Vaginas and MSN, Hotmail and Yahoo

[mntleo2]

Here is the story:

The director of a non-profit organization I volunteer for, sent out a flyer in our email about the play The Vagina Monologues, which was being presented in our area. Now, she cannot send any email to anyone who has an email address with Hotmail, Yahoo, or MSN. As an MSN customer, I get email all the time for penis extensions, and breast augmentations but mention the word "vagina" in an email and you are banned for life. Why is it that women's sexual anatomy names are considered so bad when men's are blasted all over the place? Like women are supposed to be ashamed of their private parts, but men, well they're different. Does anyone ever think women might be offended to see men's penis extensions in their email? N-o-o-o! This makes me mad.

BTW she tried to email the "abuse" people at all of them, but they will not even allow her to email them, it bounces back too. Nobody complained about what was sent out on the private list either, so this is all on these companies. Now she has to mail everything out on snail mail instead of saving some bucks by simply emailing stuff.


The name of this organization is Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition ( http://www.wroc.org ). We are an organization of low income women who advocate with the government around economic issues and for low income parents on welfare (men would be included too, it is just almost all women right now who are volunteering, is all). After comparing notes, several of us have come to realize that we have also gotten mail from WROC that was opened, as if we are some sort of subversive scary terrorist group or something. Like a bunch of welfare moms are SO threatening to this country!

We believe in peace and loving kids and all that stuff, none of us would hurt a fly. What is WRONG with these people? Sheesh.

Cat In Seattle

[JohnnyLib2]

1. The title was on a theater marquee in our town (for a fundraiser)

a theater board member resigned with a splash, the head of the local Repub party and others wrote to the editor, on and on. The play sold out.

At least this was fun; your story is much more alarming--and ridiculous.

[Nikki Stone1]

2. I'm all for banning the words penis and Viagra--and Nigeria

That will take care of most of my spam. I never get ANY spam for vagina stuff.

[mntleo2]

16. Yeah At Least They Could Be Equal, Sheesh n/t

[demrabble]

3. Not So!

I happen to have a Yahoo email account.

I just sent myself an email with the subject "Vagina Monologue".

Yahoo delivered it to me.

I think you might want to re-check what happened.

[Nikki Stone1]

4. Hey check mine!

...

[demrabble]

5. Huh?

I'm sorry.

I do not understand what you are asking me to do.

[Nikki Stone1]

7. ROTFL!!!!!!!!!

My email account, dear. See your mailbox.

[demrabble]

9. Check Your Yahoo Email

Sorry about the confusion.

Please check your Yahoo email inbox.

[Nikki Stone1]

13. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DId you put enough vaginas in that email!

Got it. And thanks.

I can now vouch for the fact that yahoo is sending emails with the word vagina in them.

But that does nothing about the "Dear Sir or Madam, Please cash this check for me" emails. Sigh.

[mntleo2]

14. It Took About A week

...for the 'censor" to activate. So now you have an excuse when your email bounces back (snark).

Cat

[Nikki Stone1]

22. Really? A week?

We should run an experiment on this.

[Nicole]

6. It works for me.

My hotmail acct. just sent an email to my yahoo acct. with Vagina Monologue in the subject line and the message. I replied back & it went through again.

Sounds like the problem is something else. :shrug:

[Nikki Stone1]

8. Cool. Glad to hear it's not the issue we thought.

:)

[MADem]

10. Maybe too many addressees.... NT

[mntleo2]

15. She's Sent This Email Out For Years

...to the same group and nothings happened before. We contacted our server people and they were the ones who pointed it out and said they were not the ones censoring the word. It is just sad to me that that word would be considered a swear word to these companies.

I'm just sayin' ...

Cat

[Nikki Stone1]

17. So is it about sending out a group email?

I'm a little confused here

[China_cat]

11. Sounds about like the time some years ago that

AOL dropped a bunch of users for using the word 'breast' in a chatroom...one dedicated to breast cancer.

[Nikki Stone1]

12. Well, you could take a page from Archie Bunker and call it "Chest Cancer"

;)

[mntleo2]

18. LOL! n/t

[MADem]

19. The "Kittykat Discussions??" Or perhaps the "Hoo-ha Chitchats?"

The "Ladybusiness Speechifyings?"

The "Youknowwhatdownthere Sermons?"

[realisticphish]

20. You jest

but a REAL theater showing TVM changed it to the "Hoo-Hah Monologues"

[MADem]

23. I saw that report, apparently some nitwit was offended

These people need a dictionary, I swear!! They'll find the word somewhere between IDIOT and VIGILANTE!!!

[TroglodyteScholar]

21. It's her fault for having a bajingo! n/t

[Tsiyu]

24. Man=good and wholesome; Woman=dirty and shameful

Don't you see? Men's penis size and erection quality are IMPORTANT issues in America! We must bombard the populace with offers to help men, whose penises are noble things.

But the "v" word? How dare you even spell it out in your thread title! Don't you know women are evil and should be ashamed of their ....um....private areas?

:sarcasm:

If this ONE issue does not highlight to all how far we have yet to go to achieve full equality - to discuss our bodies, our health and our sexual issues - I don't know what else could do it.

[AZBlue]

25. Have you contact the ISPs? They can set it up so you can get your e-mail through.

Not sure what kind of lead time you're looking at though - it will probably take a little while to get that taken care of.

[Goblinmonger]

26. Did you send it as an attachment?

How big was the attachment. A lot of the free emails have a limit as to the size email that can come in and a lot limit the total amound of memory the user can have in storage. Maybe your flyer went over one of both of those. I know I tried to send an mp3 as an attachment to someone here on DU and their hotmail account bounced it back.

[petronius]

27. I could be wrong, but my guess is that the ISPs' systems are set

to filter out mass-mailings with all kinds of key-words, like penis, vagina, etc. However, the spammers who want to grow your penis know how to get around these filters, and your friend didn't.

I wouldn't be entirely surprised if major corporations turned out to be unenlightened on gender issues, but I think it's more likely here that your friend's message fell victim to a mindless automated filter that sleazier mass-mailers have found ways to avoid. In other words, I think a technological explanation is more likely than the idea that Yahoo et al. are deliberately discriminating against female genitalia...

[BlackVelvet04]

28. I really think there is some other kind of problem.....

sounds like something else is the problem. I really don't think the word Vagina is the culprit.

[Tesha]

29. Have her call her local chapter of the ACLU; they may be able to help. (NT)