> Mingle2: "What's my blog rated?"
This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
gay (5x) lesbian (4x) dick (1x)
On the one hand, an amusing exercise.
On the other hand, quite disappointing and homophobic. It reinforces
heteronormativity by suggesting that "gay" and "lesbian" are "adult" words, somehow sinister and dirty. And it marginalises gay and lesbian youth: the
corollary of "gay" and "lesbian" being adult concepts is the implication that young people are or should be "heterosexual" - it suggests that homosexuality is somehow incompatible with being a young person.
Nothing new though. This type of discrimination is prevalent in filtering software used by businesses. I have several friends who have had emails and website intercepted or blocked because of the presence of terms like gay and lesbian.
3 comments:
And after this post, you're up to NC-17...
Dean, I found something similarly disappointing in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. They've got an imitation Turing Test machine, where you type text chat and the machine responds. I was typing some facts about Alan Turing, one of them being 'Alan Turing was homosexual'. I was told that my text contained unacceptable content. I tried the same sentence with 'hetero' subbed for 'homo', and it went through with no problems. Very disappointing, especially in Sydney of all places.
I just rated smh.com and it was restricted too:
* death (4x)
* murder (3x)
* kill (2x)
* sexy (1x)
David Farrar ranting blog is a mild PG-13 with:
* shit (1x)
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