Today’s scholarly reaction to the Tumblrpocalypse comes from a locked thread on Twitter by JSA Lowe, reposted with permission. Read on for some delightful musings on the difference between “art” and “porn”.
what a nightmare—seriously, @tumblr? seriously?? in the year of our lord 2018 YOU are going to try to determine the difference between art & porn when ≈3000 years of human culture have been unable to do so?!?!? oh my actual god, I WILL NEVER STOP LAUGHING
“Adult content primarily includes photos, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples, & any content—including photos, videos, GIFs & illustrations—that depicts sex acts.” HOW THE HELL DO YOU T—okay you know what, never mind. Just…never mind.
“Written content such as erotica, nudity related to political or newsworthy speech, & nudity found in art, such as sculptures & illustrations, are [sic] also stuff that can be freely posted on Tumblr.” Oh—art! Well then! PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT THIS ART OF WHICH YOU SPEAK SO FREELY.
the temptation to post approximately A THOUSAND PHOTOS OF GREEK & ETRUSCAN POTTERY & another thousand of Edo-era shunga has NEVER BEEN SO STRONG
honestly, I’m grudgingly impressed—staff actually managed to do something WORSE THAN Strikethrough! it’s quite an achievement, I’m almost admiring (in the same way Ash says of the xenomorph’s blood, “I admire its purity”)
to conclude my eye-rolling spittle-flecked thread: here, have some 17c #shunga (春画)! I’m sure the RENOWNED ART HISTORIANS OF @TUMBLR will have a REALLY EASY TIME deciding if these are artistic or pornographic! have at it guys! don’t get turned on though!
just used the mass tag replacer to retag all my posts tagged “nsfw” as “art”! so THAT WAS FUN! may I suggest you do the same (and then backup your tumblr)! tags.circumfluo.us
now a gifset of James McAvoy having an on-camera orgasm is tagged art! so are romantic Victorian-style line-drawings of Yuri & Viktor making love while crying! & all my naked K/S fanart! I’m so proud of myself & my research at this moment! WHERE IS YOUR PURITY CULTURE NOW, TUNGLR
what about all the posts I’ve sardonically tagged #nsfw like gifsets of Misha Collins’ hands, or Gillian Anderson wearing clothes? WHAT ABOUT THOSE, @TUMBLR, did it occur to you for ONE HOT MINUTE to think about the ways we actively use the affordances of your OWN COTDAM PLATFORM