Little Dirty Pretty Thangs
twitter.com/thepbg:
I’ve had this thought about Street Harassment rolling over and over in my head for at least the past week:
Parents spend most of our children’s early years telling them “don’t talk to strangers”. We give them instructions on what to do if someone they don’t know attempts to talk to them or touch them while they’re on their way home from school or otherwise separated from the safety of family. There are videos and classes and secret code words and entire curricula for parents to teach their children how to stay safe from “Stranger Danger.”
But as soon as our daughters get “of age”, we tell them it’s OK to talk to some strange man on the street because “everybody don’t mean you harm, BabyGirl.”
I say it like that because I distinctly remember my own father telling me that when I was in my early 20s or so. He was getting after me for being “mean” and “stand-offish” when men would talk to me. “Every man that speaks to you doesn’t mean to do you any harm. It’s OK to speak. Be nice sometimes.”
“Be nice”.
*long heavy sigh*
I’d say “Don’t talk to me!” or “Leave me alone!” when strangers would attempt to talk to me when I was afraid and away from the safety of family. Those were the words my parents gave me to protect myself when I was a young child. But now that I was grown, it is suddenly OK if I allow strangers to talk to me on the street. Why is it OK now, but it wasn’t way back then when I was little? Is the danger now non-existent? Am I better able to defend myself against it?
It was confusing then and it’s still confusing now.
Especially since I never remember my brother being told any of that.
I’m absolutely fascinated by the story of the 3 women in Cleveland that were able to escape from their kidnappers after years of being held against their will (with the help of Heroic Charles Ramsey). While all of Cleveland was familiar with their disappearances, I don’t think the rest of the world was. Issues around class/gender/race definitely didn’t leave them to be considered the “right kind of missing girls”.
And what’s up with Mr.Ramsey, clearly a Hood Hero, being ridiculed for his interview? I guess he wasn’t “polished” enough, huh? Well, HE WAS THE ONE THAT FREED THE WOMEN. Who knows, today might have been the day the ladies were scheduled to die. Lives were saved! I will applaud Charles Ramsey as the hero that he is!
Here is what I say to all the ladies who are alone on Valentines Day: please do not ever use these words “ladies who are alone on Valentine’s Day” together in a sentence ever again. Ever. Again.
Valentine’s Day is just a day. It’s just a day of the year like any other. Go. Be happy with the people you love and who love you. See a friend. Read a book. Flirt with a cute boy (or girl). Dance it out. Watch a movie. Have a party. Build a robot. Stop a Zombie Apocalypse. Take over the Earth. Paint your toenails. Eat soup. DO ANYTHING.
BUT DO NOT buy into the idea that a day created by greeting card companies should be more romantic than other day or should make you feel lonelier than any other day. Cause life is awesome. And that (feeling lonely cause of a day) is stupid. And a waste of perfectly good time. And it makes me do things like write ranty tweets. Because FOR REALS? You’re asking me to cheer up women who are alone on Valentine’s Day? You don’t need cheering up. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU. You are perfect and awesome just like you are. You just happen to be listening to someone who says you aren’t. They are idiots. Ignore them.
Because FYI? A lot of great things can happen to you while you are single.
I came up with a show called Grey’s Anatomy while I was single.
Just saying.
Fuck Valentine’s Day. Go do something with your life.
"“Wherever the bird with no feet flew, she found trees with no limbs.” - Audre Lorde
(Source: eddierussett)
“A man has always wanted to lay me down, but never wanted to pick me up.” -Eartha Kitt
(Source: artieshaw, via loveyourchaos)
Pull Back The Curtain: Social Media Will Tell You What They Won’t Admit
One thing I’ve noticed in my years on the Internet and in Social Media is that people will air their ignorance in FASCINATING ways from behind a computer screen or through their smart phones, whether they’re anonymous or not.
Simply put, you probably won’t realize how much of a misogynistic, racist, homophobic sleaze-bucket sociopath your best friend/co-worker/2nd cousin/new boo is until you link up with them via Facebook (or Twitter or Tumblr or Instagram).
You thought that guy you met at the coffee shop was “so nice and sweet” until you see him tweet “Stay at home moms gotta be the most annoying breed of female on the planet. By Gawd, King!”
You thought your the white girl in your Women’s Studies class was cool until she makes a status update on Facebook saying “That bitch Rihanna got what she deserved for screwing with an animal like Chris Brown!”
Cousin Penny was so accepting when you came out as trans* until you discovered her Tumblr post lamenting to God as to why “Our family gotta have one of ‘those things’ all up in it now?”
And you were really considering going for a beer with that guy Rob on the job until you saw him call President Obama a n*gger via Facebook.
Yep. Any and everything you ever needed to know about the people you THINK you can trust can be found out via Social Media.
Stay Woke.
~pbg
Yesterday we introduced a new version of our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service that will take effect in thirty days. These two documents help communicate as clearly as possible our relationship with the users of Instagram so you understand how your data will be used, and the rules that govern the thriving and active Instagram community. Since making these changes, we’ve heard loud and clear that many users are confused and upset about what the changes mean.
I’m writing this today to let you know we’re listening and to commit to you that we will be doing more to answer your questions, fix any mistakes, and eliminate the confusion. As we review your feedback and stories in the press, we’re going to modify specific parts of the terms to make it more clear what will happen with your photos.
Legal documents are easy to misinterpret. So I’d like to address specific concerns we’ve heard from everyone:
Advertising on Instagram From the start, Instagram was created to become a business. Advertising is one of many ways that Instagram can become a self-sustaining business, but not the only one. Our intention in updating the terms was to communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram. Instead it was interpreted by many that we were going to sell your photos to others without any compensation. This is not true and it is our mistake that this language is confusing. To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear.
To provide context, we envision a future where both users and brands alike may promote their photos & accounts to increase engagement and to build a more meaningful following. Let’s say a business wanted to promote their account to gain more followers and Instagram was able to feature them in some way. In order to help make a more relevant and useful promotion, it would be helpful to see which of the people you follow also follow this business. In this way, some of the data you produce — like the actions you take (eg, following the account) and your profile photo — might show up if you are following this business.
The language we proposed also raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement. We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question. Our main goal is to avoid things likes advertising banners you see in other apps that would hurt the Instagram user experience. Instead, we want to create meaningful ways to help you discover new and interesting accounts and content while building a self-sustaining business at the same time.
Ownership Rights Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos. Nothing about this has changed. We respect that there are creative artists and hobbyists alike that pour their heart into creating beautiful photos, and we respect that your photos are your photos. Period.
I always want you to feel comfortable sharing your photos on Instagram and we will always work hard to foster and respect our community and go out of our way to support its rights.
Privacy Settings Nothing has changed about the control you have over who can see your photos. If you set your photos to private, Instagram only shares your photos with the people you’ve approved to follow you. We hope that this simple control makes it easy for everyone to decide what level of privacy makes sense.
I am grateful to everyone for their feedback and that we have a community that cares so much. We need to be clear about changes we make — this is our responsibility to you. One of the main reasons these documents don’t take effect immediately, but instead 30 days from now, is that we wanted to make sure you had an opportunity to raise any concerns. You’ve done that and are doing that, and that will help us provide the clarity you deserve. Thank you for your help in making sure that Instagram continues to thrive and be a community that we’re all proud of. Please stay tuned for updates coming soon.
Sincerely,
Kevin Systrom co-founder, Instagram
Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion. It’s time to recoup. Thanks for your cool pics to help pave the way. Welcome to the Internets.
