Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Abstract dalliances and facebook wonders

Despite Auntie’s natural authoritarian streak, one thing guaranteed to bring out her libertarian tendency is censorship. Though too world-weary for youthful outrage she’s dismayed to hear her beloved niece Red Pepper has been unceremoniously evicted from Facebook, without a word as to why. Auntie suspects Red’s flighty ways and friendly disposition may have been her undoing.

Red may have encountered what is known in the Auntie trade as a ‘humourless tosser’ (HT). Auntie’s met enough of them on her travels around the left to long cool her revolutionary ardor, but Red will always hold an open optimism about the human condition.

Auntie’s feminist intuition tells her this particular HT may have complained to the faceless facebook management on discovering Red’s ‘open relationship’ status accompanied with a warm invite to be her friend didn’t mean his humourless tossing days were over.

Discovering the niece not only experiments with gender but blurs the lines between inanimate object and ‘being’ may have been a brain-twisting step too far. After all socialism hath no fury like a humourless tosser scorned.

This has left Auntie pondering gender fluidity on the net, having ventured in to the darker hinterland of net culture (for research purposes, you understand) she knows you can never tell with whom you are virtually chatting. So lighten-up humourless tossers everywhere you have nothing to lose but your pomposity.

With Red’s banishment Auntie has reluctantly taken over the facebook reins, but as Auntie is politically committed to avoiding negative people it’s unlikely she will follow in Red’s footsteps in befriending any old lefty.

If you think you meet Auntie’s high standards send your ‘Friend Request’ to ‘Agony Subcomandauntie’ at www.facebook.com