MSN thinks the word "Pimp" is funny.

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MSN thinks the word "Pimp" is funny.

Postby MaggieH » Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:05 am

I've been having my MSN Hotmail email account (as a personal email address besides my activist one, which is on my website in the "Contact" section) for a while and then recently I noticed that this company MSN was making a joke of prostitution by finding the word "Pimp" as a "cool, trendy, funny" way of marketing their new products to people, and "selling them on" the new version that is called Windows Live Hotmail.

Although people who come to visit my website never see my personal Hotmail address (they see the website's activist email address instead -- I kept my personal address to myself), I have been communicating now and again via email for a couple of months with anti-pornstitution activists via my personal Hotmail address, and now I feel really awkward!

This is an email I sent to my dear friends anti-porn activists yesterday to apologize:


"Dear activists,

I sincerely apologize if any of you has/have received in the past (or will receive in the future) any email(s) from me which contained (contains) any subtitled MSN advert(s) which either said "Pimp my live", "Get pimped" or some "pimping" thing similar to this. It is MSN that does that, not me.

NoPornNorthampton blog recently made a report on this (check it out):

http://nopornnorthampton.org/2007/09/16 ... -live.aspx

I really sincerely feel awkward and stupid. I am still new to the feminist anti-pornstitution activism and just recently got my website up in July. And now you're seing me being on MSN Hotmail and having pro-pimp ads being subtitled underneath my emails by those patriarchal capitalist pigs! I'm so sorry. I apologize.

To be honest with you, I did notice some of those ("pimp") subtitled ads now and again but I was way too busy with my website, my emails, my anti-porn blogging on Genderberg, my studies, my part-time job and other things in my life to be able to take the time to contact MSN and let them know that I wasn't happy about it, that I did not want any of those subtitled "pimp" ads to come up in my emails because I do not want to be any part of this pimp culture due to my opposition to it! I am going to try to contact them very soon though and let them know that. I'm gonna try to find out if it's possible for them to remove any unwanted subtitled ("pimp") ads from my emails or if it's an automatic thing and (in this case) there's nothing I can do about it.

I have had my Hotmail account for ages (I had gotten it a while before I had become fully aware of prostitution and pornography's harms). They seemed like a a really nice company and everything was free (and still is -- I don't pay for this); I was also incredibly naive (on issues like porn, capitalism, patriarchy, pimps and johns,etc...) at the time. And then recently, I had seen their advert for the new Windows live Hotmail version. I didn't want it. I prefered my good old hotmail version and also I absolutely hated the way that they advertized it ("Pimp my live"). So I chose not to take it.

But then very recently (2 days ago), they changed my whole account themselves without even asking me, they took my old Hotmail version away from me and directly re-configurated it to their crappy new Windows live Hotmail version (Oh, fuck! Shit!). They didn't even give me the choice to preserve my old vesion. They "pimped" my account with their new shitty "trendy" configuration which I don't give a fuck about. I think I'm gonna have a word with them, but what can a poor little woman like me can do against a powerful industry like MSN?

They still saved all my files, old emails and my contacts though. It would be a real pain in the a** for me to get rid of my Hotmail account and have to transfer all my important old files and emails I got on there to another company's address (as a new personal email account provider -- like maybe Google or Yahoo mails) as it would take some time, it would take a while. But, should I do it? Should I "break up with" MSN if they are "pimping" my account and making a joke of such human rights' violations such as pornography and prostitution?

I'm really sorry, dear activists, I feel so awkward. But, you know, please do not forget that when I decided to have a hotmail account, I had no idea this was going to happen.

I sincerely hope, dear activists, that you will accept my sincere excuses and that you will know that it is not my fault, it is MSN's fault. (Oh, FUCK BILL GATES!!!)...

Kind regards,

Maggie Hays of Against Pornography at http://www.againstpornography.org / alt. email: info@againstpornography.org

P.S. Thanks to all of you who either linked or refered to my website, by the way!"

Here are a couple of anti-porn activist email replies I received:

-- From [Anti-porn activist] Ms R.:

"Maggie,

don't worry .. it's not your fault,, its not even your choice ! I think hot mail needs a little complainin' going their way don't they !

they might as well say ' RAPE your account / paedophile it up / or Traffick it with us' .. coz that is what a pimp is.

yep should be a campaign against it ! with some media coverage, now that would be nice !

good luck .. let me know .. if you send contact details for complaint etc we could put it up on our site and newsletter (also let me know if you want it in the name of a group)!"

-- From [Anti-porn activist] Ms M.:

"Maggie,

I am so sorry that MSN are using "Pimping" as a joke. That attitude seemed
to be everywhere, and is a way of brainwashing people to see pimps as
harmless fun. I am so sick of living in a world where prostitution is just
part of the entertainment industry. All harms done in prostitution are being
made invisible.
This hurts so much. I am so glad to know that are people who speak out about
the harms of prostitution.
I hope that your emails get sorted asap. Yours with respect, [Ms M.]"


I'm planning on contacting MSN as soon as possible and seriously complain to them! But, what should I do or say? I've got a few ideas. I HATE THIS WHOLE FUCKING PIMP CULTURE. However, does any of you has any suggestion(s) at all by any chance about what course of action which should be taken? -- M.H.
"The assumption that "most women are innately heterosexual'' stands as a theoretical and political stumbling block for many women. It remains a tenable assumption, partly because lesbian existence has been written out of history or catalogued under disease;. . . partly because to acknowledge that for women heterosexuality may not be a "preference" at all but something that has had to be imposed, managed, organized, propagandized and maintained by force is an immense step to take if you consider yourself freely and "innately" heterosexual. Yet the failure to examine heterosexuality as an institution is like failing to admit that the economic system called capitalism or the caste system of racism is maintained by a variety of forces, including both physical violence and false consciousness. . ."
-- Adrienne Rich, in Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence: http://www.terry.uga.edu/~dawndba/4500compulsoryhet.htm

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.” ~ Alice Walker
MaggieH
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