MySpace Muzzles Michelangelo
-T.S. Eliot
You may recall that Dianne Borsenik used an image of Michelangelo's famous 16th century David sculpture in the poster she designed for our Lix and Kix Anti-Censorship Poetry Extravaganza in October. I am saddened to inform you that MySpace has deemed that poster offensive, deleted it from our profile and sent us the following warning:
Subject: We had to delete one of your photos
We had to remove an image (or images) from your account because they violated our Terms of Use. Our site is for people as young as 13, so we can't have certain kinds of pics (nude/sexually explicit, violence, material protected by copyright). Find out more about content we don’t allow at www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.terms. If you continue to violate our Terms, we may be forced to remove your account.
If you find an image which you feel is in violation of our Terms, please feel free to use the 'report image' link below the image.
Thanks for your understanding.
MySpace Safety & Security
I could see if this was a pornographic image or something truly offensive - but Michelangelo's David!?!?! And in the 21st Century? Let's look at the terms of service we allegedly violated. David is not violent, not protected by copyright, has nothing to do with sex and, arguably, isn't even nude. I mean, can stone be nude, regardless of shape? And if it can, then isn't all stone nude? The rocks in my garden out back aren't wearing clothes. Neither is the Washington Monument. It seems to me that only flesh can be technically nude. A zucchini isn't considered nude is it? What if it happens to come in the shape of a penis? And how does MySpace define nude, anyway? Wearing no clothes? And in that case, would a photo of me wearing clothes but with my flaccid whatzit hanging out urinating be a violation of their terms of service? What about a photo of a dog urinating? On one of my MySpace profiles I have a photo of a dog peeing on a Bush-Cheney yard sign - and it hasn't been deleted. Is a real dog dingaling less offensive than a fake man's marble member?
In the world of MySpace, owned by News Corporation (who also owns Fox television networks), Michelangelo's masterpiece, which has for centuries been displayed publicly (not to be confused with pubicly) is deemed worthy of deletion. Dog dick and Dick Cheney are not. Never mind that in the very Bible the religious reich holds high as a standard for morality God Himself created nude sculptures (then breathed life into them and called them Adam and Eve). Never mind that in Genesis God called everything he created (including, presumably, his own nude creations, one of which featured a penis) good.
If you haven't yet seen the "offending" item (or if you simply want to see it again), here it is one more time:
And don't forget to check out our next Lix and Kix event on Tuesday 16 December at 7 p.m., when Miles Budimir, John Dorsey and Leah Collova will be our featured poets/performers at the 806 Wine and Martini Bar in Cleveland.
Piece out!
Er, I mean Peace out!
That's absurd, especially parents take their kids to museums to see art like this. MySpace has deleted so much stuff of my page it's not even funny. Harmless stuff. I can see if it were something overtly sexual.. but a statue.. a famous statue.
The next poster should just have a giant penis on it with Tom's head on top!
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Thanks, SG! I like that idea.
I think I'm going to send MySpace bulletins out each day with various photos of the statue. Call it "Daily David"...
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an excellent idea.
I believe the law allows for nudity if it has, to paraphrase "socially redeeming value, in accordance with the standard of the the day." Did Myspace roll back to the Puritan days? How odd? I thought they were so happnin & up-to-date? Go figure.....well, I sure like David's figure...cheers to art!!!!!
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I have to admit it's a great figure - even if that make me sound gay.
Thanks, Anne. I believe I've read that somewhere (A Supreme Court decision, methinks). MySpace might think they can enforce any rule they like as long as I've agreed to their "Terms of Service" when signing on. They can't force the rule on me; but if I agree to it.... Still, I don't think this image even violates the Terms of Service. And maybe they can't enforce just any rule, just because a user agrees. What if the rule was "no photos of African Americans or Arabs"?
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Sounds like Rupert Murdock is feeling the heat from angry parents... more likely someone who is out to silence you has filed a complain.. how sad.. and how petty.
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I fixed your problem!
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Hahaha!
You circumcised him!
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I pulled a full Bobbit!
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In Florence when I was there I stood right next to David in admiration of the exquisite proportions of this statue. There were many children running around that museum and nobody took offense.
