Mastophobia

[mbarrick]

Mastophobia from the Greek μαστος (mastos), meaning breast. and φοβος (phobos) fear - fear of breasts. You might think this should be mammophobia or mammaphobia, but mamma is Latin and a correctly formed phobia name should be formed with the Greek to match the "phobia" part, although there are a lot of exceptions.

The reason I bring this is because this peculiarly American affliction has presented itself as a significant problem. It's quite legal for a woman to go topless in Vancouver. Making photos in the alternative and bohemian night clubs, and at avant garde fashion shows means there are a few exposed breasts in my photography portfolio and more than a few on Gothic BC. It's really absurd that I should have ever had to spend any time with this, but American mastophobia means that these images have wound Gothic BC in particular on content blacklists, which have affected other sites I serve, such as valerian's store or my résumé site.

How absurd and extreme is American mastophobia? Try using the image to the right, which is a detail from a Leonardo da Vinci painting, as your default icon for a while. Livejournal has consistently deemed images of breast-feeding "inappropriate" for default icons. People using images derived from vintage photographic artworks where a breast is visible have gotten in trouble for it, so clearly their rule of thumb using the "Miller Test" and artistic value is just lip-service. And, moving away from Livejournal, let's not forget the Janet Jackson Superbowl nipple incident that whipped up more righteous indignation than their president lying through his teeth to start a war.

So, in order to deal with this absurdity, I started looking at ways to protect myself from American mastophobia. That's what my experiment with GeoIP look-ups back in May was about. Turns out I was overcomplicating the solution and came up with a better approach this weekend. I should be able to finish it off this week and get this ridiculous issue behind me once and for all.