning and ubber sorted human ~
Please find a gift in the post John
Sparkle*Greetings
PS We will give the ‘great post’ malarkey a wide birth, but I catch your drift
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OH YUK ^ Eww