A message recently popped up in my Facebook feed urging me to “take action” to protest Tucker Max’s upcoming reading at Powell’s, scheduled for October.
GUESS WHAT PEOPLE?!?! RAPE IS NOT FUNNY AND POWELLS SHOULD NOT BE SUPPORTING THIS!!! TAKE ACTION PLEASE.
The posting includes a link to an article entitled “Does Tucker Max Think Rape is Funny?” Tucker Max is a blogger turned author—he wrote I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell and the soon-to-be-released Assholes Finish First, for which he’s touring in September. If you’ve heard of him it’s probably because he’s an effective enough button-pusher that articles like this one occasionally get written.
The Facebook posting suggested calling Powells’ events coordinator Michal Drannen to complain. I emailed him to ask if Powell’s had any intention of canceling the event:
No, we’ve never cancelled an event due to protest or controversy, nor will this event be cancelled. I’ve received a few calls and emails about the book signing including members of the community in support of Tucker Max’s visit.
Controversial books inevitably alienate some people, including some of our customers. We do not wish to offend anyone, but we believe that it is in the best interest of any community for books and ideas of all kinds to be available to interested individuals, regardless of what our own opinions or tastes may be.
And Powell’s blogger Chris Bolton chimed in on Powells’ Facebook page:
Please consider the notion of a bookstore deciding what is and isn’t appropriate for people to see. Is that diversity? I’m no fan of Tucker Max, but freedom of speech is an all-or-nothing proposition; once you start censoring one writer due to objectionable material, then it’s no longer free, period.
So… Tucker Max makes the Cook to Bang guy look like a gentleman. (That link documents my email fight with Mr. Cook to Bang. He is actually not a gentleman.) But the problem here seems to be less that Tucker Max is reading in Portland, but that he’s reading at Powells. Powell’s is in the book selling business, but there is a sense that it’s more than just a bookstore—that it has some obligation to the community it serves.
I can’t hang with the “rape is never funny” crowd (Exhibit A: “Yeah, like anyone would want to ‘R’ her.”), but I do agree that there is something distressing about the idea of fat women being referred to as “common-stock pigs” in the Pearl Room. Local writer Pollyanna Fish (it’s a pseudonym) sent me an email that smartly articulates the position that this is about not just Max, but Powell’s—I’ll post the whole thing after the jump, but here’s an excerpt:
I’ve heard that asking Powells to reconsider this dubious booking decision is anti-First Amendment, anti-free speech. Please. Crying First Amendment strawman/bogeyman/red herring bullshit is fine *if you are talking about the government censoring someone.* And guess what? We’re not asking Sam Adams to cut Tucker Max’s balls off and take away his megaphone. We’re just asking a bookstore-cum-local-institution to consider the needs and feelings of its core community. Tucker Max is a summer tourist. Dear Powells, the rest of us make your business happen every day, from the thirtieth rainy day in November to the first sign of sun in July. Show a little respect.
That being said, I’m coming down on Powells’ side here. I feel a little like Dr. Laura hiding behind the first amendment, but I just can’t get behind the idea of protesting someone because his jokes aren’t funny. Because sometimes rape jokes are funny, and if I decide he can’t make them, that means I can’t, either.
Email from Pollyanna Fish:
I love nasty-ass humor. Sarah Silverman and South Park crack my shit up. The Aristocrats and Cute Lil’ Bunny make me howl. Bill Hicks was a god, other than the homophobia part, which was a sad call for help. But Tucker Max, alas, doesn’t make the cut. First of all, he’s not particularly clever, as his limited vocabulary reveals; his idea of wordplay is finding yet another use for the phrase “stupid bitch.” Second, he’s not funny, likely because he’s not very smart and because watching or reading him can make you wince. Overcompensating wannabe dudes like that are always painful to watch. Last up, his work isn’t social commentary; it’s rote sexism at its most pathetic. Powell’s encouraging him to make money off of Portlanders doesn’t sit well with me.
It’s not just the subject matter (although you gotta admit that trying to stir up controversy by using such hackneyed targets as rape, people with disabilities, and fantasy-fulfillment scenarios of humiliating women is very, very… nineties). It’s the delivery of supposedly humorous stuff about delicate issues, and the soul of the person delivering it. Provocation without thoughtful intent is right up there with crapping in your pants to get mommy’s attention: there’s an age-appropriate window for it. Max got stuck in some sad little misogynist phase, and the rest of us should no more have to deal with his juvenile sputterings than we should have to smell some toddler’s poopy pants.
A friend of mine says that Powells is more than a bookstore; it’s a community institution, and its choices should represent the community. It’s true. Usually, Powells is more than happy to be seen as a grand hub of literary and cultural activity, online but especially in Portland. It’s a leadership role that affects how we see ourselves as Portlanders or as stylishly nerdy people who read. It’s a great marketing technique, because without a big community that’s invested in the coolness and success of Powells, the bookstore wouldn’t be nearly as successful as it’s become.
But if you position yourself as an important community entity, you don’t just get the perks: customers, good media coverage, people eager to put on shows and readings at your store, fans who promote your store for free online. You also get stuck with some responsibility to all those people who make your business shine.
Generally, if you play community institution, the community will have higher expectations of you than we would of, oh let’s say Borders. Borders can have Tucker Max. He can guest-host America’s Got Talent and I won’t protest. Powells is different to me. Why? Because *I* buy shitloads of books at Powells. *I* promote their bookstore online when mentioning books. I’ve done readings at Powells, spent my paycheck at Powells, and lived fifteen years in a city whose main tourist draw is a bookstore.
