Looks like humor, funny ha ha, is officially over…when it comes to anything queer these days! The notorious sketch comedy show Portlandia has recently been blasted for their popular bit Women And Women First– a depiction of a fictional feminist bookstore run by characters Candace (Fred Armisen) and Toni (Carrie Brownstein). Staff members at the actual store where the show is filmed, In Other Words, are no longer LOL…and have banned the production from shooting there, saying on their website that recently, after the Portlandia crew finished for the day, the store was “left a mess, staff mistreated, neighbors forced to close and lose business for a day without warning, and repeated attempts to obtain accountability or resolution dismissed.”
Michael Stewart, a volunteer at the store, also posted the sign below in the store window, and took to Twitter to voice his opinion and outrage over the situation…accusing Portlandia of trans-misogyny, racism, gentrification, queer antagonism and devaluation of feminist discourse…OUCH!!!
"In Other Words" bookstore to Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armise: "Fuck Portlandia" https://t.co/EBlvyhK794 pic.twitter.com/5RKmTM2bpD
— Michael Stewart (@m_r_stewart) September 29, 2016
Oh…and there’s more! The store and current board members also claims that they never agreed to let Portlandia shoot at there…and they consider the entire show “offensive…and a deeply shitty joke!”
“The Women and Women First segments that are filmed at In Other Words are trans-antagonistic and trans-misogynist and have only become more offensive as the show goes on. ‘LOL Fred Armisen in a wig and a dress’ is a deeply shitty joke whose sole punchline throws trans femmes under the bus by holding up their gender presentation for mockery and ridicule. In a world where trans femmes – particularly Black trans women – are being brutalized and murdered on a regular basis for simply daring to exist, dude in a dress jokes are lazy, reactionary, and actively harmful. They’re also just straight up not funny.”
They have also said that the show paints an inaccurate picture of the city because “there are no black people on Portlandia.” The store, which hosts Black Lives Matter Portland meetings, say that the show has contributed to the city’s gentrification, “displacing the communities that made Portland a great place in the first place something twee and whimsical for the incoming technocrat hordes.”
Stream Portlandia, Season 6 on Netflix
