#nickrant

TEXT POST! Maybe don’t scroll through this one though - and I’m SO SORRY for those scrolling on their phones for the slab of text interrupting your porn, if that’s what you’re here for. I love you. I’d love it if you’d read this one… It’s about all of us here on this place. Because websites are “places” kinda, and social networks are kinda real in ways this 80′s kid couldn’t have conceived. And because in ten days you won’t be able to browse for porn here and that’s stupid. 

In my OTHER online life I’m prone to #rants and they just organically emerge these days. This one is about porn. Yep, that thing that most human beings in this day and age consume in one form or MANY others for all sorts of reasons. That thing which we CANNOT AND MUST NEVER TALK ABOUT… for SOME reason.

For Those Blissfully Unaware: Tumblr is, as of December 17th (the day AFTER my Birthday, dammit), arbitrarily BANNING and then REMOVING ALL “explicit” content from the site.  And in single person TMI news… I wasn’t too bothered by this impending porn ban because over the years I, and I’m sure most of we, have all gone through many different platforms and sources for things like… that. (is that TMI? or have I just admitted that I’m a human being? Let all keep our heads people)

But then I read THIS article, which highlights the ludicrous manner in which they are going about the process. And then I read ANOTHER article which highlighted how damaging and regressive the move is for, well, everyone. And then I thought to myself, heck, the LGBTQI, the marginalised and oppressed, the questioning and uncertain… they BUILT and MADE Tumblr what it is today. And today (for the next 10 days) it is a safe place for ANYONE consenting (they have had explicit content and blogs flagged without being blocked previously) to explore themselves.

This is worse than Melissa George disavowing Home and Away, because Tumblr, being built by the fringe and marginalised, actually HELPS people (Melissa George was just blonde and pretty and good actor needing opportunity who then decided her French bulldog and croissants in Paris made her better than her roots - no help for anyone there except her dog IMO). 

But in 10 days a “female-presenting nipple” will be a bridge too far and will be banned, unavailable, removed - except if it is “medically” useful or important. Apparently they’re breastfeeding-positive. Yay team. So AGAIN women’s bodies are reduced to their “primary functions” and further, queer bodies, other bodies, new and undreamed of personages and existences, are hidden, are denied visibility. They are made to be shameful or unworthy by dint of their being INVISIBLE. And it’s not just body parts, it’s attitudes, poses, suggestions… all incredibly arbitrary, unscientific, and SUBJECTIVE. Humanity, we’ve been there. It’s not fun. 

At the same time, AND THIS IS THE KEY, READERS, Nazi blogs, White Power blogs, any other hate speech blogs… they’re all fine (one wonders about those BIZARRE BDSM and gay Nazi blogs which, hopefully, SURELY, will also be banned).

THE HYPOCRISY IN A NUTSHELL:

Tumblr wants to make their platform SAFE FOR CHILDREN so they are removing “female-presenting nipples” and pictures of men kissing (and male models, and Garfield, and cartoons…) BUT leaving swastikas, Confederate flags, Hitler-love, lynchings and guns (sorry Americans, I truly love you but I’m an Aussie so guns get caught up in the hypocrisy for me when it comes to “child safety”)

Lady Nipple = BAD
Sexy Man = BAD
White Power = TICK

I’m (seriously) no social justice Warrior (apparently that would mean “leftist”), but I believe in social justice (apparently that would mean “liberal”? Or would it be “centrist?” Fuck it, I don’t care, I want my citizens, wherever they are, ALIVE and SAFE), and I agree with the fundamental principle espoused by Marian Wright Edelman that “you can’t be what you can’t see.”

Some of my Facebook connections are suddenly worried and concerned by the “tide” of trans* people in the media, or even just LGBTQI people. News Flash: it’s because you can’t be what you can’t see.

Ten years ago, as a gay man, I couldn’t see myself in many places except as an outrageous caricature, or as a tragic stereotype doomed to die by my own hand or others, or to “decide” to be straight and satisfy the status quo. But I saw myself in enough places to (eventually) fight through the stigma and social rejection and bullying to accept myself as I AM. Many, many queer folks are still going through this because despite our achievements we’re still not there. I was damn lucky.

Trans* people are really only barely beginning this process. We’re really only beginning to see trans* people on TV and film, and only barely beginning to see them as themselves and not as stereotypes.

So Tumblr is basically shooting it’s core client base in the FACE and expecting to continue on, business as usual. And corporate Earth being what it is, they’ll probably somehow survive. But they will be a pale remnant of what they were if they do. I hope fervently that the desertion in droves of users causes them to fail totally and collapse. Free market bullshit and all that.

OR…

novel idea…

…change your mind. Politicians, corporate juggernauts, men, HR Managers, cats, all find it very hard to do this simple thing which is CHANGING ONE’S MIND. In another life I would drop the wisdom that changing your mind is the true essence of MAGIC. Refusing to change one’s mind is a rejection of the covenant we enter into when we a born into this world - to live in it, to experience it, and to learn from it. The last one is the one we need to focus on. Not changing is not learning. 

THANK YOU for reading all of this (if you actually have!). 

As an addendum to this rant, out of curiosity I went to check how many followers my Tumblr has - yeah I’ve never really worried about that before. I have over 2,500 followers! That’s 2,500 people I’ve been sharing with that I don’t even know. And yet I you’re all awesome and marvelous, and you all deserve to be able to see and share what makes you happy. If you’ve actually read all of this #nickrant I applaud you and thank you. Now I’m REALLY angry.