Gloria de Piero is the Shadow Minister for Women for the UK’s Labour Party. The Labour Party would historically be seen as a left-of-centre, ‘socialist’ party, although goodness knows how they pass muster as ‘socialists’ anymore, given that they’re now stuffed with public schoolboys and ‘professional politicians’. Although that’s probably another argument for another day. Indeed, Ms de Piero appears to be one of the few Labour Members of Parliament left who actually has ‘working class’, ergo, left-wing, socialist roots. That said, it can hardly be fairly argued that a previous career in the media particularly equips one, Ms de Piero or anyone else for that matter, to really comprehend working life as understand by many with working class roots, working in shops, on post-modern ‘assembly lines’ (i.e. call centres) or being unemployed.

For those outside the UK, let me explain that it means she speaks on women’s issues on behalf of the political party who are currently ‘in opposition’, i.e. not currently the party of government. But in the eventuality of a Labour election win, in 2015 (or earlier) she could conceivably be a member of the UK government’s ‘cabinet’. (Think ‘Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State’, and you’ll have some idea of where her political power -at least in the topic of women’s rights- lies. And she could, of course, rise to higher office within the cabinet.

And this week, here in the UK, Ms de Piero’s bread and butter work has become somewhat derailed by the news that she posed, topless, at age 15, to earn some money. That’s in 1988, by my reckoning, since she’s now 40 years of age. Not such a long time ago. And apparently, this week, a search was conducted to unearth these photographs.

As usual, I sighed a sigh of disbelief when I read the story, for so many reasons. Firstly, it’s rather sad that the political system, of which she’s now a part, was failing teenagers in the industrial north of England (she’s from Bradford, Yorkshire), to such an extent that she felt compelled to undertake such actions, and at such a tender age. Hpw many of her contemporaries were placed in similar positions? How many ended up taking drugs, dealing drugs, entering prostitution and (perhaps) entering the penal system, either as ‘young offenders’ or ‘adult criminals’ as a result of this failure of politics?

Secondly, who’s doing the searching? Members of the Conservative (the centre-right party currently in government) Party? Is it political black-ops? Is it a crude attempt to discredit her work, in the position she currently holds, and in general? Is it by ‘Fleet Street’ (the name traditionally given to the British media)? What’s the agenda if that’s the case? Is it by an editor of a right-leaning paper?

And regardless of who’s doing the searching, what’s the intended conclusion? Publication? Of photos of a fifteen year old? Hang on a moment, doesn’t that qualify as paedophilia? Doesn’t the original photographer also have a case to answer in terms of ‘child abuse’ or paedophilia?

So many questions. And they go on.

This is where I take off my SLN editor’s hat and fulminate purely as a woman and as a (soft) feminist, expressing surprise, concern, rage and contempt that women’s breasts continue to be deemed newsworthy, with photos being deemed searchable.

Gentlemen of the political machine, the media and (possibly even) the forces of law. They’re tits. 50% of the global population has them, and we should be away beyond caring about this stuff anymore. And, be honest, the likelihood is that the male, well-lunched, corpulent ‘investigative journalists’ doing the searching and the exploitation probably have bigger tits than a fifteen year old schoolgirl!

Such is the giggling (public?) schoolboy, stunted-sexuality of the various arms of the British social ‘machine’, the media machine, the political machine, the legal machine, the ‘security’ machine.

I find it loathesome.

OTHER COUNTRIES DO IT DIFFERENTLY

Spanish politician Olvido Hormigos reacted to allegations of a sex-tape in circulation by posing topless for a magazine.

Former topless model Mara Carfagna became Minister for Equal Opportunities in the Italian government.

Natalia Juarez (Mexico), Alessandra Mussolini (Italy) and Tania Derveaux (Belgium) have all used toplessness and/or nudity as part of their past or current political careers.

And I couldn’t let this post go by without referencing a particularly odious example of a topless politician….

Calm down, ladies! 🙂 While his rod’s out, he’s only got a tiddler.

AND HOW A BRITISH TABLOID NEWSPAPER MIGHT REPORT IT. BECAUSE IT’S ‘NEWS’. BECAUSE IT’S GOT ‘A MINOR CELEBRITY WITH BARE BREASTS’ IN IT.

I’m grateful to my SL friend Lady Marjorie (not a SL or RL naturist) for daring to go topless, for our benefit and this post. A self-styled ‘minor member of the British aristocracy’, in her SL guise, she essentially roleplays this with her ‘husband’ (they’re not married in RL), Sir Tarquin. You’ve maybe spotted them at places like Frank’s Jazz Club, dancing. Anyway, I’m friends with Marjorie because she’s a hoot, and I like that she and ‘Tarquin’ have essentially invented these roles, and then roleplay, without necessarily being in a RP sim.

And she thought it would be enormously funny, basically being known as someone permanently bedecked in formal dresses, to be ‘caught frolicing’ with a ‘toyboy’ (another SL friend of mine).

Because this is how the British media would report her presence on a sunny beach, semi-dressed. They might even speculate that he’s ‘her personal trainer’ or such like.

Inside their ‘rag’, these investigative journalists would then publish photos that look like they were taken at half-a-mile’s distance, with a phone camera, and serve it up in ‘the public interest’.

