Hey Rob, I read Danielle's post about that person you once upon a time helped who has now come back to take some cheap jabs at you. For the record, and from everything I read before joining, and since I joined, it seems like a lot of sour grapes. I don;t know the content of what this person is saying, nor do I care. If he's got a problem, he should deal with it himself. I assume this is some "anti-porn" crusader or some such, you know, the type who go on and on about what is moral and what isn't. This is coming from someone who once considered seriously entering theology: what is immoral, what is a "sin" is not being who you are. If Danielle is comfortable taking her clothes off, if Lia is comfortable taking her clothes off, if anyone is comfortable taking their clothes off to work collaboratively with you, a photo & video ARTIST, then so be it. Every gentlewoman who emials or calls you or writes you wanting to be an FTV girl has made her own decision. She's considered the consequences and the benefits and this is something that they CHOSE to do. I respect them for it. I also respect those gentlewomen who chose not to pose, or to only go so far in their shoots. We all have our limits as to what is acceptable to us as individuals. So be it. That's free will. That's what real freedom is, what liberty means. I personally have had a love-hate relationship with porn or erotica or whatever you want to call it. The first movies I saw were Deep Throat (hated it) and Behind the Green Door (still fascinated by it after over 2 decades). I come from a more conservative background, politically and theologically. I broke with organized politics as well as organized religion when, for me, they proved not to have all the answers they claimed. What I saw was a handful of people with vastly inflated egos trying to foist their beliefs on others, largely through blackmail (to quote Gomer Pyle, "You're going to Hell for that!"; for others it means you're a RINO or a DINO--that's "Republican--or Democrat--In Name Only"). There's more than one way at looking at life, or anything else for that matter. I belive that so long as you are not holding a gun to anyone's head, and no one is holding one to yours, so long as you are following what you believe to be right for you, regardless of the BS someone else tries to lay on you, then you're doing good. A sin, from everything I distilled from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Taoism, Jainism, Buddhism, Hindu, and so on, is where you bury who you are to conform to something you do not believe in. That's living a lie, in other words. Are you living a lie? If you look inside yourself and the answer's no, then great, keep working; if the answer is yes, then maybe you do need to take a step back and reassess. I've taken several steps back in my life and each time I found I wasn't being who I am inside; and after making some adjustments, I usually found myself cowering down and submitting to what my family believe, even though I know in my heart it is wrong. So from my perspective as someone who has tread that fine line between "moral" and "immoral" who has on the one hand a powerful superego that's always in conflict with my libido, for you, Danielle, Lia, and everyone else to find it within themselves to really set themselves free through your work it is simply and powerfully amazing to me. I am envious, not just because you get to work with so many lovely gentlewomen, but because you have this tremendous chance to create something that it honest in the extreme with those women. A wise guy I once worked with had a saying that may come in handy here: "consider the source and rise above it." I don't know who this guy is, nor do I care to, but what Danielle wrote in her entry earlier infuriated me, and that's not so good for many reasons. This is, last time I checked, still the United States, and the last time I checked our founders jotted down some important principles, sometimes ideas that took generations to see come to fruition, some still works in progress. I am humbled by their capacity to look eight generations into the future and see a world of possibilities--sure they may not have seen FTVGirls, but then again, Ben Franklin might (he did attend the Hell-fire Club in England once or twice from what I read :0)--with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness leading them. You make people happy, the gentlewomen seem happy, and it seems to me from the emails we exchanged before I came to this board that, while you've gone so long without a day off, the work drives you and makes you happy. And isn't something we all wish for, for ourselves and our loved ones? Anyway, that's just my over-thought, over-long take on things. And if you need it, tell me and I'll make them an offer they can't refuse (read that last as Vito, grazie, paisan). I used to get crap from people about some of the people I have in my family tree database, chiefly the porn stars, Playmates and a few others, and one of the more experienced researchers I've worked with told me about this neat thing--the delete button and spam filter. If all else fails, there is that at least. Cheers, maestro Rob!
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