Thursday, October 11, 2012

"Ground Rules and Norms" in practice

In one of our classes we write daily journal entries.  I've been asked to share more of the writing I'm doing for class, and I think this one is a good place to start.  I've adapted it a little for public reading, since it was originally written for people inside my program to read.









I was having a discussion with someone on twitter recently about circumcision.  I’m decidedly anti-circumcision.  Regardless of your own personal feelings on it aesthetically and physically you must admit that it’s a surgery practiced on infants.  I don’t think that we should give anyone elective surgeries before they’re able to consent to them.  If the kid wants to cut his foreskin off later, let him decide.  Let’s not get into that whole debate, though.  I want to make a different point and share some different information.

I shared with this person that though my own feelings are different, attitudes in the United States seem to be pro-circumcision.  I gave some common reasons I hear for circumcision

“Only downsides to uncut is that you have to pay attention to washing under it and it MAY make it easier to get SOME STIs”

I only had 140 characters so I left out the two other most common reasons.  Religious tradition or, “so he’ll look like his father” (really? Do guys compare dicks w/their dads so often that this is an issue?).

I don’t think that what I said was that offensive.  When you have a bit of skin that insulates another part of your body, you do have to pay attention to washing underneath.  Someone who lacks that same bit wouldn’t think to do that.

He responded, “Curious, but have you EVER had trouble washing YOUR genitals? It pisses me off that people talk about men like we're slobs...”

Clearly this is an issue that means a lot to him and he’s a little sensitive.  At this point, I should have told him that I wouldn’t continue the discussion until he calmed down. 

I responded, “Women are taught to wash there. In areas where circumcision is common, men aren't taught that.”  In a subsequent tweet I made it clear I was teasing him and said, “Have dated way more men than women who didn't consider hygiene important” (which is totally true, though my over-all numbers are something like 10 men and 6 women, too small to be a representative sample)

He responded, “Oh, for heaven's sake. Really? You think a man needs to be told to wash his dick? You need to raise your standards, darling.” And, “This screams of sexism. It's infuriating.”

Yes, actually I DO think people need to be taught to do things.  I distinctly remember being taught to wash my genitals.  My mother is not at all comfortable talking about “sex stuff” but I remember being in the tub while she told me that I had to “gently wash everywhere that skin touches itself” and mimed washing behind the ears, under the arms, between the toes and then spreading the labia.  I particularly remember many women’s health resources mentioning not to use soap, just rinse thoroughly.

In my decidedly unscientific study of boyfriends, close friends and cohorts at school (we’re a very open bunch of people, human sexuality students) most of the men could not remember having been told specifically to wash their dicks in the “behind the ears” washing lesson.  One man, who is from Europe, said that he remembers learning it in a film they watched in school.

At this point, it was clear that my twitter partner was getting too angry to continue the conversation in a rational manner, so I told him I was only sharing anecdotal evidence and it was over until he calmed down. To which he sullenly replied, “I gave you some anecdotal evidence right back.”

I was hurt and shocked.  I’d spent valuable time discussing something that I think is important with a stranger.  He had contacted my professional twitter and I graciously answered some very personal questions (which I left out of this essay) for free, only to immediately get my standards questioned and my head bitten off when I said something he didn’t want to hear.

This is why people don’t have discussions any more.  Why put yourself out when you’re going to get spat upon? In retrospect, I shouldn’t have teased him, I should have realized that he was too personally invested in the issue to have a sense of humor about it.  Also, with the character limit, twitter is probably not the best place to have important discussions that could benefit from explanations of over 140 characters.

While reflecting on this, my first thought was, “that never would have happened in class”.  We have a document called, “Ground Rules and Norms”, which is similar to something I learned when I took a public speaking class in undergrad.  Right up there with learning how to wash our genitals, we humans need to learn how to speak and listen.  The ground rules provide a simple guide that helps you really listen to your cohorts, identify when something hurts or resonates with you and then be able to respond to the person in a constructive, non-hurtful manner.  I think that these norms can be adapted to most all situations where people can speak with each other, so I’m sharing them with you here.  Perhaps they’ll help create some constructive conversations.  Once you read over these, I’m sure you can read back through the twitter conversation and identify areas in which both I, and my speaking partner could have improved!

