Say what?

[spudtater]

Edit: Originally posted on Livejournal

If anybody's wondering why my default icon is currently a suckling baby, it is because of this:

LJ considers breastfeeding "inappropriate", threatens to suspend user's journal

See me Fight Teh Power.

Comments

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

No way. Freedom of expression should come over what others "think is appropriate". This icon was made by somebody who is fighting the stigma of public breastfeeding, and good on her for doing so.¹ And sod the people who might be offended. They can bugger off.

After all, some people are offended by rainbow flags and pink triangles, but you'd waste no time telling them where they could shove their protests, I'll assume.

Of course, there are laws of decency in any culture. But American law holds that breastfeeding is acceptable in all places, regardless of what the people around you might think.² Breastfeeding is not obscene, no matter how much of the breast is exposed. So as an American country, LJ can't claim it's "just complying with the law".

Of course, LJ has the right to enforce its own standards; it doesn't have to allow something just because it's legal. But without rigorously upholding the free speech of its users, LJ wouldn't have the community that it has; people who can comfortably share their own opinions with their friends and with communities of like-minded people.³. If LJ censored things that made them uncomfortable, they'd be... I dunno, AOL.

If this were just smut, then you would have a point. But breastfeeding is not sex, and those who confuse the two are very disturbed people.

[1] Even if she is a 'boob nazi'.

[2] Well, presumably not when you're driving a car. But apart from that.   8^)

[3] As far as I know, the creator of the icon is not a troll and does not use this icon for taunting people who disagree with her. The complaint made about this icon was not the text, but the fact that it shows a 'naked' breast. (And by somebody trying to prove a point, no less.)

[dsky.livejournal.com]

"So as an American country, LJ can't claim it's "just complying with the law"."


LJ's a country now? O.o

Typos aside. I agree with you, generally.

I think that LJ is not worried about the EVIL BREASTFEEDERS (which is how it is being painted) but more about companies with a zero tolerance policy to downloading porn at work riffling though users' web history and disciplining them for looking at breasts.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

I claim this post for LJania!

Yeah, that may well be the reasoning. But it's a wuss-out. Companies should not be disciplining people for a single 100x100 pixel picture of a breastfeeding mother. They're in the wrong, not people with a good reason for having breastfeeding in their default icon. (Such as, you know, members of a pro-breastfeeding community).

The very point of the icon is to show off with pride the natural function of the breast, in order to challege public perception of breastfeeding as somehow 'dirty'. A high-profile case between a company and its employee would be a brilliant outcome for the boob_nazis. (Umm, assuming the company loses.)

In the end, LJ has to make the choice. Does it want to lose users who are at work all the time, or does it want to lose feminists and free speech fanatics? Which would be best for the company? I'm doing my small bit to (hopefully) persuade them that they want to come down against censorship, not for it.

[xenophanean.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm... I will admit that you've swayed me with the freedom of speech argument. I'm sure that there are many things on LJ which I or my friends (one in particular comes to mind) might say that others on LJ would prefer banned. I would prefer it if such discussions continue to be allowed, and be pretty annoyed if they weren't.

As to your last point: no, breastfeeding isn't smut (by any normal definition), but it could be regarded as something icky. I find it mildly so. If someone repeatedly posted pictures of it at me in order to cause offense, I'd complain. However, I'd want rid of the user, rather than the pictures in general.

If a significant part of the community was throwing such pictures around in order to upset another part, then I'd think banning the pictures was appropriate (Doesn't apply if they're just making a statement).

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

> However, I'd want rid of the user, rather than the pictures in general.

Precisely. It's people's behaviour we should care about, not whether their icon shows a few millimeters of areola.