Revenge porn, paedophilia, hate crimes and bots
disseminating hatred, bile or division: all will agree that these things are
very bad and should have no place in a civilised society. Tumblr, in particular,
for some reason has a wealth of posts celebrating the above issues, something
that the powers that be, that is to say, those in charge of the site, have now
decided to do something about.
Great, you might think, and it would be great if Tumblr had
decided to delicately remove the unwanted, illegal or unsavoury elements whilst
allowing users to continue to use the site to express themselves sexually,
either by posting anecdotes or images about their personal tastes and
preferences and/ or fetishes. Instead, Tumblr has decided on a blanket ban of
all adult content, no matter whether it is legal, a bit of fun, or a serious
life line for a youngster with alternative tastes.
So, the ban is not so great after all. The illegal
activities – which absolutely should be removed and those users banned and/ or
reported depending on the seriousness of their criminality – only make up a
small part of Tumblr and are, in fact, even a relatively small part of sexual
expression Tumblr.
Tumblr celebrates the differently sexual. While most porn is
designed to please men, with a focus on penetrative sex (sometimes with some
girl on girl action that is purely designed for men to enjoy, not for lesbians)
with females depicted as submissive and docile, while men are active and
forceful, Tumblr has, since 2014 garnered a healthy reputation as a place where
video clips, texts and photographs of LGBT+ and non-penetrative sexual pleasures
can be found for those whose tastes run in those directions.