Rant over, I think. I have nothing but contempt for the British press, or whoever’s leading the search for this MP’s photos. Is she doing a good job in her role? Is she a good constituency MP? That’s all we need to know, or care about.

Breasts should no longer be news in the media. Other European countries understand that. Why can’t we?

Ella

I know that with the explosion of social media in recent years much has been made in the press of the phenomenons of selfies and sexting, probably reaching some sort of conlusion (or not!) with snapchat and snaphack.

Ever done this sort of thing?

I have to admit I’ve sent ‘selfies’ to my significant RL other. Non-nude, but when we’ve been made to spend time apart I’ve sent him the odd photo so that I’m in his thoughts, however briefly. And he’s done the same to me.

Sexting? That depends on how you wish to define text messages between two people in a relationship. Does a text saying ‘I miss you’ qualify as sexting? ‘I miss cuddles’? ‘I miss us making love’? Where do common or garden messages of affection tip over into ‘sexting’? I don’t know. In that respect I may, or may not, have been guilty of sexting.

Snapchat? I’ve not used it. If I want to send my S.O. a photo, I send him a photo. If I’m in a foreign city, I send him photos. Lots of ’em. Of cafes, the sights, stuff like that. He can save them, I can save them. I don’t have a particular need to send him photos of briefly available shots of me wearing lingerie. Neither does he particularly feel the need to send me photos of him in his briefs. Of course, lol, we do do ‘Facetime’ when we’re apart, rather than Skype, but it’s essentially the same thing. And occasionally he’s off in Germany, France, Poland, wherever, on business, in his hotel at the end of the day, post-shower, and he ‘Facetimes’. And occasionally he’s on the bed in his boxer shorts and/or T shirt and, in summer, maybe even nude, sat on a bed, when he calls me. And, yep, occasionally, I catch a glimpse of his torso or even his…haha….’junk’ 🙂

He wouldn’t ‘snapchat’ either. If he sees something interesting, he sends me a photo we both can keep. Wenceslas Square, a Parisian cafe, a Paris street, the rain in Berlin. If I wanted a ‘nude portrait, I’d ask, and get him to pose in our apartment. And the reverse is probably true, too. It’s something that has never come up. We know what each other looks like naked. And there again, assuming we remain together for decades into the future, who’s to say that we might not appreciate photos of our younger, sexy, sexual selves when we’re parents or grandparents? Might it not be nice to look back on when we were young and more attractive than we would be in our 70s or 80s?

The river doesn’t flow in two directions here, regarding ‘Facetime’ 🙂 If the reverse is the situation, I’m pretty much tucked up in a bath towel, minimum. 🙂 Is that just me? Is ‘letting it all hang out’ a boy thing? Your thoughts, theories, etc, on a digital postcard.

Would I care (much) if my nude photo, or lingerie photos, ended up on the internet? It’s hard to say. I’ve been nude, in public, dozens of times, on naturist beaches. Maybe I’ve already been photographed nude, I don’t know. While photographs of those occasions would still constitute an invasion of privacy, done without my permission, I’d be more relaxed about their publication on the basis that a) they’re likely to be low resolution photos, from distance, of me in what is sometimes a public location, a public beach. I think I’d be more angry of lingerie photos of me turning up on the internet post-breakup. Or is that just me, again?

Malgorzata (it’s Polish for ‘Margaret’. Prounounced ‘Mar-gor-ata’ -say it out loud to see how it resembles the English ‘Margaret’) takes a selfie for her SL guy.

And Malgorzata looks a little bit shocked when her SL S.O. sends her back his own ‘selfie’ 🙂

You can pick up the ‘selfies’ poses over at the Bounce This poses store. (It’s named ‘Cheeky Pics’ and priced at L$100. A snip! The store also has some other gorgeous poses we’ll be featuring in future posts. Seriously, guys, I think we could fund models to the value of a couple of thousand lindens, easily, just to bring you some interesting poses. 🙂 In fact, we possibly will!!!!

Pookes.

I saw the photo (below) online and wondered if I could replicate it in SL.

Yes, I could.

You can collect a free skateboard and zoom around a skatepark. A word of warning. It’s a ‘teen hangout’ and nudity would be discouraged, I guess. We proceeded with the photos with extreme caution, while no one else was around.

If skateboarding is your thing, it’s worth a visit, but I do stress that you wear at least a pair of shorts.

Harry

No posts from me this week. A head cold (‘girl flu’, if truth be told) is proving hard to shake off. Sneezes, coughs, shivers and sweats. I’ve been in bed since Friday, moving only to take on industrial quantities of chicken soup or hot lemon drinks, and spend time in hot baths in an attempt to shake it.

Fortunately, my RL significant other has been able to nurse me part of the time 🙂

While I’ve not had the opportunity to replicate the photos (below) in RL…he has been nursing me endlessly.

Fantasy material, I guess. A hunky guy (well, he’s my RL hunk!) tending me. And in SL, a hunky guy, clad only in an apron, hahaha, might make my flu-ridden avi feel better about herself.

The apron is part of a French Maid set available at Plausible Body, the shop where you can ‘pay what you like’ for a variety of outfits. 

Plausible Body has a number of terrific outfits available, mostly geared towards the SL ladies. However, with a little imagination (a hunky guy in an apron?) some can be suited to male avis.

Pookes