To Hell With Etsy

I've had a shop on Etsy for well over one & a half years now. During this time I sold 18 pieces of artwork and Etsy cheerfully took my money for the fees and commissions. I've had more than a few misgivings, and I've slowly been spreading my artwork to another online store in the hope of reaching a more European market, but still listing new work at Etsy when produced. Then last night I receive the following email, telling me... er, what exactly?

Hello,

I wanted to pass on some information to you about mature listings. Here is what our Dos and Don'ts have to say about items that may need special attention due to their content:

*Mature content is: sexual activity or content, profane language, or graphic violence as shown in an item. *These items must be tagged "mature".

*The first thumbnail image should be kept appropriate for general audiences; additional images in the listing may show the item in its entirety.

*Mature content listings will remain in all public searches by default; users can restrict results by using the exclusionary search term "NOT mature" ("opt-out" search status).

*Artful representation of the nude human figure is allowed. The context of the nudity determines if it is a mature content item (see above).

*Items are subject to staff review on a case-by-case basis. If the staff evaluates the content to be mature, you will be asked to add the tag "mature" or remove the listing entirely. Please be sure to comply with these policies! If you have any questions, feel free to contact support [!at] etsy.com

For more information about our guidelines, please read the Dos and Don'ts of Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/dosdonts.php#a4

Best,

Amber

Etsy Support

I read this over a couple of times just to be sure I wasn't missing something. Was I being asked or told to do something? I was perfectly aware of the (patronisingly titled) Dos and Don'ts of Etsy since they were first issued after their dreadful Constitution and had figured that, as my nude artwork clearly did not contain sexual content - well, no more so than the plaque on Pioneer - I clearly didn't have to do a thing. Nothing had been said since, and nothing in the above email seemed to relate to any of the artwork I was selling. Considering I haven't produced any new nude artwork for months, it couldn't have been prompted by a new piece, so what on earth was it for? Suitably perplexed, I reply:

Hello,

Why have I just received this email?
Thanks,

Jon Nagl

Ten minutes later, back comes...

Hi Jon,

Thanks for getting back to us so promptly. Please add the 'mature' tag to to nudes that you feature in your shop. Also, Etsy does not allow URLs that direct to other e-commerce sites, so we ask you to remove all links that link to outside e-commerce sites from your shop. Let us know when this is completed, so that we can give your shop the 'OK'. Thanks so much.

Best,

Amber

Etsy Support

The latter point first - I'd put a link to my Dawanda site in my profile where I was selling artwork on Etsy. It had been up there for a few months, but if they asked me to remove it, fair enough, that's understandable.

But... a mature tag? Let's just remind ourselves what that represents:

sexual activity or content, profane language, or graphic violence as shown in an item [....] Artful representation of the nude human figure is allowed. The context of the nudity determines if it is a mature content item (see above).

In other words, my life drawing artwork, unbeknownst to me, contains sexual activity and/or content. And if I added a mature tag to every nude piece I had on sale, I would be admitting as such. Friends, there is NO FUCKING WAY. And here's why.

One doesn't get to keep a lot of principles in this sordid world that wears you down with debt and depression, but if nothing else I have always stayed true to my artwork. That sounds like a terribly pretentious thing to write, but it's true - I never got into animating for advertisements (pretty much the only way a non-CGIer like myself could've progressed after four years of hand-drawn animation study) because I despised the thought of my artwork being used to sell expensive shit to children too young to understand cost, debt or having enough to make it through the month. Working minimum wage wasn't much fun, but at least I could look at myself in the mirror. What I do now for a living has absolutely no connection with the five years I spent at art college - all that I have from those times is a worn-down videotape of a short animated film and the ability to draw and paint, so it's something I'm pretty precious about, pulling out of life drawing last year when I felt I was getting too price-fixated about my pictures. My day job isn't a part of me, it's just something I do, but artwork - that's personal. Whenever I've sold a piece of work it's a thrill, not for the money (though, y'know, that doesn't hurt) but for the validation, the thought that someone felt that something I'd done was worth putting on their wall or giving to someone as a gift. What could be more of a compliment than to be paid for a piece of artwork, that money representing hours spent by that person in their own day-job? It's a hell of a feeling, assuring me that those five years weren't wasted, not in the least, and that while the work I do to pay the bills could be done by anyone with a modicum of sense and legal study, the work I've put into a painting is unique, the result - for better or worse - all mine. In other words, I give a damn about my artwork. It's not like selling supplies (which seems to be the be all and end all of Etsy these days), it's not like selling print after print of the same picture - these unique pieces matter to me, and are far more than just a commodity.

I'm trying to explain to you why this would be such a big deal to me, what that simple request represents, why my reaction is of fury and indignation. How dare they? How dare they insinuate that my drawings, my paintings are nothing but cheap titillation? That the years spent learning how to accurately depict the human body on paper or canvas was done with no higher purpose than giving someone an erection? And that most puritanically fucked-up and damaging concept of all that I've always railed against when it came to life drawing, that nudity = sex?

No. I will not accept that my artwork is 'adults-only'. I will not accept that a painting of a groin (of either gender) is pornography. I will not agree to this demented mindset that views the naked human body as something to be ashamed of. Adding one simple little 'tag' to my nude artwork would have only taken a few seconds, but it would represent an acceptance of such puritanical thinking. I responded:

Thank you for the prompt response.

The request to remove the link to outside sites is fair enough and I would have been happy to comply. However, I find the suggestion that my artwork requires tagging as 'mature' genuinely offensive considering all the artwork is expressively non-sexual and no more explicit than that seen in unrestricted public galleries. I shall therefore close my Etsy store forthwith.

Jon Nagl

Within minutes I had shut down my entire Etsy shop. It means I haven't got my money's worth from the listing fees I paid for the items that were currently on sale, but fuck it. The silver lining is that it'll now give me the impetus to list all my artwork on my Dawanda shop, rather than the selection that's currently there. In the long term, this may well end up being financially better too - with the US$ staggering around the currency markets like a doped kitten, the Euro looms nicely over UK£ right now, which is good news for anyone wanting to export to the Eurozone. Dawanda, unlike the American-hipster-centric Etsy, is very much a European site, complete with French and German language versions, so I should be reaching a new, closer audience with an exchange rate that actually benefits a UK seller. Pricing up in US$, by contrast, has been a depressing experience and one I'll be glad to leave behind, along with the whole childish, faux-naive, too-cool-for-school mindset of Etsy that's been both infuriating and at times downright unprofessional. No, I won't miss it, though I will miss the 200+ people who had favourited - oh, all right, hearted - my store and could all have been potential future customers. Whether any make it over to my new store or not, I don't know. If Dawanda should ever gets squeamish about nude artwork, I will certainly close up shop there without a second thought and take it all to jonnagl.com - but hopefully I'll never have to take such a step. One expects better from Europe, but then I'd also expected better from Etsy, which started so well and went to hell. Good riddance to prudish rubbish.

PS: Their emails to me stated at the bottom that "This email is a private conversation between you and Etsy. Please respect this confidentiality and refrain from distributing this communication without permission from Etsy." Normally I would respect such a statement, but a) I wanted others to see exactly how they communicated (ie poorly) and b) if you're going to treat my artwork with disrespect, expect to be treated the same in return.