Thursday, June 9, 2011

Community

A couple of days ago, a good friend of mine was unintentionally (intentionally??) smeared by a link aggregator, who copied/linked/stole without attribution a picture of her and posted it as 'porn'. I won't even call that person a blogger, as there doesn't seem to be much original thought there.

My good friend politely asked that the photo that he stole be taken down, and the blog title be changed to something less misogynistic. He refused. The gun blogging community is taking action in shunning this person and contacting his advertisers.

Good for them.

In my post below, "Painting targets on our clay feet", I tried to point out that we as an interest group need to move past the need to 'porn' our sport. Especially when it comes to portraying the fairer sex and their participation in our community. There are plenty of positive examples of women in our sport who are accomplished. There is no need to 'porn' them. They should be celebrated because of their accomplishments, not because they are women. I am quite sure that Julie Golob Golosky, Molly Smith, Tam, and Breda can all out-shoot me. I am not threatened by this at all. In fact, I welcome it. Let me buy some more ammo for them if it helps advance our sport in a positive light to all women.

Some of the comments on my 'clay feet' post assumed that I objected to the Lucky Gunner 'ammo waitresses', even though I tried to be very clear that this was not the case. That post had been stewing in my brain for many months prior because of my interactions with my wife, daughter, sons, and their female friends.

The 'gun culture' has an uphill climb with women. Try and deny it, but that is a fact. Any tour through your average gun store with your wife, girlfriend, or daughter in-tow will affirm this. And, we need to fix it. It starts with us.

Speaking of Lucky Gunner: As a matter of policy, I do not accept advertising. I link to the Second Amendment Foundation prominently, but accept no money from them. I believe in what they stand for and the work that they do. Beginning today, you will see a link to Lucky Gunner right below the SAF logo, in response to their support of Breda. I will not accept any funds from them, nor will I post an ad from them. However, they have shown themselves to be a part of our community. For this, I thank them.

Pax,

Newbius

9 comments:

North said...

I don't know her at all. But nobody should have to put up with a post that includes their name and the word 'Porn' on another blog.

I'm strongly a gentleman. Most assuredly this 'blogger' is far on the other end of the scale. He has proven himself to be a cad by denying the request to change the title.

Broken Andy said...

What happened to Breda was shameful. But truthfully, I would never have seen that guys blog if not for the fury over this issue.

On the point about the gun industry:

"Any tour through your average gun store with your wife, girlfriend, or daughter in-tow will affirm this. And, we need to fix it."

Sorry, I was just in a gun store today and didn't see anything objectionable. I can't think of any local gun stores that do. Now, some of the gun rags have ads that use scantily clad women for advertisement, but they are certainly in the minority.

I don't think the gun industry is any different than the automotive industry, segments of which use the female figure to sell cars. Actually, I think the overall firearms community is actually more tame.

Newbius said...

Andy, how did they treat the woman who was with you? If you sent your significant other into the store without you, how would she be treated? As an interested, serious consumer? Or, something else? I know I am painting with broad strokes here. Unfortunately, in far too many cases, the portrayal is accurate.

Broken Andy said...

Sorry. I was unclear. I was by myself today. But... I've been in a gun store many times accompanied by a female. With the particular store I was in today, NOVA Arms, I was once in there with my five-year old daughter. They let her sit on the stool behind the counter. They wouldn't let me do that though. Something about she being a cute child.

When my son was 2 months old, I took him into Virginia Arms. Have you ever seen full-grown, high-speed, low drag types (and I'm talking men here) crowd around a baby carrier and make googly faces at an infant? It's a bit surreal, but that's what happened.

I can only think of one time when I was in a gun store with a woman and the salesman said something offensive... and he made sure my accompanying female couldn't hear it.

Seriously. Maybe I'm way out of tune on these things, but in the retail space in NoVA I don't see it. Again, you can find it in gun rags but even there its nothing like the hot rod magazines.

Broken Andy said...

And I just realized I didn't answer your question. If I sent my wife in without me...

At NOVA Arms I think the lady working there on Saturdays would treat her well. At most other places, I think it would be equivalent to sending her into a car dealership without me; some of the men will assume she lacks knowledge and play on that to make a sale, but I doubt any would do something stupid and say something offensive.

Newbius said...

I really do want to get into NoVA Arms. It sounds like a nice place.

Old NFO said...

Good points and I agree.

B said...

Sadly, he claims he doesn't speak for LG....

And according to others (I won't return to the offending site) their ad is still there, and (one would assume) generating revenue for the offender.

If it doesn't get taken down, then I'll spend my not inconsiderable ammo budget elsewhere.

And I told 'em so via email.

Dave said...

I spoke my mind and will not be back to that site. The main reason was the attitude, she didn't say pretty please or some crap along those lines. Nuff said.

On the women in gun stores, I watched a woman bring a very nice .40 cal handgun into a store to trade. She owned the gun for self defense AND CARRIED it for 5+ years. She said it was just too difficult to rack the slide; she then went on to explained how she had put maybe 50 rounds through it. Off they went trying to sell her a 38 snubby when what she really needed was training and range time.