“Fuck ‘Portlandia!’” Declares Real Portland Feminist Bookstore

One of “Portlandia”’s longest running sketches finds Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen playing characters named Toni and Candace, the owners of a feminist bookstore called Women and Women First. The segment has been shot at a real Portland nonprofit feminist bookstore called In Other Words. Following a particular messy shoot, however, the store’s staff have now disavowed “Portlandia” and discontinued their relationship with the show, as Stereogum points out.

A volunteer placed a sign in their window that reads “Fuck Portlandia!,” and they have chosen to leave it there. In a letter, they have written that the store was “left a mess, [their] staff mistreated, [their] neighbors forced to close and lose business for a day without warning, and [their] repeated attempts to obtain accountability or resolution dismissed.” In addition, In Other Words have clarified that allowing “Portlandia” to shoot has never made them a significant amount of money.

In distancing themselves from the IFC show, the In Others Words staff have criticized the show’s entire premise, as well as the Women and Women First sketch in particular. They wrote:

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.

The staff 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 “Portlandia” 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.”

The staff end with the clarification that neither they nor the current board and volunteers were involved in the decision to allow “Portlandia” to shoot at their location. They also say that they “fucking love the sign.” See it below, and read the full letter here.