'Portlandia Bookstore' Declares War on Portlandia

Portland store was made famous on the show
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 29, 2016 4:44 PM CDT
' Portlandia Bookstore' Declares War on Portlandia
This photo provided by IFC shows, Fred Armisen, right, as Candace and Carrie Brownstein, as Toni, in a scene from season 5 of the television series, "Portlandia."   (AP Photo/IFC, Augusta Quirk)

Portland's In Other Words bookstore is well known to Portlandia fans as the fictional Women and Women First bookstore featured in sketches on the show—but it's safe to say ties have been severed between the bookstore and the show, considering a sign that appears on the bookstore's door reading, "f--- Portlandia! Transmisogyny – Racism – Gentrification – Queer Antagonism – Devaluation of Feminist Discourse." The Willamette Week tried on Tuesday to get an explanation from the bookstore, and a representative at first offered an interview, but also asked (repeatedly) for the Week to post a link to an online fundraiser the bookstore is running. After the Week declined to guarantee a link would be posted (though one did, in fact, end up getting posted in the ensuing article), the bookstore took back its offer of an interview in no uncertain terms.

"After some consideration and research we've decided to officially tell the Willamette Weekly to go f--- themselves," read a message from the rep. "Your paper has absolutely zero journalistic professionalism and you are scummy rape apologists. Thanks for the opportunity tho! Have a great night." Then, Wednesday, a blog post went up on the bookstore's website explaining the "f--- Portlandia" sign. It was placed on the window, and the store's relationship with the show was formally discontinued, as "a direct response to a particular egregious filming of the show in our space which saw our store left a mess, our staff mistreated, our neighbors forced to close and lose business for a day without warning, and our repeated attempts to obtain accountability or resolution dismissed," the blog post reads. "It was also a direct response to a show which is in every way diametrically opposed to our politics and the vision of society we’re organizing to realize. A show which has had a net negative effect on our neighborhood and the city of Portland as a whole." There's a lot more where that came from, here. (More Portland stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X