Wednesday, April 04, 2007

PRIVACY --BLOG OFF FOR BREAST CANCER

I like to think of myself as a relatively private person. I don't share my most personal thoughts with just anyone. I am a little more cautious than some about who I air my "dirty laundry" to. I am not sure why I am that way. Perhaps some of it is pride and some of it is fear of it being used against me. One area I am very private about is the goings on in the bathroom. For this reason (aside from them being dirty) I HATE using public bathrooms. I mean who wants to pee next to 5 other women. I don't, but sometimes you have no choice. I remember one time I was in the bathroom at a restaurant and the lady beside me had her small child in the stall with her. I would say he was probably 3 or 4. Before I know it this little head pops right under my stall, looks up at me, smiles and says HI!! Here I am mid tinkle with some strange child saying hello to me. My first two thoughts were this--please do not let your children crawl on a public bathroom floor that is just disgusting--and why are you laughing its NOT funny, its creepy. I don't care how young your child is its NOT funny. (I should note that I find this funny NOW, I didn't then)

I don't think I would survive one day in the limelight like celebrities. The other day I thought it was pathetic that our local news channel had to use air time to tell us Britney Spears had checked in to a local LA area hospital with a toothache and was seen leaving an hour later. Are you kidding me? While I don't give a hoot about Britney my point is still the same. Have we become that pathetic in our society that a person can't even go to the doctor without us all hearing about it? How about going to the grocery store, out for dinner. What about a simple argument with a loved one that turns into national news. I get that these people know what they are getting into when they choose the careers that they do. But it doesn't make it right. I still think it makes society in general sad when people cannot live their lives in peace (regardless of who they are) because we are so worried about what the hell they ate for breakfast. As a society we have decided that because they are celebrities they have given up their rights to privacy. Who really do we put them blame on for the invasion of privacy these people have to live with everyday. Some will say the blame lies within the paparazzi, some will say the writers and publishers of the magazines. I say the blame lies with the people who buy the magazines in the first place. If we don't buy them, then the companies who produce them have no business and the paparazzi have no one to sell their photos to. Maybe then they could get real and respectable jobs as photographers instead of stalking people who are just trying to go to the grocery store like the rest of us.
There are just so many issues surrounding privacy. There is the issue of work and personal emails. What rights should companies really have to access those personal emails before it becomes too much? How much say should a boss really have about what your write in your personal blog or journal? Thankfully since I work for myself I do not have to worry about such things, but I know it is a real concern for a lot of people. When I was looking for pictures to use for this post I came across a picture of T-shirt with the words Privacy is not a crime. At first I didn't really get it but the more I thought of it the more it began to make sense to me. It started to make me think about the effects certain things in our society has had on us and our privacy. My thoughts immediately went to 9/11. So many things have changed since that day. While I am thankful for most of these changes to make it safer for us to fly etc, there are some that make me really wonder. I remember the last time I flew on a plane they hardly gave us a glance as we were checking in and going through security. There have been times crossing the border to and from Canada where our ID has never been asked for. Yet if someones name is Abdul-Rahman it is automatic reason for the government or police to invade every aspect of that persons privacy and rights as a human being. It makes me shake my head and wonder what we are really trying to achieve. But that is a blog for another day.

Privacy is something that we all have the right to. It is our choice to exercise that right or not. But there are those people who take it upon themselves to make everyone else's business their own. It is those people that try and take away our freedom of privacy like it is some sort of moral obligation to keep them in the loop.


Please take the time to head around to the other blogs in our contest and check out their posts on this topic. Please also taken a few minutes to stop by and say hello to those who have left us so far. You will find all their links in my sidebar. And as always if you would like to make a donation to Courtney's fundraising effort please click on the banner above.

14 comments:

Sketti said...

You are sooooooo right! Although living in England I find it so much worse than in Canada. It is our responsibility as a society to give these people the privacy the deserve. I hate celebrity gossip, I find it so boring.

But I laughed very hard at the image of this small child poking thier head under the stall to say hi...very funny. Great Post...again! E x

Kirst said...

