jan_andrea | Letter to LiveJournal

Jumping on the bandwagon here, because apparently LJ Abuse has their heads up their asses.

Dear LiveJournal,

I have to add my voice to what seems to be a growing chorus of confused and outraged LJers. I'm a breastfeeding mother of two, and and guessing that no one in your "abuse" committee has been in that position, or they would never conflate breastfeeding a baby with a sexual or obscene practice. Breastfeeding is the most natural way to feed a baby's body and emotional well-being. Breastfed babies grow up to be smarter and, on the whole, happier than their bottle-propped cohorts... which, I suppose, might be a reason you'd want to ban breastfeeding images -- perhaps fewer emo teens means fewer LiveJournal accounts in the future?

I'm kidding, but seriously, you guys need to get a clue. There are a lot of truly horrible default icons out there -- I've seen graphic acts of sex and violence, some drawn, but mostly actual pohotographs -- and honestly, a woman nuturing her child isn't even in the same universe as those images. If you continue in your witch-hunt of default breastfeeding icons, you're going to end up banning a goodly portion of your users who also have paid accounts (after all, we're responsible adults, not unstable emo adolescents), and I'm hoping that if logic (i.e. breastfeeding is in no way obscene) doesn't move you, perhaps financial realities might.

Regards,
Jan Andrea Heirtzler (paid account, expiring 11-2006, and if you continue this, I will certainly not be renewing!)

I have my doubts that it will actually make a difference, but good grief, how stupid can they be?

(Wonder if an Escher print qualifies as obscenity?)