Those of you NOT on LiveJournal…
May 31, 2006 Feminism/Politics
You probably missed this so here’s a heads-up:
May 31,2006Contact:
Carrie Patterson
Executive Director, ProMoM.Org
http://www.promom.org
carrie@promom.org
678-513-6329Popular Blogging Site Restricts Use of Breastfeeding Photos
LiveJournal cites breastfeeding images as ‘inappropriate’ and sends mothers to the virtual restroomWomen on the popular blog site LiveJournal are calling foul at the company’s decision to brand images of breastfeeding as ‘inappropriate.’ Many users of the site have joined together to urge LiveJournal’s parent company SixApart to address their concerns and reevaluate the policy.
Small “userpics” of no more than 100 by 100 pixels represent LiveJournal members throughout the site. Users can define one of these icons as “default icon” which plugs it into the user’s public profile. These default icons were originally not permitted to be ‘sexually explicit or graphically violent.’ Recently, icons which depicted breastfeeding were cited as being ‘inappropriate’ by the LiveJournal abuse team, a group of volunteers who monitor complaints on the site. After clarification was requested, LiveJournal changed their FAQ to reflect a no nudity rule and is claiming that icons with visible areola or nipple are not permitted. Whether or not areola is visible in a photograph is dependent on a number of factors, including skin tone of the mother and physical changes during pregnancy.
Claimed Live Journal Abuse Staffer ‘Erin’ in a post on the site, “That’s really a matter for the FCC to decide. LiveJournal’s policies on this mirror what would be allowed on primetime TV or in a PG-13 movie.” However, this is not true. The FCC does not consider the act of breastfeeding on television to fall under the definitions of indecency or obscenity.
Breastfeeding is exempt from nudity laws throughout the United States as well as countries such as Canada. Advocates are urging LiveJournal to adopt the same criteria. “It is regrettable that LiveJournal has chosen to target breastfeeding mothers instead of standing up for the protection provided them by law,” says Carrie Patterson, executive director of ProMom.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing public awareness and public acceptance of breastfeeding. Advocates state that the feeling that breastfeeding should be hidden only fosters the idea that the natural act of nourishing a child is scandalous.
Breastfeeding bloggers who have refused to change their default icon have been suspended from the site. These users, as well as others questioning the policy, have been treated poorly by the site’s volunteer abuse team, something that is not unusual according to other site users.
More than 1,000 LiveJournal users complained, and SixApart issued an apology to the group. However, the company refuses to consider modifying their policy and continues to suspend users whose default icons are deemed inappropriate. Although LiveJournal stated a clarified rule, mothers are still reporting major inconsistencies in its application.
The breastfeeding debacle is only the most recent in a long line of incidents that have people wondering if the abuse procedures as a whole should be reviewed for fairness and propriety. Complaints have been raised about users’ privacy, inconsistent enforcement of the Terms of Service, conflicting information and responses from abuse team members, and discourteous replies to users seeking clarification on the rules.
Activists are now working together to get this policy changed and to clarify the policies and procedures of the LiveJournal abuse team. While some are refusing to continue paying for the service, others have moved to different journaling websites to protest what they feel is a violation of their rights. For more information, contact Carrie Patterson at 678-513-6329 or carrie@promom.org or visit http://www.promom.org/bf_info/mp.html.
It’s just crazy stuff, eh? I don’t pay for LJ and I never was a paying customer at MT but if I was, I’d be rethinking that now. Meanwhile, you can always fill out the 3-minute activist letter over at ProMom.org (love how easy they make it to make some noise!) and let LJ know that their policy is nuts.
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Tags: breastfeeding
Yunatics
May 31, 2006 Parenting
Erica (my sister) said to blog this and so I am. She’s bossy and I’m obedient. (She is my big sister, after all.)
Last night Brett got home from taking Madison on a run and to give him a break I took both kids with me to the grocery store. I didn’t check the time before I left and I should have because we were leaving right around the time we usually start getting Madison ready for bed.
I realized that time was not on my side when Madison began to come unglued.
It started in the canned beans aisle. We slid past a woman with nifty green glasses and Madison whispered something as we went by.
