Warning to all you mers on Tumblr out there: The purge has officially begun. My account just got flagged, and the only things I have on here are my own event photos (which are all family-friendly & fully clothed), and mermaid art (both classical and new, some of which has an LGBTQ focus- and may, at times, *gasp* in some cases feature kissing). So.. just as a heads-up, the whole Tumblog censorship hubub is a real thing. My hope was that in a page FULL of mermaids, it would be obvious what the space was about- that it was absent of pornographic or ANY kind of child-endangering content, n’ be subsequently left alone. But it appears that’s not the case. So now that we know mer art is going to be targeted (after all, “NEKKIT BEWBIES, ER MAH GURD!!”), I suggest we all get ready to either defend our posts (via disputing flagged content), participate in some kind of (peaceful, preferably meaningful & artful) protest, or just leave the platform all together. 'Cause this tells me that they're not only flagging classical art, they're also trying to eradicate LGBTQ content, and NONE of that is okay. Personally, I’m going to do all 3. Fight and dispute, while making preparations to move my space elsewhere. Where that’ll be I’m not sure yet, but if we loose, I want a place for my mermaid stuff to go, and the demigods at Tumblr better be aware, I’m taking my decently-well-known bellydance n’ other blogs w/me too, if I’m forced to leave.
And just for my personal 2 cents on the matter? Dear gods, not ALL of the internet has to be child friendly. XP Censorship like that happening on YouTube, Facebook & now Tumblr stifles creativity (look at channels like Glam&Gore, who can’t barely do SFX makeup anymore because she keeps getting demonetized), silences valuable artistic and minority voices, removes audiences for burgeoning creators (who, btw, may NOT be engaging in pornographic content in ANY way), and forces narrow-minded, puritanical standards of "decency" (which are by FAR the minority), over others' ability to operate successfully in that medium. This smothers decent, AWESOME things like art, science, expression and SO much more. XS See, it’s not about the p0rn. It’s about the CENSORSHIP. This is the internet. It was designed to dispense and SHARE information, ideas, inspiration, fun, etc. Not be a surrogate nanny for your kids. XS
ANNNNYWAY, if you want to read more about what is and is not allowed on Tumblr now, you can visit: https://tumblr.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/231885248. (And be sure to read to the bottom, where users can find out how to appeal post & entire blog flags under the last 2 questions.) And if you have a mermaid blog where ANY kind of toplessness is involved, note that "female presenting nipples" is distinctly mentioned, which, as I'm sure lots of you already know, directly impacts classical AND modern art- one of the few things on Tumblr that can be shared WITHOUT a copyright, as well as a TON of mermaid art, classical and otherwise. XP
What does this mean? Well.. in simple terms, it means that stuff like Botticelli and Picasso are no longer welcome on Tumblr. It means that Reubens, Waterhouse and Rodin, if they have artistic interpretations of naked women in their work, cannot be shared on Tumblr. Even though their works are featured in international museums of the highest callibur, lauded all over the world as legends of innovation, vision, unparalleled beauty, & precision, expression & creativity, and world-famed for their social and economic value. Those.. are not welcome here now, apparently. Meanwhile, images & videos stolen from present-day & other modern hard-working artists, photographers, cartoonists, writers and other creators from allll over the world arrre hunky-dory. XP DaFUQ, Tumblr??? (At -least- they mention mis-attribution & non-attribution on their new guidelines now. That at least, is an improvement. X*)
But now.. let’s see how that’s directly affected my blog, shall we..? ‘Cause, as I mentioned before, I figured surely since I didn’t actually have any pr0n on my pages, I & other mer pages should be safe, right? BZZZZZZZT, WRONG. After getting this e-mail (pictured above), I went through my whole blog and found the 4 posts that were "flagged" as having adult content. *rolls eyes*
3 of them were reblogs &1 was an original post.
2 of those posts were queer-positive modern art.
1 was a photographic collection of pieces FEATURED IN "W" MAGAZINE,
And the last is a piece of classical style, queer-positive art. XS
One of the modern pieces doesn't even show nipples, just saggy bewbies COVERED with small seashells.
The other modern-style piece was a Rackham style drawing, where the tatas are but a mere suggestion of simple lines and dots.
