[WikiEN-l] Unnecessary nudity on [[Hogtie bondage]]

[Matt R]

I wish to raise an issue on this list about offensive images on an
article about sexual bondage, [[Hogtie bondage]], to be specific. I
don't feel I can justify spending any more time debating this sort of
thing on the article discussion page (I want to do more productive
things on Wikipedia, like write about cryptography), so I thought I
would flag it here in this forum, and trust the outcome to normal
Wikipedia processes (even if it's not the outcome I would like). I do
think it needs wider attention, as editors who have such a page on
their watchlists are likely to be of a certain opinion. Forgive me,
though, if I start a discussion that might prove controversial and
then quietly sneak off. I'm not a troll, honest!

First, I'd like to state that, in general, I support Wikipedia being
explicit in its illustration where necessary. I have never had a
problem with potentially-offensive photos on pages like [[penis]],
[[clitoris]] and the like. If I cared enough (or if I had kids) I
could filter Wikipedia myself on the client side without too much
hassle.

However, to balance that, I think that content which is likely to be
offensive, such as nudity, should be used only when there is a
compelling case that the offensiveness is unavoidable if the article
is to be illustrated properly. I would oppose photographs of nude
people kissing in [[kiss]], or two nude people hugging in [[physical
intimacy]], because I believe these concepts can be quite adequately
illustrated without nudity. I don't suppose this is a particulary
controversial line to take.

Recently, a proprietor of a bondage pornography site uploaded a number
of his images to Wikipedia depicting a woman in various positions of
sexual bondage, and added them as illustration to several pages,
including (what has now been split off to become) [[Hogtie
bondage]]. Two of these photographs used on [[Hogtie bondage]] feature
a nude woman. However, I don't believe that nudity is necessary to
illustrate this topic -- a hogtie is a way of tying someone up, and
the subject can be nude or clothed. Therefore, I would argue that the
nude images should not be used within this article.

Others disagree (see [[Talk:Hogtie bondage]] and [[Talk:Hogtie]]), and
there has been a few reverts over this question (far more than a
member of the Harmonious Editing Club would like to own up to --
another reason why I'll probably drop my involvement). I'd like to see
what others think.

In general, I think we should be very careful when dealing with
erotica within Wikipedia. The original purpose of such images is not
illustration, so we need to be sure that they do indeed make for good
illustration when used as such. In the hogtie case, the owner of the
adult website likely had the partial motive of promoting his website
(a link was included in the image description pages). And many people
readily enjoy seeing titillating images in web pages, regardless of
their illustrative value. So I think it's worth making sure there is a
robust case for their use, given the potential for offense, because we
decrease the value of Wikipedia if we are offensive without good
editorial reasons.

-- Matt


Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Matt_Crypto
Blog: http://cipher-text.blogspot.com


	
	
		
___________________________________________________________ 
Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com