Nudity, Is It Sexist In This Forum?

[Esquilax]

You're still avoiding the point, which is not that topless pics of women shoud be permitted, but that the guys here should be held to the same standard. As I've already said several times, I understand that the forum must comply with the law. I think her point is that the law should not be the limit of the rules, if it doesn't reflect the attitude of the Staff.

If the Staff is committed to equality, surely they are able to craft limitations beyond the bare minimum of the law, no?

We are committed to equality: that's why we have gender blind policies for hiring staff, treatment of users, and will generally consider sexist or misogynistic conduct to be flame-baiting. But we're also committed to freedom of expression insofar as we can get away with it: we like to inculcate an open and free environment for our users to inhabit, within certain legal and pragmatic bounds that we're forced to recognize. Female bodies are sexualized in the areas of the world that the majority of our membership comes from: this is not something we as staff particularly like, but it is, nevertheless, the reality we need to work around. Male bodies are not, and this is the same thing.

Now, you might argue that men should be held to the same standard, but I'm not so sure that the end-game of equality or feminism should be the reduction of freedoms that others enjoy in order to achieve parity. Frankly, that seems to be moving precisely in reverse of the stated goals here. We won't get past needless sexualization by doubling down on it for short term, largely rhetorical gain. Is that sexist? I won't deny we live in a culture of sexist double standards, but I won't countenance the idea that the staff are somehow participating in sexism by recognizing the counter-productive nature of this particular request. The change you want will not be achieved by doubling-down on the thing you're objecting to.

Now, to address the wider thread for a moment: I'm aware that this has become a shitshow but, to belay any accusations of bias on my part, I should perhaps point out that I was absent during the particularly contentious moments of this thread- I have a disabled wife and sometimes she comes first- and played no part in the decisions that Heatheness seems, somehow, intent on weaving into a wider conspiracy against her. I may be an admin, but I am not the shadowy hand of some secret cabal come here to destroy some unsuspecting user. At least, not this time: no, here I'm just a peep, giving their opinion on the situation as I see it.