Comments, Contact, Housekeeping
CONTACT
Susie Bright, POB 8377, Santa Cruz, CA 95061
office@susiebright.com
THE CRAZY PLACES
COMMENTS
I love your feedback. And I’d love to have it here, where it doesn’t get lost or subsumed in social media noise.
Let’s talk!
Comments on my blog here, are for paid subscribers.
The paid-sub exists to support the work, and make sure we’re all interested in being here. No one can wander in and pull a Louis!
Treat the comments discussion like you’re in my kitchen, with my friends, old and new. I’ve just served you a meal and we’re relaxing and talking. No ad-hominem attacks, no rude stunts, no ads. I’d appreciate it if you used your own name, so I can recognize you.
I think it’s easy if you keep the kitchen scene in mind!
I’ll moderate the comments from my end— which yes, is laborious but worth it— and if you see anyone breaking glass, you can always let me know if I missed it.
See you there…
For Old Timers: What Happened to Susie’s Old Blog?
From 1998-2004, I went to the Supreme Court of the United States, to fight their ridiculous prohibitions against internet free speech.
We won.
In a class action suit along with everyone from the ACLU to Booksellers and Librarians, we triumphed.
Yes, the Supremes themselves ruled on Susie's Bright's Journal, as my work had been cited in prominent cases to determine first amendment rights on the Web.
My blog, was used as the exhibit of “someone who writes about sex who isn’t terrible.” They needed a volunteer. I was a “credible intellectual” who employed sexual speech in her writing. It was patronizing, but someone had to do it. Justice Breyer complained it wasn’t more titillating. You want to find out just how ignorant the Supremes are, ask them about sex…
At another point, Justice Stephen G. Breyer asked for specific examples of Web sites that were not pornographic but could run afoul of the law's prohibitions. Justice Breyer said that he looked at examples provided by the American Civil Liberties Union in its legal brief and could not find one that fell that into that middle ground.
Ann Beeson, a lawyer for the civil liberties union, cited examples that included "lesbian and gay pleasure" and "the pleasure of sex outdoors," and the works of a sex columnist, Susie Bright. But the discussion moved on without growing more explicit, and decorum was preserved." - NYTIMES
Our side won, but my web site, where I spent 20 years writing, became listed on every firewall and Nanny-Ware list. Even my own family would get blocked from my site, when they tried to reach me through work.
It wasn’t just me. This determination of NSFW, was applied to feminist and gay-interest sites. The search for words like abortion, clitoris, and gay marriage, are the typical way to get targetted by NSFW filters. It was prejudicial.
As a matter of practice, there was no content on my blog, text or pictures, that you couldn't find on The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, or Vanity Fair. Their money and status kept them immune. I once wrote Google to complain about the hypocrisy, and in a very candid reply, someone there dared to answer me personally: “Your site doesn’t make millions. It’s never going to change.”
I advise other writers and publishers to stop using NSFW descriptions in their work. Be specific, truthful, and make your case, as the First Amendment affords you.
Examples: "This link is feminist.— This link has reproductive rights information. — This is an artists' site."
There is nothing illegal or obscene in my work. Not in this country. It’s protected speech, which is a beautiful thing. It is a remarkable aspect of this country that doesn’t exist anywhere else, and it’s an uphill fight every day to keep it alive.
My work is banned in many countries, and there’s not a legal thing to do about it. I’m looking at you, Canada. England. I was invited once to talk on this subject in Singapore, where of course my work cannot be seen. And the personal experience of a whole country fighting to SAY what they THINK, is something I’ll not forget. Thank you to all my comrades there…
I've written in detail about what's going on behind firewalls and NSFW labels— they're no favor to anyone, and a disaster for democracy.
Political dissidents all over the world face these labels, and sexual politics are a particular political target. You shut people up about sex, and there’s your wedge. They keep plowing, every time.
Look forward to seeing you here on Substack. I’m glad to have a subscribers’ blog, where we can speak without fear or favor!