#hyppocrates

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The body-positive and sex-positive community that meets on Tumblr may make up one the most important (and delightful) corners of the Internet. It is the place I most want to visit when I’m feeling sad: the beauty, intelligence and acceptance displayed in these blogs restore my sense of hope. Good things everywhere seem to be under attack these days and I know that some visitors come here to inflict harm. Other people are rude or thoughtless, but regardless of intent, the cumulative negativity dims the sunshine this part of Tumblr brings to the world. I don’t want to be a cloud on the horizon so I’m making this promise, which I hope addresses most of the concerns I hear from bloggers. Since I originally set out for this place to talk about the history of sexuality, I’ve looked back in time for a suitable model. Please let me know if I’ve missed something vital in my application for citizenship.

My “Adult” Tumblr oath, in the style of Hippocrates, to do no harm:

I swear by Aphrodite, goddess of pleasure, beauty and love and patroness of sex workers; by Eros, god of attraction and desire; and by Erato, muse of lusty and romantic poets (and by all the multicultural gods, goddesses and spiritual entities of similar character) as my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my best ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture.

That I will show love and respect to people of all abilities, heritages, sizes, orientations and gender identities.
That I will speak out against bullying and attempts to cause pain.
That I will remember the difference between equity and equality and not use my privilege to ignore, deny or judge the experiences of another person.
That I will not follow bloggers who sanction the racism, sexism and anti-LGBT prejudices of the current American president.
That I will strive to find beauty beyond the constraints and expectations of my culture.
That I will respect the autonomy of people to make decisions about how they look and the work they do and not provide unsolicited advice.
That I will not shame someone for being more or less sexually adventurous than me.
That I will abide by requests attached to images posted by creators and maintain their credits.
That I will make a reasonable attempt to identify the source of content which is not credited and follow through on requests from copyright holders to remove items not in the public domain.
That I will not use the work of other creators to promote my blog or my business interests.
That I will not pass along sexual content which appears to have been stolen or posted with malicious intent, including “doxing” and revenge porn.
That I will do nothing to perpetuate the scourge of porn bots.
That I will take a moment to ensure comments I’m about to add are kind, smart and appreciative.
That I will not submit sexual content to anyone without clear consent nor use an explicit picture as my avatar.
That I will respect pronoun preferences and acknowledge and correct any errors I may make.
That I will mark my blog as being for adults and prevent anyone I know to be underage from following it.
That I will try not to act like a creep or a jerk.

Now if I carry out this oath, and break it not, may I gain forever reputation among all people for my blog and my comments, but if I transgress it and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me.

Sworn on the 1st day of October, 2017

(Photograph of Cypriot Aphrodite statue, Creative Commons CC0.)

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