Powells doesn’t just take money from me and my smart, thoughtful, progressive friends; in some way, it represents us and our city. Promoting Tucker Max is a betrayal of the thousands of customers and community members who happen to have cunts, not to mention our many non-cunt-bearing friends who aren’t interested in laughing about humiliating and raping women, especially not as Max delivers his stories. So people of Powells, cancel the show—-I know, I know, this desperate faux-man would probably love the controversy, but sometimes you gotta do what’s right anyway—-and show that you care about your real community, the ones who pay your salary and come to readings all throughout the year, not just when a Z-grade celebrity memoirist turns up.
I’ve heard that asking Powells to reconsider this dubious booking decision is anti-First Amendment, anti-free speech. Please. Crying First Amendment strawman/bogeyman/red herring bullshit is fine *if you are talking about the government censoring someone.* And guess what? We’re not asking Sam Adams to cut Tucker Max’s balls off and take away his megaphone. We’re just asking a bookstore-cum-local-institution to consider the needs and feelings of its core community. Tucker Max is a summer tourist. Dear Powells, the rest of us make your business happen every day, from the thirtieth rainy day in November to the first sign of sun in July. Show a little respect.
Powell’s can do whatever they want; the guy has a bestselling book and, hey, they sell books! So it makes sense. I just cringe at anything that gives this dude any more attention.
Yeah, I’m not sure if people who protest this stuff realize that they’re basically part of the marketing plan.
I fucking hate Tucker Max but I love my first amendment rights. I’m not going to let that asshole be the gateway to censorship. I just won’t be going to his reading.
I’ll be ignoring this one….just like I’m ignoring whatever Dr. Laura did to get fired or whatever happened. I’ll also be ignoring the Westboro Baptist Church, anything Kanye West does and people who think climate change is a conspiracy.
Say, did you all know that there’s new unrest between Kosovo and Serbia flaring up? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
Shouldn’t this reading be held at Urban Outfitters?
“We’re not asking Sam Adams to cut Tucker Max’s balls off and take away his megaphone”
Well maybe they should.
I read his first book. I didn’t think it was particularly shocking. I’ve probably missed some offensive stuff on blogs or interviews or whatever, but the book was mildly funny and forgettable.
What’s his rape joke, that people find so offensive?
From that article:
‘Producers of the much-hyped Tucker Max movie I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell–based on the execrable “memoir” of the same name, on the New York Times best-seller list now for more than 100 weeks–decided to market the film with bus ads reading, “Deaf girls never hear you coming.” Equal opportunity offenders, they also had ads referring to “blind girls.”‘
And then if you follow the links you get this stuff:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/s…
I don’t see how this is a first amendment issue. Is the government involved?
Those darn Constitutional obstructionists are at it again, as Sarah Palin might say.
You gotta admit, getting a “Helen Keller” badge ( a blind, a deaf, and a mute girl) on your sexual resume is kinda something to strive for.
Yikes, mars.
It’d probably be a lot more embarrassing for Tucker if people just didn’t show up and he has to fumble for words in front of 3 disinterested people who don’t know who he is.
I figure if they stock his shit (they do) then he should be allowed to promote the stock they’re selling at that bookstore. Any author whose words reside on those shelves should be able to give a reading at that store. We can choose to not BUY that book or ATTEND that reading. I’m not gonna blame a bookstore for selling a book. That’s the whole point of their business. And part of sales is promotion. Sometimes that means a untalented, abhorrent, professional dickhole like Tucker Max gets to spend 45 minutes babbling in front of a couple hundred people in plastic chairs (if that.)
If we follow this line of reasoning, next we’ll be asking Powell’s to remove his shit from the shelves because it’s “beneath” the community of people who claim Powell’s as their own. And then we’ll start looking for similar authors who are collectively (which collective, I don’t know) deemed unworthy of space on Powell’s shelves, and eventually we’ll have nothing but 30,000,000 copies of “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” to choose from next time we enter what many (myself included) consider to be the best independent bookseller in the country.
Glad to see there are some people realizing the government has to be involved to have any “free speech” ramifications.
Chris Bolton’s comment: “freedom of speech is an all-or-nothing proposition.” If that’s true, than we have zero freedom of speech, since I can’t freely write about credible assassination plans, or I can’t commit libel/slander, and there’s all kinds of permissible restraints on the time, place and manner of speech when it is being regulated by the government.
First Amendment is a red herring – this is simply a matter of taste. Powell’s is free to give an unpopular speaker a spot, and the protesters are free to make their feelings known with their words and their wallets.
Yay for America!
Not that this will make much of a difference to most people, but to clarify – Tucker Max is just signing books at his event. There won’t be a reading or presentation.
You’ve all been duped. Tucker Max has been urging his fans to write these fake protest emails. You’ve been played: He’s trying to rekindle his popularity, now that his website has been shutdown and his movie bombed.
The protesters were not protesting the fact that Powell’s sells his books, nor were they saying that people don’t have the right to find the promotion of violence against women to be hilarious. I’m pretty sure they were protesting Powell’s for hosting a special event for an author who engages in hate speech. It’s really not a censorship issue, if you use a little critical thought. Powell’s chooses who to host, assumedly, based on who brings profits. They choose all the time not to host authors. Is that censorship?
If a Klan member were on a book tour, I wouldn’t say that his or her books aren’t allowed to be sold, but I
would sure hope that my community would speak out against hate speech that incites violence. When one in four women in her life will experience violence by the hands of an intimate partner, and one in three women and girls will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime, it seems like a man making jokes about non consensual sex and stating that fat women should choke on their own blood, ( etc, etc) is actively contributing to a culture that makes it easy to violate women. Just like white supremacist talk encourages violence towards people of color. Why not take this seriously? I mean, if you don’t care about the welfare of people in general, then I guess it just doesn’t matter.