Jan

6

Some s**t just makes me angry!

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Filed Under News | By Linda Hunter | 1 Comment

In fact there’s a lot that makes me angry enough to scream, throw the closest object I can get my hands on or want to punch a hole in the nearest wall.  But I’ve learned the last one hurts longer than the satisfying release of emotion it brings, so after enough pain (physical and emotional)  and cleaning up the messes (of all sorts) afterwards, I found I could use some of that same energy to write whatever and however I want. (I save that for a journal mostly, not the blog.) Physical and emotional release and no crap to clean up.  Eureka!

And that works most of the time.  But when I read about some of the stupid cards (and more than a few fit that classification) available on the Etsy website, my first reaction was to literally shout obscenities. (I was alone thankfully and didn’t have to monitor my mouth at work.)

You may have heard about them.  If not, wonderful. At this point, I’ll just say that one is titled, “Congratulations. You got bad touched!”  The person selling the card chooses to be identified as “youstupidbitch” (not a bad choice I think) and includes this pitch to grab buyers: “Get creeped on, go through a heavy pat down at the airport, go through a colonoscopy and embarrassed? Know someone that has? Then this card could be for them.”

Not a word about sexual assault.  But the graphic is a drawing of a naked woman huddled in a shower.  Maybe it’s just survivors and those who work in the sexual assault field who would see the graphic and think “sexual assault.”  Don’t know.

After my initial reaction I thought, “We (TAASA) need to draw attention to this stuff. It’s just wrong, hurtful, disgusting, on and on.   We can put it on Facebook.  Get people to mount a campaign to stop it from being sold.”  I’d seen others taking action on the issue.

Then came the question I often ask after my initial gut reaction to something I find offensive or outright hurtful.  Is drawing more attention to (fill in the blank with latest issue) the best action here?  Or will that serve to increase attention and sales? Is this an issue or policy or trend where we advocate for change?   Not simple questions to answer.

Of course getting more information helps make the decision, but usually isn’t my first response.  Thank you to Narissa Johnson for a tweet leading to more questions about the whole card drama.

You can draw your own conclusions from those bits of info.  I thought “Wow, only four cards sold.” Thankfully, I am surprised. I wonder about the total of views. Maybe most of them were sexual assault advocates/activists checking out the offensive cards. I do know if I were the seller, I probably wouldn’t put any more effort into similar cards.

If you decide that taking action to remove the card from the Etsy site is the best choice, you can sign a petition at Change.org.  If you decide to contact the seller (who says s/he has received several thousand angry emails about the card), you can add to the list, though it looks like appeals other than anger may have a more beneficial effect.

Personally, I’m choosing to not take action—other than raising questions to you.  I welcome your responses and decisions.

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Nov

18

Spam Emails and the Real Messages They Send

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Filed Under Uncategorized | By Annette Burrhus-Clay | 1 Comment

*WARNING: This post contains graphic references to sexual violence.

I’ve always received a massive amount of junk email at work, regardless of what spam filter we are using.  I also notice that at least 75% of the ads are sexual in nature and just assumed this is a result of us having the word “sexual” in the name of our agency. I literally get thousands of sex aid advertisements a month. What really concerns me much more than the volume of these ads I’m receiving is the progression from benign and juvenile to obscene and violent.

This latest wave of ads began hitting my mailbox in early October. The subject line usually said something to the effect of  “leave her begging for more”  or “don’t let your love-making embarrass you any longer.” There was a day or so when they vied for the attention of the potential customer with a little humor and borderline copyright infringement, i.e. “quicker pecker picker upper.”  Then I noticed a serious shift in advertising strategies which often came in 3-4 day waves and frankly none of these strategies take the high road. They move beyond preying on men’s insecurities to degrading and objectifying women, using violent imagery, getting increasingly vulgar and promoting sex with underaged girls. Read more

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