facebook, tits, and all kinds of police (NSFW)

greeting comrades!!!
i’ve just landed in vancouver after two plus months of beautiful australia. i am adjusting to the cold.
vancouver is gorgeous. there will, almost definitely, be some ninja action next week involving me, jason webley, and some other special people…stay tuned to the twitter feed and if we find a big enough space, i’ll announce here on the blog as well (if it’s teeny, it’ll be announced via twitter only).

so, interesting thing.

yesterday i was sent this image via @barereality on twitter:

and i posted it to facebook and tumblr with the text:
no, not the Associated Foreign Press, silly.

and not the Agence France-Presse.

Amanda Fucking Palmer has a collection brave of naked feminist activists protesting oppression ALL OVER THE WORLDS.

and my collection is secretly growing.

source: bit.ly/1dOOLlG

(via @barereality on twitter, thanks gal)

further reading on Amina Tyler: bit.ly/1nJqosJ

i did my research first. i always try to do that, especially with an image like this. so i know what i’m posting.
i asked the twitterer who sent it to me if she had a source link, and she hit me back with it. (i do this so i can credit the source/photographer, it’s just good web etiquette, when possible.)

i then did some research on amina tyler, the woman in the photo. it’s all fascinating stuff – she used to be associated with the radical feminist protest group FEMEN
until she broke away from them and spoke out against them. FEMEN is totally controversial and i’ve been following the controversy for ages.
if you want to know more…just do a google, there are too many articles and arguments to link here.

so, no drama.

then facebook removed the photo (which i supposed i should have expected, but being new to facebook i keep forgetting about the nudity rules).

the discussion my post had already sparked was really good, and sean pointed out that it was a real shame that we had to close down the discussion, so i suggested that he post up the same image with some censored bars over the tits and vadge so that the discussion could continue.
which we did.

then someone posted this reply:
“It is really disappointing that you continue to blindly support this in a well-intentioned but ignorantly misguided attempt to ‘empower’. I won’t bother writing up a rant that chances are, nobody will read, but I implore you all to look into FEMEN and their criticisms [which are many], namely the fact that they are backed by some rich dude who deliberately hires ‘attractive women’ in order to run around nude in the guise of ‘social liberty’ when it’s just part of his scheme to sell papers.

Beyond that, FEMEN speaks over the voices of women in the Middle East who are themselves fighting for their own liberation, and have actively spoken out against FEMEN for both speaking over them, disrespecting them, and for pursuing justice in all the wrong ways, on top of the fact that FEMEN is an organization that believes clothes = bad, including those who willingly chose to cover themselves up, as opposed to the more important ideal that is the CHOICE to choose for yourself how you wish to dress and carry yourself.

Ahmina Tyler herself has distanced herself from FEMEN for these very reasons, and continuing to support this group accomplishes nothing but the complete opposite of what it is you are trying to support here. Yes, this is a massive issue that NEEDS attention, but FEMEN. the white Eurocentric racist organization funded by a playboy, is the most counter-productive force out there, especially when it comes to those who are being silencing in the Middle East due to their ignorant ‘sextremism’.”

this post confused me for a few reasons (not the least of which was the last picture…this IS a picture of amina tyler, a recent one).

…but here was my response:
(and if any of you are facebook users, i’d love you to weigh in on this topic)

heya
thank you for writing this.
it brings up an important facet of facebook that i’ve been finding totally weird: and it’s a question i’d love a real answer to (honest).

i’ve been discussing with various more facebook-savvy people and trying to figure it out. it is this: what exactly about posting this image, and adding my own funny, sarcastic text, constitutes BLIND SUPPORT…of any cause? i noticed this happen when i simply shared a few articles about the woody allen brouhaha. it seems (and this scared the shit out of me) that simply by SHARING INFORMATION, i was somehow aligning myself with one “side” or another, when absolutely nothing could be further from the truth. in my experience of the internet, i don’t align myself with any side until i state it myself in my own words, add my own one-sided op-ed. i know about FEMEN, and i’ve followed the controversies.

here’s the more important question…
if i post an photo from the new york times that concerns an arson attack on a house in queens, does that mean i blindly support arson?
if i post a photo of a politician holding a vibrator: does that mean i blindly support the politician? hate the politician? blindly support vibrators?
HATE VIBRATORS??

(and while we’re on topic, let me set the record straight: i do not hate vibrators. i will go on record HERE saying I LOVE VIBRATORS. and i generally don’t hate ANYTHING. i kind of hate hate.)

the world and the way it works really interests me. i love this crazy joint and i love sharing the things happening in it.
but please, give me some credit. unless i post MY OWN TEXT, saying:
“ANNOUNCEMENT, I BLINDLY SUPPORT THE RADICAL FEMINIST PROTEST GROUP FEMEN AND YOU SHOULD TO!”

…don’t assume, or add, anything assumed op-ed to my posts.

to me there is a BIG difference between

“THIS IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD”

and

“I BLINDLY SUPPORT THIS”

(and then there’s “I TAKE THIS PICTURE AND MAKE LEETLE JOKE”)

i think one of the biggest problems on the net right now – and it creates an environment of real FEAR – is that people aren’t distinguishing between these things, as if our critical thinking skills have been hammered back into a one-to-two-dimensional black-and-white reality…and this is a huge shame…the net should be launching us into four dimensions! and making everything more colorful, bigger, deeper, better…not shallower and scarier.

i wonder how much of this is a facebook thing, and since i’m new to the ins-and-outs of posting here, please help me learn. if everyone here on facebook that sharing an image/article INHERENTLY CONSTITUTES SUPPORT OF THAT THING, then i’ve been making some big mistakes. so for real, help me out here.

xx
AFP