“What’s that, honey?” the woman asked, smiling at our adorable pony-tailed girl.
“Are you POOPY?” Madison obliged by shouting.
And so it went. As we passed people, hurrying to get our shopping done she would shout, whisper, hiss, “Are you poopy? Do you have poopy pants?” to anyone we passed. (What can I say? She’s potty training and her mind is in the toilet these days.) We gave her a bagel to shut her up and I sent Noah ahead to gather our goods to try to get out faster.
When we got to the check-out lane I glanced at the checker’s register to catch the time and it was 9:30 — a full hour past Madison’s bed time. She was swinging her head around in the cart laughing and squealing.
“Oh my god,” I told Noah. “She’s gone insane!”
Madison, hearing me, began to chant, “I a YUNATIC! I CWAZY! Hahahahahahaha!”
We got her home, got her into jammies, rocked her for a few minutes and she was out. Slept in an hour later this morning, too. That’ll teach me not to respect her bedtime! No more yunatic toddlers for us!
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My hits are slowly climbing
May 31, 2006 Parenting
I guess I’m not the only one relieved to be out of drupal, eh? But we all survived it! We were strong and we came through! (I still love drupal as a community management system — don’t want to bash ye olde drupal — but it was too much for my wee blog. And for the very in-progress anotherchild.com site, I’m using Joomla — it’s easier to personalize.)
Madison is wearing training pants right now — the plastic coated kind — and she is not happy with them. I was hoping to slip ‘em on without her noticing that they are thousands of times less comfortable than her more squishy and more leaky padded pants. I told her that I’d take them back off once she’s done swimming in the pool.
My sister wants Noah today but if she takes Noah, how will I get anything done? Like this blog entry for example. Noah is playing with her outside while I type. God bless Noah, lemme tell you. And Brett won’t be home tonight (he’s taking his mom out for Indian food) so I really want to keep me some Noah around.
Tomorrow Jessica is coming over and I will FINALLY get to give her Madison’s mother’s day present. We’ve missed her.
I’m going to go back upstairs now. I have a great big long entry saved on my alphasmart that I’ll input sometime when I get back down here.
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I want to live at her house!
May 30, 2006 Uncategorized
Check out Vegan Lunch Box.
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Giving up (some of) the goods
May 30, 2006 Book work, Infertility
First some parental discussion and then some thoughts about where I am with my book.
We switched doctors (to one we used to see when Noah was a pup) for a couple of reasons but the most relevent one for this blog entry is that it’s close enough to walk there. Walking five blocks for a check-up is much nicer than driving cross-town. We’re making a concentrated effort to drive a lot less this summer. This is also one reason that Noah doesn’t have a lot going on activity-wise. (The other reason is that we all deserve a break. Remember when summers were meant for relaxing?)
So Madison had her 2-year old check-up today and she is 34.5 pounds, 36.5 inches. She’s a big, tall, healthy girl. She was charming the other patients in the waiting room by chatting about the magazine she was reading. “Dat guy is sunny [funny]! See him?” Then she segues to the next most important thing on her mind. (Remember that in Madison language the f’s sound like s and the l’s sound like y.) “I go in the jogging stroller with Daddy and he goes SAST! And the race car comes [there's a guy in our neighborhood who does drag racing] and it is YOUD and I cry. I don’t YIKE the race car. [pause] Yes I do!” Chitter-chatter away. Between her height and her talking, she’s usually mistaken for three.
Right now the kids are playing in the wading pools. Noah has created a water park — 2 wading pools (one with a slide), her water table and her rocking boat. They are screeching and splashing and generally having an awfully good time.
Work-wise I need to get back on the query train. Book-wise, I found a history expert whose interests/research includes fertility issues who said she’d be happy to talk to me about secondary infertility. I can’t find much about it.
I figured out the paradigm that would underlie my book but I can’t find any specific research to support it. So what I’m going to do is go across disciplines and try to build a case. And as I work on my survey questions, I’m going to try to come up with more effective ones to address this theory. I have some anecdotal stories but they’re not really strong because I didn’t know what I was looking for.
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Tags: Infertility, Madison, Noah, secondary infertility
