(no subject)

[semperfiona]

supergee linked to a Susie Bright essay the other day, in which she decries the use of NSFW tags, in part on the (unproven) grounds that they're used in a classist fashion: that if there's a picture of breasts in the New York Times it must be art and therefore SFW, but if there's a picture of breasts on her site it's porn and therefore automatically NSFW. For my part, if I put an NSFW warning ahead of a link, I don't pay any attention to the link's destination domain. If it's got nekkid pictures on the page I link to, it's NSFW; if it doesn't, it's SFW. I make no claims as to what you might find if you follow other links once you get to that site.

Also, I very rarely if ever tag words or text as NSFW. My take on it is that things that are visible from across the room are much more likely to be noticed by someone walking by; they'd have to be standing right behind me to read text over my shoulder, and by that time I know they're there. But I do get annoyed when people post "dirty words" in gargantuan fonts: then it moves into visible-from-across-the-room territory.

But none of that is what I actually wanted to talk about. What irked me most about the essay was a pervasive attitude that 'if your workplace has Teh Stupid about things you can view on the internet you should just get a new job'. I've seen this before with regard to other issues as well. Get a new job is always an option, certainly, but it is not necessarily the right option. Every job requires trade-offs.

For one person, being able to view anything they care to on the internet at work is the most important issue. For another, it might be being out about one's unconventional family structure. But for some of us, there are other things that come ahead of either of those. Keeping bread on the table and a roof over our heads. Satisfaction in the work itself. Resistance to change. Convenient location. No lapse in health insurance coverage. Tenure/seniority. Loyalty. Staying in one's hometown. Family obligations. Maybe even staying put in order to effect an end to Teh Stupid from the inside. (Assumptions that any or all of these apply to me may not be valid.)

I note that the above are also reasons one might choose to stay put in one's country even though it is currently suffering an epidemic of Teh Stupid.

Comments

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

I wasn't going to mention it, but since you wrote about it - I called her on some of her bullshit *politley and respecfull*, and when she gave a nonanswer and then started calling people who use NSFW tagging prudes, I told her she'd lost my respect. So (as far as I can tell) she banned me from commenting in her journal, and deleted the response I made from her comments.

Ironic, how she carps about free speech issues and how NSFW is censorship, and then *censors* someone from dissenting.

I could be wrong, and there might be another reason I'm unable to comment there, and that the second comment I made was deleted. But it's all rather suspicious.

[semperfiona]

Yeah, I had seen your comments to her post (or at least one of them; can't remember for sure now). Your comments were one of the things that started this rant percolating in my head.

[lightning-rose.livejournal.com]

I've read a lot of Susie's books, I have a lot of respect for Susie, heck, I even met her once, but on this issue she's completely out of touch with what it means to be an office droid in present day corporate Amerika.

Looking at her resume, she quite frankly has never worked anyplace where such things were a concern. And "vote with your feet", or "find another job" are more typically remarks from clueless conservatives.

Not everyone has the same standard of acceptibility

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I can see why someone working in an office environment might not, for instance, want big, uncut lots of pictures of vulvas to pop up on their monitor. The same goes, as you said, for large vulgar words. I also consider pictures of blood and guts to be unsafe for work, to tell you the truth. Sometimes Susie's not very Bright.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

Piffle. Two months ago I myself asked someone to put a photo from the NY Times behind a NSFW cut -- and it was merely of a porn star in see-through lingerie, smoking a cigarette between takes, nary a nipple in plain view.

"Just get a new job?" Really? What a git.

Teh Stupid

[bzero]

Oh, no. Sounds like Susie Bright may have caught a case of Teh Stupid as well. Hope it's temporary... I rather like her otherwise.

[scottak.livejournal.com]

Hmm, perhaps this is less of an issue about employers having teh stupid when it comes to internet access policies and more about employees having teh stupid and thinking that they get payed to do what they damn well please when they're on the clock. It's called work for a reason.

And yes, I am posting this comment from work. Being the de facto network admin has its perks.

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

but on this issue she's completely out of touch with what it means to be an office droid in present day corporate Amerika.

Agreed. 100%