After taking care of Hacker Boy with a 100+ fever all weekend and trying to meet deadlines (and enduring an insanely sex-negative, biased interview with Details asking about how women in porn are a result of ‘childhood trauma’ and questions about porn’s ‘psychological damage’) I get *this* idiocy from Times Online UK:

And there are endless sites offering the full 2.0 sex experience. Violet Blue calls herself a “pro-blogger, podcaster, vlogger and femmebot”. She’s written “ultimate guides” to cunnilingus and fellatio and, of course, The Smart Girl’s Guide to the G-Spot. Her site is a sex shop and supermarket of self-promotion - lust and recognition all in one super-refined techno-package. As one leading British thinker put it, “How come the highest technology is always used for the lowest purposes?”

But what is really new in all this is the attention-seeking, the overpowering need for recognition. “Sex is an amazing driving force,” says [Esther] Dyson. “Attention isn’t quite that visceral, but it’s going to be a strong force in the future.”

Link.

Fuck you, Times Online — and Brian Appleyard. This is not a sex shop. Sex is not a “lower purpose”. I’m the only one in your vacuous piece who doesn’t give a shit about fame. Take your attention elsewhere.

Update: In my inbox from last month, two emails from Brian Appleyard. Re-reading them in contrast to his finished article (and the overwhelmingly sex-negative bias in it), I’d say that he was totally misleading in telling me about what kind of article he was planning. His emails are not what his piece (”Notorious Nobodies”) was about *at all*. And, Ill say it’s likely his sentences about me were a slap for not responding to him. So, more douchebags with access to the press. But then again, it’s clear in his article he’s writing about 2.0 from the outside. n00b. His emails are below:

From: Bryan Appleyard [redacted]
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 1:55 AM
To: violetblue@sfgate.com
Subject: Interview

Dear Ms Blue,
I am writing a major article on prominent people/ celebs on the web and I’d very much like to include you. I’d be grateful if we could fix a telephone/video interview in the near future,. Please feel free to look at my site and read the kind of articles I do.
Bryan Appleyard

From: Bryan Appleyard [redacted]
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 8:56 AM
To: violetblue@sfgate.com
Subject: Interview

Dear Ms Blue,
I emailed you on June 13th about the possibility of a phone/ video interview for a piece I am writing about Web Celebs for the Sunday Times magazine in Lodnon. Is that possible today or in the next few days?
Bryan Appleyard

Update 8/8/07: anonymous reader email –

not sure if this made it to the states, but the Times published extracts from “Girl with a one-track mind”, a sex blog by a woman who chose to remain anonymous - then their sister publication outed her.

http://girlwithaonetrackmind.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_archive.html

Lowest of the low. I mean, I don’t write to editors often - but in that case, I did. Having people write honestly about sex is a good thing - we should celebrate it!

So, I’ve listened to your podcast for ages, almost made it to a thing you did in SF a few weeks ago when I was over for work, and I like your blog. The self-promotion jibe from the Times - the TIMES! - is so hypocritical it makes my eyes water!