About a month ago I got a sweet note from my little bro, who is on the Internet so much he’d have a fiber optic cable attached to his brain Matrix-style… if that weren’t so low-tech. (I think his brain might actually be The Cloud. Shh.) Anyhow. “Uh, Shosh?” he wrote me. (Yes, Shosh is my childhood nickname. Don’t ask.) “I think someone’s stealing your stuff…” And he sent me a link to a website that had stolen some of my photos, stripped off my copyright and refashioned them as “fitspiration.”
First, lest you think they were fetishizing my particular body, let me disillusion you. The pics were of me working out and they were using them as inspiration to workout until you puke. Second, you all know how I feel about fitspiration. It’s basically thinspiration in a sports bra. And thinspiration is the Miley Cyrus of Internet memes: provocative, in your face and with the intelligence (and grammar) of a 3rd-grader. Oh, and they’re both bad for little girls.
At first I was royally ticked off that my pictures (and my message!) were being so misappropriated. But I quickly slid into a semi depression because this kind of thing – well, the stealing part – has been happening ever since my blog got more than 5 readers. There are several websites that “scrape” my posts daily*, taking all my hard-written text and pics, slapping them straight on their site and claiming them as their own. It’s infuriating, it’s unfair and there’s not much I can do about it as all the sites are hosted in countries that are too busy suffering under oppressive regimes to care about intellectual property rights. Although my favorite story of theft was when a major US news station ripped some kickboxing pictures of my blog and used them to illustrate their evening news, as if they were stock photos. I found out about it when a friend in OHIO called to ask me why I was on her news. Sigh.
The thievery is bad enough but what really eats at me is that people are using my face and my body to illustrate their own disordered behaviors and thoughts. This really stings because I’ve fought my eating disorders, particularly my exercise addiction, for so many years. I’ve worked really hard to get to a healthy(ish) place and to see my body underlying some stupid anorexia how-to disguised as a “fit tip” makes me want to punch someone.
But since I’m not an awesome hacker and nor an awesome boxer, I decided to do the next best thing. I took my own pictures and made MY OWN “FITSPIRATION” by golly! (Or maybe I just succumbed to the latest trend of snapping “healthies”? healthy + selfie = healthie. You’re welcome.)
These are the messages I’d like to use my image to get out there:
She doesn’t care that her thighs touch. She’s never heard of “bikini season.” To her, cheese is as delicious as it is a command to smile. Let’s keep it that way. And with a grin this big who needs pants anyhow?
I kinda hate that whole “hold each other accountable” nonsense that people say when they tell you to find a friend to workout with. That’s your personal trainer’s job. Friends are friends first. Not drill sergeants, task masters or guilt inducers. Done right, a Gym Buddy can be your great ally both in the gym and out.
Even big boys (and girls) need rest. Ain’t no shame in saying you’re done. The only one who wins if you puke is the dog.
Heaven help me if there ever comes a day where stunting in random places becomes socially unacceptable.
There are lots of good reasons to workout. This happens to be my favorite. (Thanks Bekky!) Plus, living with my kids is already a circus, might as well make it official with a little trapeze act, right?
Oh, and never let a good double entendre go to waste!! That’s what she said.
Friends that give you a shoulder to cry on are great. Friends that give you their arms to lift you are wonderful. But friends who give you their backs to climb on so you can shout “I’m the queen of the world!!!” are priceless.
Holy crap I miss you guys.
So what do you say? If you have to pin something to your motivation board, how about one of these?? (Or something like these? Not saying I have the lock on awesome not-fitspo) If you could make your own anti-fitspo pic, what would it say?
*I’ve been told that the only reliable way to keep people from poaching my stuff this way is to go to a partial RSS feed (or no feed at all) but when I polled you guys about it, 90% of my readers said they’d unsubscribe from my blog if I went to a “read more” format. And I love you all way more than I hate the scrapers!
I *may* have to pin some of these on Pinterest simply because they’re, well, awesome.
And what a brilliant response to the theft!
Charlotte, these are FABULOUS!!!
I love it!
