cleanfeed and wikipedia

[Ian Batten]

On 09 Dec 08, at 0920, David Hansen wrote:

> The image under discussion is not a sexually
> provocative pose,

I think the contention that it _is_ sexually provocative is at least  
arguable.  It's not, for example, a photograph of an M10x25 bolt.  It  
would also be hard to argue that its _intent_ is not sexually  
provocative.

And if we're saying ``ah, but it's all a matter of _context_, it's an  
album cover by a commercially released popular beat combo not a piece  
of standalone porn'' then it's the context that causes the problem.   
The Scorpions are one of the bands usually cited for the Spinal Tap  
`Smell the Glove' pastiche, and combine all the subtle gender politics  
for which Heavy Metal bands are famed with the typical German light  
humour and gentle sense of irony.  One might mention `Lovedrive' and,  
especially, `Animal Magnetism' in this regard.

You can examine the band's oeuvre here:

http://www.the-scorpions.com/english/discography/records/

Don't read the lyrics without safety precautions.

As ever, of course, freedom of speech issues aren't about defending  
photographs of puppy dogs taken by vicars' wives. The Scorpions were  
always pretty Neanderthal (yes, I saw them once, but in my defence I  
had a free ticket and left after thirty minutes) and their general  
attitudes to young womanhood are (or at least were) fairly  
unreconstructed.  Don't get me wrong: the IWF are bang out of order,  
the concept of attempting to ban something as widespread and long- 
standing is absurd (I'm thinking people might start Rick-Rolling the  
picture) and the idea that the picture is `child abuse' is  
preposterous.  Freedom of speech and expression only matters when  
people don't like what it's used for, and freedom of speech is  
_precisely_ the freedom to offend.

But let's not start to argue that it's a non-sexual picture taken by  
Trappist monks.  It's the 1976 cover of an album by an HM band who  
were pretty knuckle-dragging even by the standards of the day, who  
went on to deliver photographs of a woman's breast being strangely  
manipulated by a man in a taxi and a young heavily made up woman on  
her knees and a dog (!) staring in awe at a man's crotch.  Smell the  
Glove, indeed.

ian