My journal. Thus, my rules.

[hwango]

A user commented on my 2/23 entry ("Now With More Sodium!") with an icon featuring a picture of a woman who is mostly metallic except for her face and her exposed breasts. I feel that nudity can have a place in art, but I didn't care for this particular image, and found it offensive. Rather than try to show the beauty of the human form (to my mind, an acceptable use of nudity in art), this image seemed to me to focus too much on her breasts. If it was saying anything at all, it seemed to say "Even though I look like a machine, I'm still a woman because I have breasts." I think that much of our culture judges women more by their breast size than their minds, and I felt that this image reinforced that situation.

I don't really want naked people showing up on my comments page regardless of whether the images are "artistic." However, I particularly disliked this image. I considered simply deleting the comment, but that didn't feel right. I don't think it's actually censorship, since this is my forum and not theirs. I should get to decide what is and is not appropriate. Still, it seemed to dance on the line of being censorship. Seeking another solution, I decided to appeal to the user.

So...I'm not sure how to say this in the most diplomatic way, so I'll just be blunt - if you comment in the future, could you please not use an icon featuring nudity? That's not something I want to see when I look at my comments page.

Alas, they replied using that same icon (and yes, they do have others), and with the message:

this is art by a famous artist. so sorry you are so close minded. never fear I will take you off my friends list.

I could have done without your rude comment it had nothing to do with parsley.

That bit about the parsley refers to the fact that I failed to update the subject of my reply, so it still said "Re: parsley projects" Anyway, I can't say that I was very surprised by her reply, but I was disappointed. I don't care if the picture is by a famous artist, I don't want to see it on my comments page. That's all I asked. I don't feel that my comment was particularly rude, either.

This whole incident has left me rather annoyed. I don't know why I felt that I needed to defend myself on this issue. It's my journal, and I shouldn't have to make allowances for things that I don't want here. Perhaps I'll go back and delete the comments after all. I haven't decided, yet.

Comments

[nektar.livejournal.com]

i took a look at the icon myself. i do love nudity in art, but i dont really find that particular picture/drawing/rendering 'artistic' - i guess i much prefer renoir or michaelangelo to that sort of thing. likely, i would have said some sarcastic remark and asked that i not see the madonna'like image again.

indeed it is your journal and your "rules" - the close minded aspect referred to seems more hypocritical than anything else as they didn't hesitate to be offended and say 'fine, i'll remove you from my list, then'

sigh.
people. i tell ya.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought it was a bit hypocritical of her to call me closed-minded and then not to hear out my side of things before exiting the discussion. Oh, well.

[sheepywonder.livejournal.com]

You make me feel as if I should mitigate the harsh with a few meaningful, succinctly poignant icons of my own.

But I don't really have any ideas in that area.

It's the thought that counts, right?

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Indeed, it is the thought that counts. That's why I spend so much time trying to pull the moon out of orbit with my mind.

[lconover.livejournal.com]

I think of LiveJournal sort of like a neighborhood - nice houses with interesting people live there, and they invite you over to stand around on their front porch and discuss things.

However, if in real life, a person visited you at random, and started saying or doing things that made you uncomfortable - well, you'd probably feel no qualms about asking them to leave. Same thing here. A respectable sort of person would respect your views, your comfort zone, and not push you too hard on certain issues with which you have fundamental disagreements.

I've left some LJ communities because people persisted in posting lewd photos as their avatars - not just because it offended me (it occasionally did) but because it made such writings unsafe to view in certain environments. Things that might be okay within one's own home are not okay in a public park. I just wish that some posters would respect that.

I tend to think that what was truly 'closed minded' was their insistence that everyone should view and apparently must enjoy their avatar simply because it is by a 'famous artist'. Sheesh!

[hwango.livejournal.com]

I like the analogy and your reasoning. I should put up a sign on my virtual front lawn that says "No shirt, no shoes, no comments."

I had a similar problem to the one you had with communities - I cut someone from my friends page a month or so ago. She had turned almost all of her icons into things with nudity in them and often posted entries that gave out WAY too much information about her sex life. I felt kind of bad about that, too, but it made me really uncomfortable to have it all show up on my friends page.

[krzzl.livejournal.com]

This is something I've been struggling with as I learn LJ etiquette. I guess I'm still attached to the idea of it being more like a personal homepage in the sense that I have control over what I put there, and even though people can comment, my LJ is mine.

I've found that I much prefer my friends who are kind enough to put non-work safe content behind cut tags labeled as such. For people who post offensive things that are not work safe, I use custom friend groups or take them off my friends list, depending on who it is, how offensive they are and how well I know them etc.

I've been thinking about putting in a suggestion to hide icons in individual comments rather than delete them. It's definitely on my to-do list now though.

[octophobic.livejournal.com]

This is taken directly from Livejournal's FAQ.

You were right to complain:

"Are there content restrictions for user pictures? Can my user pictures show anything I want?
Your default user picture is viewable throughout the LiveJournal site, and unlike individual journal entries, it cannot be hidden. It is potentially available to anyone on the Internet. Therefore, we require that your default user picture be considered decent and not contain anything too graphic. Because decency is tough to define, this is generally taken on a case-by-case basis. In general, this means no graphics depicting anything sexual or violent.

Your other user pictures can be slightly more graphic, as long as you do not use them in journals where it would be considered inappropriate. This, too, is taken on a case-by-case basis. If you have any questions as to whether or not your user pictures are acceptable, please contact the Abuse Team by following the contact instructions at http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=105."

If this was that person's default icon then it was clearly an abuse.

If it was just one of their stored icons then it's slightly more iffy. I think full frontal is more than "slightly more graphic" but cartoon images do seem to bypass most decency laws. Just go to Suncoast and check out their Anime / Hentai collection. You'll see stuff in there that would also be at home in the hard core porn closet hidden in the back of most video rental stores.

It's nice though that you always have the right to delete whatever posts you want.

This isn't some sort of journal democracy. ;) You shouldn't let other people disrupt your ability to get your thoughts out.