1.     “Radical Inclusion” - Be open to multiple perspectives.
2.     Active listening
a.     Give the speaker eye contact.
b.     Respond actively. 
                                               i.     “…and then he did this” “Oh?”  “Yes, I thought that it was […]” “No kidding!  Tell me more” “That was all, really”  “Thanks for sharing!”
                                             ii.     instead of, “…and then he did this” “mmhm”  “Yes, I thought that it was […]” “mmhm”"...?"
c.     Make sure you wait a few moments before responding, so that you know the speaker is done speaking.
3.     Move in/Move out; Leave space and time for everyone to participate.  Sometimes you must go against your natural inclination.  Extroverts move out and introverts move in
4.     “Don’t yuck on someone else’s yum”
5.     Have respect for others
a.     Framing - Make time for explanations.  Let someone finish or explain.
b.     Use “I” messages/statements – Rather than making general statements as if they are true/real for everyone; Taking ownership of your own statements.  It may be true for you, but not others.
c.     Ask questions if you don’t understand someone.
d.     It’s okay to disagree.  The discussion may not reach a consensus.  You may have to end with understanding and valuing that you disagree.
6.     Confidentiality – We will want to share things outside of class room, but do not repeat anything of a personal matter with identifying characteristics, such as name, outside of class
7.     “One voice” – Respect the person speaking at a time; No side conversations
8.     Respect your own boundaries.  Don’t share beyond your level of comfort.
9.     “Ouch” – If something is difficult or brings up difficult feelings, say “Ouch” and then you have a choice to share or not share why that is.  The other people in the group know that this is a sensitive subject for you.
10.  Check in – Share when someone says something that is offensive and/or upsetting to you using “I” messages/statements.  We cannot always know how we are perceived by other people and helps to clear the air
11.  When someone says something that really resonates with you be respectful in how you approach them about the subject later. Give them a choice to discuss it further or not.
12.  Practice respectful non-judgmental communication
13.  Assume good intent.  It may not “come off” in the way the speaker intended.  Assume anything that may have sounded bad was well intentioned then ask for clarification.
14.  “100% responsibility” – Do your best to make this experience a quality learning experience for everyone

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Reasons for a professional name

I use pics from r/earthporn as filler images for test sites. This client loves the test image so much they'd like me to contact the original photographer and see if he'll sell them usage rights to the image.

"Oh sure!" I say, "I'm sure they'll be thrilled. Here, we can look it up right now."

We go to r/earthporn and I find the picture in minutes. The person's username is "TurdsMcpoopsalot*" My eyes widen. The bosses look at each other, wince, and look back at me.

"On second thought, we'll just go with the other stock image that you were telling us about."

Your username is seen by all sorts of people. Some whom you'd never even think of.

*I edited the username a little in an attempt to give ole' Turds some anonymity but, yes, that's essentially what it originally was.

Friday, March 16, 2012

A note for new models

You'll buy clear or nude shoes because some photographer will emphatically tell you that they're, "a modeling essential". You want to be professional, so this sounds serious. You'll cart them around everywhere but you'll never wear them. Eventually you'll leave them at home, where they'll gather dust in your closet. Only a short while after that you'll show up to a shoot where the photographer will assume that you have clear or nude shoes with you. He'll be upset and will seem personally disappointed in you that you don't have them. When you tell him that he should have told you to bring them if he'd wanted them that badly he'll stare at you agog.

"You're a professional model! You should always have them with you! They're a modeling essential!" he'll say in a way that's just as know-it-all and just as emphatic as the first guy was.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

On being laid off

Laid. The word is much more fun when it has to do with sex than with being fired. The temp agency I work for came back from the holidays with an email, "about the future of our company"

Hey look! It's the corporate version of, "baby, we have to talk."

Interlude, if you've just joined the party here's the deal. I took a job from a friend a few years ago when I returned to Richmond to finish my degree. I would help her by adding another web designer to her temp agency, she would help me by giving me a stable source of income I could rely on while I couldn't travel for modeling because I was taking classes three days a week. It was the perfect situation! I had a stable income and health insurance!

Oh health insurance. I'm going to miss you so.

Anyway. My job was web design and maintenance. Lots of small companies need a web person but can't afford to or have no need to have a person on staff full time. The agency would send me out to them and I would work howeverlong they needed me to. Usually they wanted someone to update or create their site and then didn't need me again. Some of my favorites (like the one where the boss commented frequently about my footwear being too sexy) wanted me once every few weeks to update the site, keep backups and/or do security updates. So that was what I did. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

So this email. The company is being rolled into another, larger company that does similar stuff. I don't know whether the owners sold it or the other company offered to buy it or what. My friend left the company a few months ago so I can't pry the answer out of her with margaritas. The office I kept my stuff in will be closed by the end of January and the employees the boss negotiated to keep will be moving on to permanent positions in the larger company. The larger company already has its own web people so me and the other designey-type tech are outta there.

