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beejium ([info]beejium) wrote in [info]otf_wank,
@ 2008-11-24 01:07:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:god people just stop typing!, no no no, otf can ruin anything, stop sharing your thoughts, tmi in comments, what no lotus boobie train?

The Lotus Boob! It does haunt my dreams!
Over at PostSecret, Frank posts a postcard from someone containing a photo of the "Lotus Boob." (For those who aren't in the know, it's a picture of a breast that was clearly photoshopped together with a lotus flower and passed around the 'net as some sort of new horrible disease. Denounced by Snopes in 19-diggity-2.)

Whingeing follows immediately. (See Frank's email picks near and around the offending secret.) Hilarious quote from front page:

"This picture has destroyed my day and will haunt me for months if not years. My hair is standing on end and I haven't been able to stop shivering. I can't concentrate on anything now, my mind always returns to that horrific image.

I am saddened that I can no longer view postsecret, but I am too worried about being assailed with another photo that will severely harm my psyche."

Hordes of young girls are scarred for life and "kept up half the night shivering!" A thread is started on PostSecret Chat to determine whether the secret should be taken down.

Some (read: most) dissenters claim that taking down secrets would completely ruin the spirit of PostSecret, and that there have been secrets that have been far more disturbing, like ones about rape and abuse. But it's a boob! With stuff in it! And now they'll never sleep again, and probably die and I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY, POSTSECRET.

Ahem... 101 pages of flouncing and crying in less than a day, and all I really have to say is, if your constitution is too weak to handle a little lotus boob, you may want to reconsider this whole "internet" thing.

ETA: Bonus LOL: The random-lettered link to the secret includes the phrase "AAAAAAAAH."


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[info]dragonfangirl
2008-11-24 09:47 am UTC (link)
There is actually a phobia that relates to this image -- it's called trypophobia. It's very rare, and seems to occur more in women than in men -- one of my best friends has it. She can't look at pictures of beehives, or walk by stacks of metal tubes. So regardless of whether the flounce was wanky or not, mocking people for the idea of being phobic of an image such as the lotus boob is a little uncalled for.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]laerwen
2008-11-24 11:32 am UTC (link)
Oh my god, I had no idea that this was a legit fear. I feel strangely better now. I'm all for laughing at newbs, but the subject of this wank just makes me want to crawl out of my own skin. Holes, clusters of things... I just feel sick and very itchy all over. Augh! *scratches all over!*

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]kookaburra
2008-11-24 11:34 am UTC (link)
Heh, I think for me it's that an asymmetrical cluster of little holes immediately screams "infestation!" to me, and that's always kind of icky.

For me, I can look at honeycombs and man made objects and be fine, because it's meant to be that way, but with little clusters of holes in a tree, or something, it means that something isn't right, and I feel uncomfortable. (But It's just a passing feeling, not a big deal.)

Though this wank did remind me of the bane of my freshman year of college. This woodpecker drilled tons of holes in the redwood outside my dorm, and stuffed them with these nuts it found. Whenever I passed it I would always look the other way.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]mydemand
2008-11-24 11:42 pm UTC (link)
You and me both! urgh argh ew

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[info]sevendeadlyfun
2008-11-24 02:03 pm UTC (link)
Did anyone over there actually say they were trypophobic and that's why the picture upset them?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]dragonfangirl
2008-11-24 02:26 pm UTC (link)
No, but the wank report includes the phrase: ... if your constitution is too weak to handle a little lotus boob, maybe you ought to reconsider this whole internets thing... which pretty much universalizes it.

For that matter, it's entirely possible for someone to be phobic but not know about it in an "official" capacity, ie, have had it diagnosed by a psychologist -- especially for a phobie as obscure as this.

[deleted and reposted for grammar screwup -- psychology vs psychologist]

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]beejium
2008-11-24 03:53 pm UTC (link)
Bwaaa! Someone made a joke on the internet!! Summon the joke police!

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[info]sevendeadlyfun
2008-11-24 05:05 pm UTC (link)
Huh. So you're offended because you have a friend with a rare phobia who isn't personally involved in this wank but who yet might be upset by both the picture and the wank report the internets is srs bzness?

