I’m trying to calm down enough to get some of this out, but it’s difficult. I’m angry. And while I’m angry for a whole lot of reasons, the one big one that stands out is the one Tumblr and Apple would really like us to ignore.
Both Apple and Tumblr are more comfortable with violence than sex. It sounds simple, but the truth is more terrifying.
They are explicitly saying that they find a GIF of someone being decapitated less offensive than the nipple of a woman.
Tumblr and Apple are saying that they are more comfortable with images of swastikas (an image which unequivocally advocates genocide) than they are with a naked human body.
Let that sink it. It’s not a fluke or a meaningless and unrelated result of a content policy change. It’s what they firmly believe.
When someone tells you their values, you should believe them.
Tumblr and Apple (and most other US companies to be sure) believe that mass murder, serial killings, rape, eye gouging, strangling, mutilation, child abuse, and a thousand other graphic images, videos, and GIFS are more acceptable to them than a nipple.
When we culturally decide that violence is more acceptable than sex, then we create a culture which is more acceptance of violence than it is sex. Which means that more people will die because that is exactly what happens when you suppress sexuality and glorify violence.
And Tumblr and Apple know this and they do not care.
When someone tells you their values, you should believe them.
When someone tells you their values, you should believe them.
Look, I know Apple and Tumblr and everybody else says they don't like violence either. They have policies that are just as vague as their adult ones. But just imagine for a second that they were as strictly enforced.
Seriously. What's the violence equivalent of a female-presenting nipple? A pie in the face? Slipping on a banana? Falling down stairs?
If they treated sex like they do violence they'd be like, "we're against sex, so you can only show single fisting not double fisting. That's going too far!"
Try to imagine a world where we were more comfortable using sexual metaphors than violent/war based metaphors.
