The Gorgon in Tights, of course, and her accolade on the right, Mean Girl, Amy Alkon.
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One of the blogs I read daily, Sadly, No! often introduces me to many right-wing columnists and bloggers I would otherwise never encounter. It helps me to learn how the other side thinks, and the wingnuts often provide great comedy fodder. The Sadly Naughts are like the Misfits used to be back in the Dibble Days. Ahh. Good times!
In one of his recent entries, Tintin at Sadly, No! wrote about a blogger/author, Amy Alkon, whose column I have read a few times and disregard as simply another vapid, mean-spirited, Coulter wannabe. Alkon is sort of the Kathy Griffin of Wingnut Mean (tacky, foul-mouthed, ADD, mostly stupid), but without being the least bit funny.
I made the careless error of posting a negative review on Amazon of Alkon’s book, I See Rude People, after reading about her overwrought reaction to one negative review on Sadly, No!. You can read excerpts of Alkon’s book on Amazon and Google Books. Essentially, it contains bullying, mean-spirited solutions to everyday rude encounters including tracking down telemarketers (who are just doing their jobs) and calling them at home to complain, stalking senior citizens and their families like an episode of “Dragnet” in order to prosecute them for scratching your car in a parking lot; and confronting people whose conversations you overhear in public places and ridiculing them. Fun stuff like that.
Alkon isn’t as mean or vile as her big sister, Ann Coulter, but her “research” is similarly narrow. She defends her behavior with pseudo-science from contributors to “Psychology Today” and various disparate articles from other mean people. The whole thing is simply ridiculous and I should have known better than to publicly offer my two cents.
Her reaction to my negative review and participation in the comment thread at Sadly, No! was to (in typical mutt fashion) post links to Muttville (from Googling my name) on her blog, and decry me as a horrible person trying to ruin her book sales/career. She managed to complain loudly enough for Amazon to delete most of the negative reviews, including mine. Wow! I wish I had that kind of clout at Amazon. She must know someone.
Not to be defeated that easily, I posted another review that I’m sure will stick. Meanwhile, Alkon was so flustered with the criticism and ridicule she was getting from Sadly, No! she spent the last three days, pretty much around the clock, attacking, defending, whining, hand-wringing, making frantic phone calls, no doubt sending frantic emails, posting comments on Amazon, and stalking and “outing” every negative reviewer.
It’s deja vu all over again!
If you visit “The Advice Goddess” blog, you will find many, many bigoted, mean, irresponsible, judgmental, and snarky posts. What you won’t find is anything funny. How this woman is billed as “comedy” is beyond me.
Among other deplorable and ignorant opinions, Alkon presumes to judge, rather harshly and consistently, single mothers and, in particular, single minority mothers with multiple children. Now, if Alkon had ever raised a child, I would give her opinions slightly more credence. Here is a never-married, childless woman insisting that (based on the statistics that more criminals come from single-parent homes than not, which are valid facts but not the entire story) women of any age who have children out-of-wedlock are selfish and should be condemned.
It’s opinions like these that give me pause as to the real motives of both Coulter and Alkon. Why would they have such loathing for single mothers? It’s surprising that Coulter and Alkon managed to avoid unplanned pregnancies in nearly half a century of femalehood. Either they are extremely infertile, lucky, still virgins, or terminated one or more inconvenient little “crotch fruit” (as Alkon so colorfully describes babies). As far as I’m concerned, the multiparas Alkon and Coulter berate are no more promiscuous than the Mean Girls; they just have more evidence.
There are many important issues about which to be passionate, but the bizarre campaign to vilify single mothers seems strange coming from barren women. I also find it very mean-spirited, unfair, and in many ways preposterous.
But, I guess Mean is the new Black.