I have to say I really enjoy reading your posts. Your should be a writer. Good luck this week.

Jodi said...

As a mother I feel compelled to say that mother's laughter was probably a nervous laughter because it was obviously too late to stop the kid and what was she going to do? That is what I would have done anyway.

And you are right about privacy. The media takes it too far. I don't want to be famous for anything (well except the money). ;)

Evey said...

Jodi, your right it probably had a lot to do with nervous laughter. But ewww letting your kid crawl on that floor. NASTY!

Diane said...

We used to have our family holidays in caravan parks. Once I busted my little brother (5 at the time) lying on the floor, copping a perve in the women's shower block. Little deviant.

Wow, what a great post! You covered everything imaginable.

Anonymous said...

gee, too bad you weren't a guy and could have peed on that kid. i know it's ewwwww, but still, the mom deserved it for letting her kid do that.
i agree so much with that celebrity privacy thing, it's no wonder she had a breakdown, i feel sorry for her, having a new baby, her marriage crumbling, and all of it in the spotlight, it can't be easy, i know i wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Anonymous said...

Good post, Evey. I really like how you went into that t-shirt slogan- that privacy is not a crime. Because you're right, it's not. I have a lot of friends who get really uptight about the government looking into their stuff. My attitude is generally that i have nothing to hide so what do I care? But I do care. And there shouldn't be anything wrong with that. Just because I have nothing to hide, doesn't mean that I shouldn't be able to choose to keep it private.

Great post!

Jamie Dawn said...

I abhor foreign toilets!!
A foreign toilet is ANY toilet that is not in my own home.

You should have smacked that kid and yelled, "Get back in your own stall you horrid creature!"
:) Just kidding. :)

Celebrities pay a huge price for being... well, celebrities. It's the life they choose, and it does come with the territory. I can't imagine being constantly stalked ALL the time. I think stars like it at first, but then I'm sure they hate it after awhile. If they step out of their house looking like crap, someone will be there to capture it on film.

If Britney stubs her toe, it's considered news.
Good Lord! That is ridiculous!
AND Anna Nicole Smith stuff is STILL making news, every single day. I just don't get it.

Now you've got me all worked up!

Linda MacTravel said...

A very thought-provoking blog, Evey! You ought to think about writing a newspaper column or something...you have a gift! Be sure & check out my new post, finally! I think you'll like it! ;-)

QueenieCarly said...

Wow Evey! You really ran the gamut with this post! Good for you!

Privacy is not a crime. I like that. And Courtney advanced my thoughts to the point of...I'm probably going to go way too off topic to dare talk about it in my comment here. Maybe I should be posting something else on my own blog. Sigh.

I don't really care about bathroom stuff. Of course, I don't want to watch you doing whatever it is you do, but I can handle being in the stall next to you. Kids crawling on that floor? Nasty. No other word for it.

One last thing: don't you worry your pretty little head, I did finally get a post up. I've been on vacation... it's tough to find the time between spa treatments and fresh seafood dinners to write! Thanks for checking up on me, though.

Lori said...

Your writing is getting better each time. Good job. This is a good one. So true. I'd almost rather pee in my pants than pee in one of those toilets. Ewww. So nasty.
Again, good job.

TaraMetBlog said...

I hate public bathrooms and am cautions with whom I air my dirty laundry with too, safer that way.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Paul Abdul is about the only one who probably doesn't get ID'd whenever she is out and about. Everyone else with that name is screwed.

Good stuff here.

Cupcake Blonde said...

This was such a great post. I too wonder why privacy has become a dirty word. I don't care about the idocyncracies of a celebrities life and I certainly don't want everyone to know my business. Yes I have a blog and I write about myself all the time, but that is what I chose to put on there. Imagine not having the choice. I wouldn't be able to live like that.

On a funny side note I had the kid under the stall thing happen to me once and I got so freaked out, because I didn't know what it was, I stepped on his face! His nose started bleeding and his mother reamed me out and all I could do is say I was sorry but he scared me to death and I reacted impulsively. But I didn't feel too bad...the kid was a bit of a brat.