The other day I logged into my Blogger account, from which I write this very blog right
here, and lo, I was dismayed. There was a notification splayed across the top of my screen, its ample dimensions beckoning me to read its heaving message. And its message was, alas, that I and others could no longer show pornographic images on Blogger blogs!
As you'd expect, this story exploded all over the free world. The clarion call went out: Google, which owns Blogger, was suppressing freedom of expression! Sexuality is such a fundamental part of people's identities, is it not, that this really became about expressing ourselves and our individuality. How can anyone know who he is unless he's posting naked pictures of other people? And this is pure self-expression, since pornography for personal gain has never been allowed by Google.
Suffice to say, we in the using-sex-trade-to-express-addictive-sins community were concerned. Thankfully, Google heard our call.
They acknowledged the "the negative impact this could have on individuals who post sexually explicit content to express their identities." Thank Priapus that Google has seen the light: denying certain people the ability to share sexually explicit images, many of them obtained coercively, would impact them negatively. You wouldn't want to make us sad by denying us the right to share sad pictures of sad people, would you?
Now, I will admit that there one small fly in lubricant. Although we porn purveyors on Blogger are strictly amateurs, since this is a means of expression we want lots of people to look at our blogs. We don't want to be hidden behind an adult content warning. We don't choose to close our blogs off to potential viewers, just like our brothers at Tumblr. This is natural. It is how we express ourselves. But if Google says we must drape a cheesecloth over our privates, so be it.
In a way, this problem is self-policing. Blogger has provided an easy-to-use porn-reporting button. Here's a picture of it:
here, and lo, I was dismayed. There was a notification splayed across the top of my screen, its ample dimensions beckoning me to read its heaving message. And its message was, alas, that I and others could no longer show pornographic images on Blogger blogs!
As you'd expect, this story exploded all over the free world. The clarion call went out: Google, which owns Blogger, was suppressing freedom of expression! Sexuality is such a fundamental part of people's identities, is it not, that this really became about expressing ourselves and our individuality. How can anyone know who he is unless he's posting naked pictures of other people? And this is pure self-expression, since pornography for personal gain has never been allowed by Google.
Another blogger, Carin McLeoud, said, “google’s email about adult content on blogger treats adult content as though it harms people and nothing comes from it.”I know, right? How can Google possibly think that porn harms people and that nothing good comes from it? Or wait...the phrasing's unclear. Maybe McLeoud means that it does harm people, but that it doesn't go past that. Hard to tell with porn bloggers, 'cause we're such visual people. Written expression is not our forte!
Suffice to say, we in the using-sex-trade-to-express-addictive-sins community were concerned. Thankfully, Google heard our call.
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| Click for larger image, sexy papa. |
Now, I will admit that there one small fly in lubricant. Although we porn purveyors on Blogger are strictly amateurs, since this is a means of expression we want lots of people to look at our blogs. We don't want to be hidden behind an adult content warning. We don't choose to close our blogs off to potential viewers, just like our brothers at Tumblr. This is natural. It is how we express ourselves. But if Google says we must drape a cheesecloth over our privates, so be it.
In a way, this problem is self-policing. Blogger has provided an easy-to-use porn-reporting button. Here's a picture of it:
If Blogger continues to support our community with effective tools such as the one above, I am confident that the pornographically-expressive community of Blogger will continue to flourish. Thanks Google!
And I guess now I'm not going to need that new Tumblr account.
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