My boss was really nice about, "I'll try to keep you on however I can! All the former clients already know you and they'll want you to work on their sites." He says that he knows for certain I have one more website to finish and at least three hours of work a month for one client. The other design tech we have has already sent me an email asking if I'd like to work together doing freelance work "on the side".

Of course this all comes after I've found that I do -in fact- owe my college almost 6 grand and took out a loan for a new car. I'd gotten used to the stability of the day job, having some place to be every Monday and knowing that I'd most likely have at least three days of work in a paycheck at the end of the week. Not having to canvas up modeling jobs and travel all over the place was nice.

...But I was getting bored. Antsy, restless. It was hard to concentrate on anything so I stopped doing everything. I was falling behind in my website work and my modeling work. I was starting to resent the day job. Starting to feel boring.

Maybe this is good. Perhaps I can use the skills I learned in the day job to add structure and time management to my freelance modeling and do better at modeling this time around. Time to spread my wings and soar? (in a more controlled manner than last time) she adds, under her breath, picturing a dove sailing out over the valleys with a watch on one feather and a briefcase full of actuary tables in the opposite claw.

...Hm.

Well. Anyway! I think this is a good thing. I think I was getting distracted. Doing something because it was easy and felt like a grown up thing to do. It's time to take stock of what I really want to do and chart a new heading. I'm open to ideas!

Monday, December 27, 2010

How to lose the job

I'm hiring for someone to assist me in my business, doing the website, photo editing and things like that. I know that I'm offering a low rate for tech work but it's menial, entry level work so I'm offering an entry level wage. The following is an exchange with an applicant that I will title, "How to assure that you'll never work for me."

"I can help you with all of your needs - but I'm looking closer to $25/hr as $10 is entry level to work in a kitchen or something like that and with 20 years of experience my knowledge and experience is worth the price of admission."

I respond, "Thanks for your interest in the position but that's [25$ pr hr] over double what our budget is. If that's what you require, this opportunity isn't for you."

He replies, "I understand budgets and also know what my worth is to a company when I assist them."

Nice. Way to stay classy there with your attempt to bully me into hiring you even when I've said twice (once in the posting and once in my reply) that I can't afford such a rate. Hang on, let me think about this a little bit. For it to be worth it to me to hire you, you'd have to bring in -from the work you do- double your wages. So that's 50$ pr hr, 800$ pr week. How exactly will you be able to do that by editing photos and video, helping me with the scheduling and posting those updates on my sites and clips stores? You wont. That's why I'm hiring someone at a lower rate!

I just think it's incredibly egotistical to respond to a job posting with qualifications I'm not looking for, demanding a rate that's double what I posted. Perhaps in the future I would be looking to hire someone for higher level web work and search engine optimization but I would hire someone with experience in the adult industry and it certainly won't be this douche bag now.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

I'm only 12 inside

Esther and I both have guests staying with us this week so I was really looking forward to coming home to a house full of people. Everyone had gone somewhere so the house was empty and depressing when I got in. I got set to eat dinner, mope around and go to bed when I saw the new bucky ball art on our fridge.


Amusing, to be sure, but it had to be changed. A few minutes later and we had our new masterpiece.

The original artist had left a half-completed face made from the rest of the bucky balls on the freezer. Not one to leave a task half complete I fixed it up for him. I'm quite proud of his little erect dong sticking out from the fridge. That actually took some doing. It's the simple things, really....when one is still 12 years old inside.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Don't make me go all Vanilla Ice

I'm telling RP I want to train the dog to go apeshit on a verbal trigger in case of mugging, etc.

"I'll say, 'she's ferocious.' and she'll go nuts and scare them off!"

"Nah, you want something you don't use otherwise like, 'Vanilla Ice'."

"What?! How do work 'Vanilla Ice' into a mugging conversation?"

"I think you're allowed a certain leeway in a mugging situation. 'Don't make me go all Vanilla Ice on your ass!' ...and then it would be what everyone was saying the next year."

He promptly launches into an involved story about how the mugger would tell his friends and then they'd start using it and Vanilla Ice would eventually hear it "up in his mansion somewhere and then he'd be all offended, 'I don't know where that came from! I'm a really nice guy! I mean, I would never go all Vanilla Ice on someone. Oh no! I said it!'"

Yes, I posted this solely to see if I can make that actually happen.