One was shown in a INTERNATIONAL FRICKING FASHION MAGAZINE SPREAD, which was apparently suitable for SOMEONES' interpretation of public consumption,
and the last only shows suggestions & curvatures of breasts! (Showing the side and outer portions of the female chest, with no nipples. XP)
-And WHY AM I HAVING TO JUSTIFY THIS???? THIS IS ART. THIS IS NOT P0RN. Again I say "WTF, Tumblr????" XS
As you can see, 3 of my posts were reblogs, so I had no means of disputing those posts. (According to their new guidelines, the owner of the original post has to do that, and if they are found as having “inappropriate content,” there’s no further means of appeal.) But one of them, one of the very first posts I ever made in this blog, was an original, so I was able to refute its being deemed as inappropriate. FIrst, you have to go through allll of your posts to find.. whatever it is someone’s had issue with. (Whether it’s a person who’s flagged it or something chosen by Tumblr’s algorithms/keyword alert systems, I have no idea.) But they don't even bother to link you in your notification e-mail, so first you’ve gotta FIND what’s being flagged before you can repeal it. (I didn’t even know what I was looking for at first. They never specify. Would it be a tiny new icon near the Edit and Share buttons at the bottom? A wee little flag pointer, outside of the post itself..? Do I got to my posted page n’ try to find it? Or will it be in my Posts stream, & the whole post be red..? Who knows?) But eventually, after enough scrolling, I found what I was looking for. A big red bar across the affected posts. -And if it’s a post you can do something about, they give you a button to push on the designated "flagged" work, at the top right. After you hit the "dispute" button, you’re given a largely blank page. In the center, you get to choose between Dispute, Cancel or Learn More. No “tell us why you feel this should not be flagged, why it doesn’t violate our rules,” nothing. Nowhere to speak your peace. You just hit a button, and you’re done. You get no say, other than “I object, your honor!” NOT COOL, people. NOT COOL. You clearly don’t wanna hear the voices of your content creators, or, at least, enough to allow them to speak for the work they felt appropriate enough to post..
Reading this from another media source? Please don’t discount this issue if you don’t personally have a Tumblog. It doesn't really matter whether you use tumble or not, whether you think it's lame or not, etc. The problem is much, much larger than that, and it’s growing. This is another very large, social media platform that's being affected by censorship in the name of marketing- and thus, be child-friendly. They want the whole family to be able to come and see all the ads they wanna put here, and without that, they don’t make their money. So anything not child-friendly, even vaguely PERCEIVED as not child-friendly (by God only knows whose standards), is being wiped out from the whole platform. Don’t believe me? It’s happened on YouTube, on Facebook, and likely, many others. Do some googling and check it out for yourself. YouTube is a platform that’s being strangled by this phenomenon right this very second. There are videos on it. Go see. Now. ‘Cause if we don’t educate ourselves about this n’ do something to fight it, what’s happening to YouTube is our future. Not just here on Tumblr, but EVERYWHERE.
Big Brother isn't just watching, guys, he's stealing your open arenas for personal and creative expression, so he can better market to you & yer kids. He wants EVERYONE to buy his Stuff. And if the kids can’t see it here, they won’t ask mommy and daddy to go get it for them. So out classical art, and LGBTQ content, and mermaids go. Out the door. (Meanwhile, who do kids love?? UM.. MERMAIDS. HELLO!!! What should be educating them about history and the arts? UMM.. FINE ART, HELLO. Who teaches them about tolerance and diversity and SO MUCH MORE? Umm.. THE LGBTQ community! Who teaches them about what human bodies look like, and that it’s okay to have ANY kind of body? UM.. BODY POSITIVE ART, THANK YOU.)
We need to put the kaibosh on this somehow, now. Not just for Tumblr, or Facebook, or YouTube. We've got to find SOME way of letting the Big Boys know this is not activity we will tolerate. 'Cause the places to freely express ourselves are going to continue to diminish, get scarcer, and fewer.. until they're all.. gone.
ART =/= PORN, YOU IGNORANT, PURITANICAL, MONEY-GRUBBING FISHTITS. LEARN TO POLICE YOUR OWN CHILDREN, MORE EFFECTIVELY POLICE GENUINE CRIMINALS, AND LEAVE THE REST OF THE INTERNET ALONE. Please.