I totes understand.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]meagenimage
2008-11-24 06:20 pm UTC (link)
If you can't handle your phobias being triggered occasionally, you should definitely reconsider browsing the Internets.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]eilan
2008-11-25 10:36 am UTC (link)
Because clearly, the internet has to cater to everybody's needs and phobias.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]amy_wolf
2008-11-26 11:07 am UTC (link)
See, those pictures freak me out big time, and clusters of holes bother me in a way that no other visual does (seriously, most things get a mild 'yuck', and clusters of holes like stacks of metal tubes mean I have to look away), and I still think it's wanky to throw a screaming fit about it. Stuff like back-buttons and that little box with an x in it that exists in the corner of your browser window exists for a reason

And I would honestly suggest that anyone who isn't capable of stumbling across a picture of clusters of holes without major trauma that haunts them for days be very careful about where they go on the internet, and avoid large chunks of it. For their own good.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]beejium
2008-11-24 03:53 pm UTC (link)
So... we should ban all secrets that have spiders on them so as not to upset the arachnophobics? Or just any ones with plants, for all those folks with Botanophobia? Or just ban them altogether because of the people with Logophobia?

The wanky bit was DEMANDING the secret be taken down, and REFUSING to ever come back, if you didn't catch that. PostSecret has had some secrets that disturbed me a great deal, but I didn't email Frank and demand he remove it, or even not come back the next week. But you can bet if I did, I still wouldn't have been capslocking it all over the place.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]snacky
2008-11-24 04:25 pm UTC (link)
mocking people for the idea of being phobic of an image such as the lotus boob is a little uncalled for

That... actually pretty much sums up the problem of all the wank comms, doesn't it?

Mocking is uncalled for, yet we do it anyway.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


iwanttobeasleep
2008-11-24 09:40 pm UTC (link)
I beg to differ, mocking is quite often totally called for and we should do it more!

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]plazmah
2008-11-24 05:09 pm UTC (link)
Whoa, that's a real phobia?! My younger sister has always said she's a little freaked out by holes, ever since she was a kid.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]julesnoctambule
2008-11-24 05:39 pm UTC (link)
Ah, so there's a name for it? I feel better!

(Reply to this)(Parent)

The more you know!
[info]tehrin
2008-11-24 06:26 pm UTC (link)
I did think it was a bee hive when I first looked at it.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]sparkysrevenge
2008-11-24 10:16 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, but I have a legitimate needle phobia and just avoid movies with heroin injections. I'm not going to demand people take down something if it's in a secret or some crap like that, but it's... on the internet.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]mydemand
2008-11-24 11:41 pm UTC (link)
I have that to some degree, but I didn't know until two days ago (when the wank first broke out) that it had a name. And here I thought I was just being weird! Thank goodness I'm not alone!

Honeycombs and tubes don't affect me much - it's when it's uneven and possibly looks infected (even if it's just paint splatter or a sponge) that really gets to me.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]catslash
2008-11-25 03:05 am UTC (link)
On the internet, you are never the only one.

Seriously, though, mine's not nearly so strong as to call it a phobia, but I have never known how to explain how groups of tiny holes in certain circumstances just repulse me. IT SOUNDS SO WEIRD. I actually had to try to explain it just last week, when a vivid description in a book that I will spare you nearly made me gag, and I could not find any word other than "EYURGH." I should have known there would be a name for it.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]anonyrat
2008-11-25 08:05 pm UTC (link)
Oh god, I think I have this in some mild form. Lotus Boob bothers me a lot, and the only picture I've ever encountered that I'm physically incapable of looking at is the last page of a guro manga that someone posted on 4chan once. No blood, no gore, nothing objectively "gross"...just a very much alive girl riddled with weird, organic holes. It didn't give me nightmares or send me into a panic attack or anything, I just...couldn't look at it. At all.

Tubes don't bother me, or beehives, just clustered, irregular holes in otherwise solid things.

That said, I think that's a heck of an over-reaction. I have a pretty severe phobia of grasshoppers -- I will scream and panic if suddenly presented with a picture of one, let alone a real grasshopper. My friends are still talking about the time I rounded a corner, found myself confronted with a wall full of the things, and immediately burst into tears and fled like I was being pursued by a lion.

But I'm not about to send an email to PostSecret bitching them out for posting grasshopper pictures. I mean, spiders are a much more common phobia than either holes or grasshoppers, and I run across people posting spider pictures all the damn time.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]kefanii
2008-11-26 07:16 pm UTC (link)
Lotus boobs freak me out too, but HOLES. That fucking doujin. THAT FUCKING DOUJIN. I read the whole thing, goddammit. And it gave me many, many nightmares. Yeah, I think I have my own mild case of this phobia. XD;

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[info]anonyrat
2008-11-26 09:37 pm UTC (link)
JESUS FUCK. I KNOW.

Seriously, I have looked at much more objectively horrible manga, but that one absolutely bypassed my rational thought processes and sucker-punched me straight in the subconscious.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]lurker32
2008-11-26 10:33 pm UTC (link)
Just had to join the train of "dude, it's not just me?"

I feel better now.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]big_bad_wolf
2008-11-28 04:11 pm UTC (link)
Likewise, my BBF/padawan gets freaked out by walls if they have lots of drawing pin holes in.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

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