The Puritans in the Playroom

This is a Blogger blog, hosted by Google. Like all Blogger blogs containing adult material, there is a content warning, with an orange thing to click on, saying, "I UNDERSTAND AND I WISH TO CONTINUE" in big letters.

Two of my friends have had emails from Blogger (Google, really), containing the following. "In the coming weeks, we'll no longer allow blogs that contain sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video. We'll still allow nudity presented in artistic, educational, documentary or scientific contexts, or where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content."

It's sad that the puritans are once again trying to take over the playroom, but what is surprising is that it only applies to pictures and video. My posts The Naming of Parts and How Far Can You Go? both contain explicit language, but there aren't any pictures (or videos). My short fictional pieces contain explicit language and descriptions of sexual activity, but Blogger haven't said anything. I don't flatter myself that it is because of any educational, documentary, or scientific content. My suspicion is that it is because the puritans only look at the pictures, like semi-literate children.

I could congratulate myself on having got away with it, except that the semi-literate are dangerous. In 2000, a paediatrician had her house daubed with white paint, because "People don't want no paedophiles here". It's presumably the same people who failed to understand the meaning of "WISH TO CONTINUE" and clicked on the orange thing by mistake.

Watercolour by Gerda Wegener

Luckily for Google, however, the puritans' lack of expertise when it comes to clicking on things means that Google can contain sexually explicit or graphic nude images or videos. You can type a word like 'topless' or 'penis' into the search box, but then you have to click on the link to 'images'. Try it. Some of the results are educational, possibly documentary, and scientific, at a pinch, since human biology is a science. Meanwhile, here is a watercolour by Gerda Wegener. I assume I could have used it to illustrate my short story, The New Leda, since it's artistic. You can find a lot more of Gerda Wegener's art by typing her name into the Google search box, but you will probably still have to click on the link.