The only thing I can think of is check the company that hosts the web address and the site, if its a WordPress or tumblr or similar site. That kind of thing is definitely against tumblr’s or word press’s terms of service, even if the address is hosted by the Ugochechnyakistan version of GoDaddy. I’m also not sure how it would work with WordPress, but there are ways of putting your photo up that make it harder to download (like a slideshow in… I think it’s Flash? Viewers can see the photos but they’re impossible to download).
Good luck though-I know it’s infuriating!
No, unfortunately none of them are through 3rd party platforms. But I appreciate the advice as I’m sure that will happen in the future! And good idea about the slideshow… only problem with that is they don’t show up in most readers or in the e-mail versions :/
:(. Sorry I couldn’t help. But your kids really are so adorable! So yay for them
Love the two with your kids; I will not be surprised to see those stolen on a regular basis.
Yeah, I see it coming. Sigh. But thanks – I think they’re pretty cute myself;)
I have never “pinned” anything, but if I could, I would pin the real Charlotte and keep you all to myself. You rock 🙂
Hahah thank you! The feeling is mutual Hannibal, er, Abby! 😉
Love them! Wayyyy better than the “other kind”. And yes tutus make everything more fun! 🙂
Couldn’t have said it better. Your photos and your fitspiration trump anything I’ve seen yet. And your hashtags crack me up. Huge compliment, that, since I don’t really “get” hashtags.
Oh good! I kinda hate hashtags too. I mean, spaces were invented for a reason!!
Leave it to Mashable to explain the unexplainable! http://mashable.com/2013/10/08/what-is-hashtag/
Love all the pictures!
LOVE!!
I love these so much, please make more!! I would love to see the internets flooded with these kinds of messages! 🙂
Well I certainly had fun doing them! Maybe I’ll have to make this more of a regular feature around here? Thanks for the idea!!
What happened with the news show? Did you get them to redact the action? Also, can’t you report the scraper sites to their hosts?
I didn’t. That was several years ago and I knew a lot less then:/ If it happened today I’d likely pursue it.
I LOVE the monkey one.
Love it!
I LOOOOOOOOOVE these!!!!!!! So much! Jelly Bean’s smile: OMG! 🙂
And yes, I love me some nap time.
I love these! I get SO tired of seeing the “fitspo” on my facebook feed and in blogs, and it’s wonderful and refreshing to see the opposite. And I love that “friends are friends first” bit.
Thanks Hannah:)
Love it! These pictures are great! Especially the kiddos!! And I laughed out loud about the dog and puke comment! 🙂
Hee. I kinda cracked myself up with that one too. When I was growing up our dog would always try to eat our barf when we got sick and it was so disgusting it was hilarious
Oh my gosh, these are AWESOME!!! Way to turn around a frustrating situation. You rock my stripey athletic socks, Charlotte!
Ooh stripey athletic socks! I must find a way to work those into a (not)fitspo pic!!
I love all of these!
Is there a way to actually report stolen photos? That really sucks. 🙁 Oh internets.
No there’s really not. You can complain to the company that hosts the site and if they’re in the US it’s possible to get it taken down. You can also complain to Google which can’t remove the site but can slash its ranking but I’ve yet to see anyone succeed at that route.
I don’t have a motivation board, but dang if I’m going to make one just so I can pin that first photo.
I don’t know what my anti fitspo pic would say, but now I’m thinking about making one to keep on my phone or near my computer at work.
Er, I see #ballerinassweattoo as “ballerinas ass sweat too”, but then, my mind works in odd ways. Please let me not be the only one? Please?
Okay now that’s ALL I can see. THANK YOU for that.
😉
P.S. I have the same brain glitch. Everytime I look at my site URL all I see is SEX, lol.
I was NOT going to mention that one! 😯
These are the best. Why can’t all fitspo be this way? I would like it a whole lot more if it was!
Love the pics!!! Love, love, love!
Fabulous! These made my day! Shared with my fans, well done!
Oh thank you!!
Love the pics! But why didn’t you put inn one of me and a milkshake?
Hahaha! Next time, Dad!!
Yowza do I love this post. Good for you girl! I found you thanks to Fit and Feminist posting the link on her Facebook page, and I am definitely sticking around for more =)
Oh thank you Patience! So glad you liked it:)
These are terrific. An awesomely positive message. And plbbbbbbt to the thieves!
