Because we will cut you.
Amanda is getting all kinds of shit around the blogosphere for having the audacity to (a) be an adult woman, (b) use adult language, and (c) accept a job with the Edwards campaign. They’ve called her a “liability” and accused her of deleting and hiding posts (some of the missing posts are easily searchable in the Pandagon archives; others were eaten by the internets, as Ezra explains). So Amanda has a potty mouth and a handful of mouth-breathing wingnuts don’t agree with some of her opinions. This, apparently, is a huge indictment of the Edwards campaign. To borrow from Norbizness:
Shorter reactionaryosphere: I’ve seen the Constitution shredded, internment camps being proposed, and nuking Mecca bandied about as a serious policy initiative, and I can say without fear of hyperbole that occasionally using the F-word is a billion times worse than all of those things put together.
Now, Amanda’s detractors are not above posting pictures of her and calling her ugly (does there remain a feminist blogger who hasn’t had some faceless internet fuck use her appearance against her?). He’s up in arms at the fact that Amanda would have the audacity to compare herself to Shannon Elizabeth, whose image he regularly jerks to (and then cries himself to sleep for being such a naughty, naughty boy). After all, Amanda is a real person who writes things that make Dan angry, unlike Elizabeth, who is but a mindless spank-worthy sexbot, and if there’s anything that’ll make a wingnut’s little soldier abandon his post, it’s the idea of an actual, real-live human woman who can speak and who has a mind of her own (also, what is it with conservative bloggers and the Shannon Elizabeth thing?). Of course, if he had bothered to actually read Amanda’s blog instead of using one sticky hand to browse her Flickr photos, he would have seen that the Shanon Elizabeth thing was tongue-in-cheek, and came immediately after facial recognition software also compared Amanda to Hugh Grant and Rupert Everett. In other words, it wasn’t exactly a case of Amanda pimping herself out for the patriarchy. But I suppose when you’re a pathetically uncreative misogynist — pulling the But She’s Ugly! card? Really? You can’t do better than that? — who is also dumb enough to not understand why liberals just might call Bush & Co “war-mongers” (hint to Slow Dan: They monger wars), you can’t be expected to grasp the idea that women might post pictures of themselves for reasons other than to titillate/be evaluated by you.
But as Dan surely knows, bitches is crazy, always doing unpredictable shit like not suiting his exact physical ideal and writing smart-alecky blog posts that interrupt his lively afternoon of conservative circle-jerking, checking out hotconservativebabes.com, and Google-imaging Shannon Elizabeth.
Now, Dan Riehl ain’t no spring chicken himself (nor is he in the running for any sort of IQ-related prize, although he does brave carpal tunnel syndrome and raging hemorrhoids as he tirelessly toils for the 101st Fighting Keyboarders). Let’s be honest, most of us don’t look like we belong on a runway during Fashion Week. Which is why we call people out for being tremendous assholes, unwaivering morons, and general embarrassments to the human race. Not for their position on our personal attractiveness scale. Because it’s not a particularly compelling argument, and it’s too easy to turn it back around.
Although it’s certainly worth noting that your mom was right: It’s what’s on the inside that counts. And Dan Riehl is one ugly motherfucker.
Amanda, on the other hand, raises conservative ire for a reason: She is damn good. She’s a compelling writer, a brilliant thinker, and a hilarious critic. As sharp-tongued (sharp-fingered?) as she can be, she is a persistent advocate for universal human rights, and so she avoids being unnecessarily cruel or petty, even when she’s eviscerating those who would like to restrict the rights of people who are not like them. She is, without question, one of the best bloggers out there. She’s thoughtful, and more intelligent and eloquent than 99 percent of the right-wing-blogging Big Boys. Which is exactly why she’s terrifying. And why, in order to discredit her, they have to resort to bottom-feeding lies and attacks on her appearance.