On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 06:50, Sarah Stierch <sarah.stierch(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Three more things that I want to state clearly based
on these conversations:
Commons bases "identifiably" on the face of an individual. While in many
situations, that maybe the only way to identify an individual, when it comes
to nudity, etc, there is more to identify than just a face. Any sexually
active person can often remember specific features etc. of current and past
lovers (birth marks, hair patterns, piercings, whatever), porn star they
watch, models they like (I can pick out Bettie Page's sucked in stomach,
Tempest Storm's legendary "moneymakers" and my favorite Suicide Girls
tattooed back from a mile away without heads..) etc. As SlimVirgin stated -
the "model" is identifiable to those who know her. (And yes, slippery slope
again..) However, I really doubt that we'd have much weight with this
argument, but, perhaps I'm wrong in that.
We must stress that objectification goes beyond women on Commons. Men are
objectified, however, generally in a different manner by "self-imposed
objectification" - uploading photographs of their own body parts and
self-indulgent photographs, while it appears others upload images of women
"on their behalf".
Objectification of culture is a major problem, especially when it comes to
Asian women. Whether it's anime pornography (which we have plenty of and
people argue that it's educational because of the tools or techniques used
to create it) or photographs of "Korean vulvas" which feature "hot Korean
girls" (or whatever). I notice there is a similar situation with
Eastern/Eurasian women as well. Something has to change - while these women
might not be active on Commons, someone has to have a voice for them.
The expertise about what it means for a photograph to identify a
person is out there, so it's just a question of accessing it. In
journalism, when a court orders a publication ban on identifying
someone, you can't argue that your description of them did not
identify them to the general reader. If you write about them in a way
that allows their local circle to recognize them that's often
sufficient to trigger contempt of court proceedings.
This Commons guideline --
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:IDENT -- discusses what's
meant by "private place," but doesn't say how the law defines
"identifiable."
Sarah