This post makes me oh so happy. Props!
you inspired me!\
http://www.radicalhateloss.com/2013/10/im-not-fan-of-fitspo.html
Oh that’s awesome! I love your take on it – great post!
Can I say more than how much I love this & I want ti Instagram every one of these – LOVE!!!!!!
Love your site. I read it through rss (feedly) so I really appreciate you keeping it. That said, I enjoy your site enough I’d click through but new readers might not (personally, few click to read more feeds stay in my rss.. I think I have two out of about thirty). So basically THANKS for great content in an rss
Oh good – yeah, I’ll keep the RSS. And thanks for the kind words:)
You may want to redo that poll – now that google reader is no longer people are using more sites like bloglovin that bring you directly to your site instead of just staying in the reader. Maybe they won’t care as much now.
Hashtags also make my brain hurt. They are so much work! Why do people think they are easier than actually saying what you feel and using grammar and punctuation? (Note: An emodicon is not punctuation.)
I love that first one. So much.
I don’t know. I’m too old to do hashtags I think! And good point about the demise of Reader! I switched to Feedly which is a lot the same (still uses RSS I think?) but hopefully we’re moving past that…
Pinned.
Thanks Lauren!!
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I absolutely LOOOVE your pics here, and very much want to share! I don’t want to steal anything from your blog, nor do I want to enable others to (I’m sure people would share and re-post). But props to you for: adorable kids, great creativity, clearly a great sense of humour and a blog I intend to visit more often. Cheers!
Oh I love it when people share my pics/posts! The only thing I don’t like is when they don’t give me credit for it;) So share away (if you want)! And thank you for the kind words, Annie:))
The naptime one is my fav. I’m so thankful that my little guy is still young enough to force into napping. That’s my favorite thing about the weekends. :o)
I don’t even put my name on my photos. People are going to steal them no matter what. I hope they don’t use them in a bad/negative way but I know they will be used. Maybe think of it as flattery that they think you are so awesome then want to steal your stuff? Yeah, you prob don’t feel better but it’s just a different way to think about it.
Yeah, there is a certain level of just throwing up my hands and being like whatever! That’s why I haven’t fought the scraping very much… too much work, too little reward. But seeing me on a fitspo meme… ugh, a switch flipped;) I still feel like I can’t control it but at least I can be vocal?LOL.
1) Stealers are ridiculous
2) Since spending an outrageous amount of time reading your blog lately, you, your outlook on life, and your story inspire me more than you will possibly EVER know. Also, I can identify with some of it, and that makes it easier sometimes.
3) These anti-fitspiration memes make my day. Especially the without pants one. I love cheese and I wish we could all wear no pants.
Thank you for this post (and all of them, really)
Aw thank you Amalia! This totally made my whole week:) Thanks for taking the time to read my stuff – that means a lot to me!
While you can’t stop people from wanting to steal your pics & words, you can prevent them from using them. While I was involved with eBay, I read about some techie stuff to stop theft. One thing was a separate layer to place over your pictures, like a see-through window. When the thief tries to copy your pic, all they get is the clear window. For your text, there is a set of HTML commands that will prevent theft. Write
at the end of your text. When the thief tries to copy & paste your text, they will get a blank page. Not sure how to do the window thing, except that it’s like adding a copyright symbol or some other see-through object to your picture. Refer to eBay member “shipscript”; she posts all sorts of nifty techie things for eBay on her “About Me” page.
Oooh thank you Lorna! I think I know what you mean about the “blank layer” and I had no idea blockquote worked like that – I’ll try it!
Thanks!!
Ha ha, my HTML tags worked so well that submitting my suggestion I see that section wasn’t copied. The tag were: “block quote”, no spaces, with the left arrow at the start and right arrow at the end (those are above the comma and period keys)…put the block quote command at the start of your text you want to protect. At the end of your protected text, put /block quote, again no spaces and left arrow, right arrow around the command.
I have to say that I object, 3rd graders are smart, and those photos are amazing!
(By that I do not mean: I object, thinspo is amazing, but the photos you took back and the comments are amazing. The comments make them even more amazing. Is all.)
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