However, I must mention that you illustrated your "SINSATIONAL" evening of "UNCENSORED FUN" with his uncensored penis hanging out right in our faces. Ha ha ha... Get the drift?? And by the way what caught my attention was the fact that David's hands are far out of proportion to his arms and body. They are much too large to be normal. I can't say that for his dick, however. Just my observations for what they are worth to My Space. lol
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Thanks for sharing that, Elena. More evidence that David is in the public domain and nothing that needs hidden away from children.
Perhaps the poster drew attention to his whatzit - but it wasn't an adevertisement for porn or even a strip club. Maybe I should put the statue on top of an open Bible so David can "point out" his defeat of the Phillistines. I suspect an element of the religious reich would find that combination offensive as well. A penis lying in a Bible!!!! God can lie in the Bible; but a penis can't.
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LMAO I love it!!
as for myspace I'm starting to think they suck a wee bit & have their panties in a bunch most of the time!!
J.C. I have a pretty big site feel free to post your info there anytime!
Take care,
Angela
P.S. Can you email me a banner of your site so I can add it to my chat rooms
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Thanks, Angela! I see you've put a lot of work into your new site (which is www.paranormalsos.com, which I mention so folks can check it out). Where do you find the time? I at one point wanted to add a chat function to my site, but wasn't sure where to begin. Will have to explore your site more... and I appreciate your offer. Good to see you back to blogging after three weeks off!
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Thank you for adding that, the site is very new
And yes I'm back after a few weeks off from blogging these past few months have been very busy for me & left very little time for blogging LOL
Take care,
Angela
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I certainly would not want the kids to see anything that is protected by copyright. That's just offensive.
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Might scar them for life!
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That's absolutely ridiculous. I plan on taking my daughter to see David someday, hopefully by the time she's ten years old. I will have a little talk with her first. I'm going to tell her, "Shannon, you know how real women don't look like Barbie? Well..."
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Haha!...
Uh... maybe in this case we should spell that riDICKulous.
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um...it's kind of one of the most famous statues in the world.....
If someone visited the statue and took a picture and posted it with a bunch of vacation pictures, would myspace censor it? Makes me wonder.
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Good question! Interesting to think of how context might influence whether it's deemed offensive....
The only other photo I've ever had deleted was one of George Bush morphing into Adolf Hitler (seriously). And MySpace sent me the same message then. That would seem even LESS a violation of their trmes of service.
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love the love song of j alfred prufrock.
If you find an image which you feel is
MySpace Safety & Security -- is that part of homeland security or Aryan Purity Incorporated?
i've had one foto deleted from myspace, but i could never figure out which one. i went back and all the offensive ones were still there.
love these lines from eliot as well -
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
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I've got "J. Alfred" in the Online Library somewhere. It's one of my favorites ever.
MySpace Safety and Security sounds almost Orwellian. Uh... I can keep My own Space safe and secure, thank you very much.
You've even been censored in an art gallery at an institution of "higher learning," of all places. I wonder how they define "higher."
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I disagree slightly because this is not an artsy depiction of 'David'. This is using David's penis to further a cause... I believe it was to stress the 'uncensored' point...
So if you claim that your event is uncensored and use a stony penis to depict that...ppl in a censored environment might have a problem!!
Is it too difficult to understand... pls notice that I am not saying that MySpace is right... infact I dont know...
In my latest poem on my blog I have talked of Allah smelling pork and Jesus masturbating... but that was part of my art!!
This is part of marketing uncensored art in a censored environment... U WILL HAVE PROBLEMS!
And you only need one guy like me to be among the MySpace decision makers to ruin your day...
Take it easy I guess... people get offended by different things-- our limited lifestyles are not a license for judgment... that argument works both for you and against you!
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I agree wholeheartedly that David is definitely art but tend to agree that he was used here asa marketing tool rather than as as art for art's sake and as provocatively as possible--nothin' wrong with that at all.
So that may be the left field they are coming from. I tend to also think that the writing was on the wall when MySpace bumped you off earlier. No doubt they are being pressured by the religious right and parental groups to "save our children" and are going for the things they can most clearly and cleanly identify--like poor old stone cold David. It's harder to ID a fourteen-year-old who took a topless picture of herself with her cellphone and posted it on her MySpace page...
