Last night I posted on facebook the following: “If I’m wrong, please speak up. I came across a page on facebook that was created (by someone under a ficticious name) thats purpose is to bully, ridicule and say mean and hurtful things about their class mates. While visiting the page, I found several teenage girls that have scheduled sessions with me for their senior pictures. I am emailing them tomorrow to cancel their shoots. I do not want them to represent my business and I am beside myself at how MEAN and CRUEL they were on that page.
A friend of mine, a professional photographer no less, posted this story. I heard about it a few days ago and now it’s back so I wanted to take a second and throw some thoughts out there.
Essentially, the story is above. There really isn’t much needed to be added so that you have the whole story.
My take?
It’s Ms. McKen’s business, and she can do as she pleases. I just wonder if she’s not embarking on a slippery slope when it comes to what she does and who she does it for. Is she going to now do a background check and vet all her future clients before taking a photography gig?
In her post, she says “If you are ugly on the inside, I’m sorry but I won’t take your photos to make you look pretty on the outside.”
That’s all well and good, but what about the folks getting married with a fiancé that beats the hell out of his future wife? Do you have an objection to that? Or is it only on occasions when you have the ugliness directly in front of you?
As a business owner she has the right to do as she pleases. The consequences are hers and hers alone. I just wonder if we’d be applauding her if we found out she was a Christian and decided she wasn’t comfortable taking photos of gay kids? After all, she’d still have the right to choose her clients, but we all know that this would go down differently.
To me, the best thing to do in this situation is be content-neutral. Accept everyone or accept no one.
My friend? For her part, she said the following:
While this seems noble, all I can think of is a publicity stunt. I think the bigger thing to do would have been to contact the parents privately and not plastered this all over her blog. Or maybe that is just me. *sigh*
Nah, it’s not just you.