No matter where you get a web site hosted, you are at the mercy of the standards and expectations of the hosting company. One hosting company that has a good reputation is Bluehost, but many users may not realize that Bluehost is located in Utah and has some pretty strict standards -- like a ban on any and all nudity in images, no exceptions.
This means that fine art photographers may not be able to use Bluehost, even though that company has been recommended to photographers.
Darwin Wiggett writes about his experiences:
Bluehost sent us a note that they were going to close our site down because of 'adult content' (specifically nudity) which is not allowed in their terms and conditions (we admit to not having read these terms closely and missed the part about zero tolerance for nudity). We just assumed that a host of photography sites would have no problem with things like fine art nudes, or boudoir photography because these types of photography are common.
In discussions with Bluehost they told us that a women in a bikini is OK (no matter how sexually provocative), but nudity is forbidden. So we could post a shot of a buxom woman, in lingerie with a gun and stilettos stepping on another woman in a back alley but we can't post an image like the one below. Hmmmm....
It should be noted that some of the nude photos deemed so inappropriate that the account had to be closed didn't even reveal much. You could tell that they were adult human beings without any clothing, but there was hardly anything to get upset about. Yet unclothed adults is too horrible to allow someone to retain their hosting account, no matter how little is actually visible in the photograph.
On the other hand, explicilty sexually provocative images with clothing is just fine!
People who get this upset over this level of nudity just aren't rational or sensible. To prove my point, I'll quote the comment published there by photographer Keith Bozeman:
Why in the world did you put this on this site? My respect for you as an artist just just went down to nothing. I have enjoyed looking at this site for several years now. It will now be off my favorites. What a way to ruin such a beautiful place with filth.
You know, there is a good reason why you were asked to leave, because most normal people do not view this garbage as art but pornography. Would you let your childen view this "art?" If you have any character at all you would say, no.
The human body is a beautiful design but it is only appreciated this way between a husband and his wife, not for everyone else to see. This is degrading to women. I know, I know here it comes...I am just a closed minded, ignorant, religous zealot who just needs to wake up to reality.
The reality is that this world is full of filthy perverts like you and everyone that is stroking your enlarged ego in this feed. I don't care about what you think, just like you won't care what I think but you will care what God thinks at the end of your short life (100 years is short compared to eternity).
Live it up with your beer and your vain life because that is all you have. Don't worry about responding to this comment nor your little constituents because I won't come back to view this trash again.
Once again, the "filth" and "trash" in question displays a bare back and as much of a person's buttocks as you'd see from a plumber bent over under a sink. But that's enough skin for Keith Bozeman to lose all "respect" for Darwin Wiggett "as an artist" -- because I guess no respectable artist ever shows a bare back or a bit of buttock. Sure, the human body is "beautiful," but that doesn't mean Keith Bozeman ever actually wants to see that much of one.
Yes, Keith, you are a closed-minded, ignorant religious zealot. There's really no doubt about it because you prove it in one simple statement: your assumption that the image of a bare back can only be "appreciated" in the way that one appreciates the body of a "husband" or "wife."
It's clear that Bozeman can't look at bare skin without sexualizing the person in question. Well, that's his problem and if he can't get his mind out of the gutter I feel sorry for him, but others in the world are mature enough to look at bare skin without becoming sexually obsessed. Only closed-minded, ignorant religious zealots insist that their own failure to be mature means that the rest of us can't be trusted to be mature.
The only "filthy perverts" around her are people who can't regard a nude body as anything other than a sexual object -- and then ruins things for the rest of us by eliminating nude photos and paintings. Keith Bozeman is apparently a professional photographer in Alabama... surprised?
No comments:
Post a Comment