eta:


"Gurrrl, lemme stylize your nudity," is my new go-to line. FYI.

Who has a scanner? I have the BEST 70s photo spread and limerick about bicycles. Its a treasure.

I personally like nudity - being nude, looking at bodies of all kinds... and not in a sexual way. I am fascinated with the human form, asymetry, change over time, basic genetic differences, etc, etc... I can respect that some people dont like being confronted with other peoples junk, but I feel more connected to other human beings, the less clothing there is between us. Of course, I was raised by a couple of tree hugging intellectual beatniq hippies, so ignore me if you want. We are animals - why do work so hard to hide that?

It's a business, and at a business, money talks. Seems like if even one customer said, "I'm not comfortable shopping at your business, and here's why," a good small-business owner would listen, weigh the person's comments, then decide whether maintaining the factors contributing to that discomfort is worth losing business over.

My guess is that you're not the only one made uncomfortable by that image, Emma, so it might be in the business' best interests to remove the offending element. It's not about censorship or free speech or art vs. pornography, it's about making a business a comfortable place for everyone to shop. That business owner isn't required to make his/her business comfortable for everyone to visit, but you're not required to shop there, either. This is an obvious point, but it's one that people tend to forget—myself included—when faced with an undesirable or uncomfortable situation in a commercial environment.

I think the shop owner should definitely put some museum lights on the image. Especially since it has made discussion on the forum of mplsbikelove.com

Are there any shops with hawt guys gettin' naked on their fixies? Or is that a contradiction?

It would be some real equality, diversity and tolerance, that all you liberals could not handle. it would be fun to see all the passive aggressive, body image issues and personailty disorders heads' explode.

Hmm, you gave me an idea... now if I can just find the offending poster...

Not a bike shop but Treehouse records has a pretty pornographic picture of male genitalia hanging up. I won't bring my kid there anymore nor will I shop there. That's like dropping the F-bomb without thinking about where you are.

It's not funny folks. Pornography is not a victimless habit.

You mean saying FUCK ?

Please elaborate. Why is pornography a victimless habit? Or habit at all?

Is _not_ victimless. Never mind the habit part. That only affects some people.

There is plenty of pornography which has no victim.

If you're going to characterize pornography as being not victimless because some porn producers use unethical means to get their models/actors, one should also probably characterize many other industries as not being victimless because people are brutalized, enslaved and sometimes killed to bring these items to market.

A few examples off the top of my head

* Fruits (including tomatoes)
* Chocolate
* Coffee
* Diamonds

I guess what we need is the Fair Trade Certification to extend their interests to pornography!

Actually, I think that's a great idea. It should also be applied to prostitution and drugs once we get around to legalizing those.

+1



http://stoya.tumblr.com/ (NSFW) <- empowered sex worker (part of a minority)

I, for one, love porn. I'm more accepting of sexuality and nudity. Feminism should seek to improve the conditions of those in the sex industry. Those who seek to censor it are not fighting for civil rights; they are prudes. I guess they have a right to be that way, but quit acting like you have some moral imperative to enforce this on the rest of society. It's bad enough we have the religious right with their needle's-eye wide idea of sexuality. We don't need another front on which to fight.

Herc, I can't agree with you about the porn.

Porn is a bad thing in our society. Too much exposure to porn desensitizes one to bad acting and horrible scriptwriting.

Bad acting and horrible scriptwriting? That's one of the amazing things about the internet: you can find exactly the kind of porn you're looking for and Rule 34(SFW) always applies.