Pinterest: the good, the bad and the ugly
Today I realized I’ve got 170 followers in Pinterest. Granted, some people out there have hundreds of thousands. But, still, for something I don’t nurture per se, it’s quite a lot. But I’m not here to pat myself on the back. No, ma’am.
I’ve known and used pinterest for a while (damn, I was a beta user, I’m that metal). And I keep on having two feelings:
- it’s awesome
- something went wrong with it along the way
And here’s where I get into dangerous mud. Let’s begin the nice part, shall we? It works. As simple as that. It does what it does brilliantly. Also, it’s totally genius when it comes to keeping the sources of your pins (Tumblr, you suck at this). Asthetically it’s bang on and it’s super user and community friendly. Yay.
Now, how do I put this? When I started using it, I did not expect it to be the way it is now. And I do not know if their founders imagined it either. For some reason, it’s very, very… glittery? pinky? Most users are women, granted. Now, plenty of women out there are more than happy to avoid pink and glitter and unicorns and lingerie ads. But for some reason, lots of pinners focus precisely on all of these (with a few brilliant exceptions).
The internet is a free land, and I pin both sheer awesome inspiration (I’ve got a board for research on hair in art and another one for smells and art; one dedicated to how women are portrayed); and, at the same time, more WI-like boards (vegan cooking, stuff for the wedding, interiors). I do that because, as I’ve said, Pinterest works for keeping my virtual sh*t together and I happen to eat and like sofas. Guilty. But I’ve had problems with fellow pinners demanding my non-WI boards to be taken down.
Because, you see, some of the art I was researching was… offensive. Gasp! No way! Oh dear. I would have never got into Contemporary Art if I didn’t think it would be totally toddler friendly and politically correct (no, I have no children.
So here we have a community that has strongly anti-gay opinions, posts naked dudes and naked ladies as “thinspiration” or “eye candy” and cannot possibly take that I want to post images of a performance (which, for your information had no gore at all).
The worst part is that Pinterest does take down these images. I’ve been tempted to remove my membership many times but damn, the site works. But every now or then my pins get deleted.
Now, I do not know who the 170 people who follow my boards are. And probably they like my interiors better than my contemporary art researches. But hey, pin and let pin.
And if anybody know an alternative Pinterest-land where all pinners are Ok with the diversity of the internet, please do point it my way. Thanks.
