Of course you are correct. Multiple interpretations are possible. Activism is an issue close to the hearts of more than a few of us here.
But please allow me to bring up the issue of activism from another angle. The issue of women and photography is truly important to me because of who uses my photos. Some of my photos are used by feminist organizations in conservative societies as they fight for the human rights of women. Groups run by women that work in Afghanistan, India and the Middle East.
In such contexts it is extremely important that my photographic work is not associated with the sexualization of women. The worst case scenario would be that the organization be accused of associating with Western sexual decadence and local people being killed for the work they do or have benefited from. Not likely, but it is possible. Afghanistan and parts of the Middle East and South Asia are extremely conservative. Women are killed for violating patriarchal norms. Few patriarchal norms are as potent as those concerning female sexuality. And mere photos can and do get women killed.
Keeping this potential for violence in mind, it should be clear why I do not publish photos of sexualized women. The only exception for me is where my photo contains a photo by someone else and my photo is of a documentary purpose e.g. this or this. I have nothing against most sexually suggestive or explicit photos, and certainly not nudity in general. But I cannot have my own work associated with them, and I’m fine with that.
Therefore if someone wrongly accuses me of taking photos that sexualize women, that is potentially quite damaging to more than just me. I do not respect those who casually throw around such accusations, and I question if they have taken the time to think through the implications of their accusations to anyone other than themselves.
Pardon my impertinence, being a newbie baby (aged 75) here, but I sense we are seeing a heated exchange among young people who follow the ancient tradition of taking things seriously that are not all that weighty.
I gather the contention is that a moderator deleted some pictures. I missed the pictures, so it would be impolite for me to opine on them. (How can I find them?)
If the pictures were offensive, perhaps portraying cruelty, they ought to be removed, or replaced with links to another site. Persons with degraded tastes can find such things elsewhere, or form their own forums.
Elle, I hope you are reading this. Your views are welcome. Do not leave. Just don’t. Don’t argue.
Bob
It is important to realize how damaging mere statements online can be to an individual. We need to make a point out of reminding outselves of that and not word statements that can accuse someone of questionable behavior, unless we are 100% sure this is the case …and even then, perhaps consider that some things are better left unsaid.
This reminds me of the words of my friend Patrick (not from this forum), who is rather paranoid in nature, yet has some good points. He said how he is so glad that when we grew up, we had no social media, or permanent internet trace of everything we do or say, and the times we messed up remain undocumented, whereas nowadays kids may end up forever haunted by some childish actions, that they’d rather leave behind and forgotten, but are ultimately unfortunately forever documented in the inerasable internet history.
Long story short, as kids we quickly learn that the things we say in public, out loud (say in school), are things that bias the way we are seen by society; and the things we say about others, rumors and such, can affect them and us in powerful ways. The internet is a loud speaker that extends our platform of listeners to the global scale. It is important what we say and how we say it, and we do have to think hard before we say things that have grave impact. It is relevant, but it is not reason enough, being right about something, to tell someone off, or put them down. Sometimes negative repercussions are reason enough to forfeit our right to seek this justice.
I realize I sound like someone lecturing you fine people on how you ought to speak to one another, and I do not think it is my place to lecture anyone on most anything; but I did take the liberty to think out loud, and I do hope it comes across as what it is; namely thoughts of worry for the well being of this forum, which I value a lot, which come from a desire to see it continue to thrive. Justice is a tricky thing; because it tends to be black and white - the guilty justly deserves to be told off and ‘punished’ (to an extent or another); but there is a thing to be said about the whole “an eye for an eye makes the” forum blind