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I understand what you're saying, Tanuj, and appreciate your feedback. I find it sad to think the context we used it in might be what made MySpace find the image objectionable. After all, either the image violates their terms of service or it doesn't.
Now I'm eager to check out your latest blog!
Here's a link, for others who might be interested:
http://dotcommedtanuj.blogspot.com/2008/12/nasty-song-for-peace.html
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Now that we all have thoroughly discussed the Lix and Kix poster I think someone should take a picture of the Federal Courthouse in Cleveland where on the corner Lady Justice in stone displays her nude breasts. Tsk Tsk....and lol... It might be interesting to put on My Space all of the nudes of Roman statuary that are in the Vatican but the Pope made sure all the males' ding a lings are covered with fig leaves. Also remember that in some cultures (ours included) it is considered wrong to nurse your baby in public. That isn't true in Spain. Any more comments??
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You. too!! Geezzz...
With all the sexy photos and things people post to their MySpace pages even as comments I'm surprised that MySpace would go after you and Dianne... Michaelangelo's David is art.. hardly a threat... unlike a lot of stuff other's get away with posting. I have poets who I'm connected to that might need to be censored ... because they post very erotic art and blogs that aren't appropriate for under a certain age and are open to anyone.. and they haven't been censored.
Sounds like Rupert Murdock is feeling the heat from angry parents... more likely someone who is out to silence you has filed a complain.. how sad.. and how petty.
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I hate to sound paranoid but chris may be onto something... someone may not be too happy about Lix and Kix and may have reported it to MySpace.
Okay, so I do sound paranoid... but it's a possibility, isn't it?
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I can think of at least two people on my MySpace friends list that have nude or looks-nude-but-not-quite photos on their profiles. But apparently photos taken at a wet t-shirt contest or in an S&M club with minimal applications of electrical tape are appropriate.
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Perfectly believable, and a large example of why I didn't start actively using MySpace until last year. Fox News Corp is EVIL. (Remember, they're the reason Bush became president eight years ago.)
BTW: They've now blocked links to "http://podcast.PoetsHaven.com" with a message that it is either spam, a virus, or a phishing site. I spent two hours Sunday night editing all my blog posts on both accounts so that the links to download the podcast went to different addresses that they had not blocked (even though the link's text is the same).
But, yes, John and Dianne, you should replace the image on the pages and in the picture gallery on the L&K profile with Stupor Girl's version above. Except maybe add the words "MySpace CENSORSHIP in effect..."
And all else aside, speaking as a dude... I've kinda shied away from that particular flier. Nothing against the art, I just don't want to have to see another man's junk. Even if it is made of stone. Especially when it is literally hard as a rock. I have no interest in seeing David's balls of breccia. A basalt belly-ruffian. His plagioclase piccolo, travertine testicles. The limestone lovelance, dolomite dodad, quartzite quimstake, granite gonads... Okay, I've run out of combos...
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LOL... I'm sure my middle-school geology teacher would be so proud that after 18 years I finally found a use for what I learned in his class...
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lol... you rock! But I suppose the same could said of David.
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Aw, that's a shame. Hey, we're probably moving back to Cleveland in March, more or less permanently. Will plan to attend your Lix & Kix events!
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We look forward to seeing you! I hope you and Smith will consider being featured readers for us at some point.
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I saw this as a profile photo on a band's friend list, and thought of this topic.
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Ugh... lol
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Just kinda sad... I had an idea to create and sell a costume consisting of wearable "CENSORED" black boxes about two days before I saw this photo. This right after my other get-rich-quick invention scheme fell through. (I designed a long-reach razor that men could use to shave their own backs. My sister just found them for sale at Bath & Body Works. Grrr...)
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A couple of great ideas! I wouldn't mind wearing one of those black boxes over my johnson the next time I read at Borders.
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And now MySpace just deleted my Project Playlist player because of "copyright infringement." Ya know, I'm realizing why I'm on Facebook so much more these days. That video you posted where "The Tom" declares the three core principles of MySpace? It is pretty damn accurate...
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Geri said they deleted her playlist, too. They probably deleted mine at the Jesus Crisis 2 profile - but I haven't been on it in a few days to notice.
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