Life after a viral nightmare: from Ecce Homo to revenge porn
January 7, 2015 6:38 PM   Subscribe

What happened to the Spanish artist behind ‘the worst restoration job in history’? Where is the woman who sent the Quentin Tarantino toe-sucking email now? And how does a victim of internet harassment recover? Survivors of online humiliation tell their stories. SLGrauniad
posted by turbid dahlia (45 comments total) 26 users marked this as a favorite
 
I did what any millennial would do: I told all my friends.

What's the 15th century phrase? "Hoist on one's own petard?" It'd be one thing if there were uncomfortable power-dynamics in play, but here he asked for her consent to go back to his place, which she gave, and then asked for her consent for his kind of swell time, which she gave.

On the other hand, a lot of the blowback seems to be "a woman consented to a sex act!" - which is the opposite of awesome.

So it sucks all around. She shouldn't have tried to humiliate her partner, and the world at large should not have reacted as it did.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:06 PM on January 7, 2015 [5 favorites]


I literally woke up one morning and had literally a thousand things on my phone, notifications,” Mitchell said at the time.

Uh.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 7:09 PM on January 7, 2015 [4 favorites]


Before all this, my paintings used to sell for low prices, say €500 or €1,000 apiece. Now I’ve been able to sell a few of my pieces for more. I won’t tell you how much – but let’s just say that it was a good price for me.

Now I'm annoyed.
posted by Going To Maine at 7:16 PM on January 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


People are made famous for doing stupid things. The fame doesn't last longer than 15 minutes according to Andy Warhol.

But in the Internet Age, Google can save the search results indexed by names of these people.
posted by Orion Blastar at 7:16 PM on January 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


That day I noticed how badly the paint was peeling. So I wet the painting, making broad strokes. Then I left it to dry and went on holiday for two weeks, thinking I would finish the restoration when I returned.

Since this story broke I have been a defender of this woman and find the whole tale charming. I think what she did was fine and it's obviously been turned into a huge boon for the church. But there's no way I believe this story; or, if this part is believable and she was indeed planning to do more work there's no way I believe that the result would have been closer to the original.
posted by Miko at 7:19 PM on January 7, 2015 [6 favorites]


So is that the same Beejoli Shah who wrote the article about diamonds that was posted here earlier today? Small world if so.
posted by mbd1mbd1 at 7:21 PM on January 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


It really isn't that hard to not be an asshole.

If the Internet has shown us anything, it's that a lot of people out there are just seething with anger and frustration, and are happy to vent it by kicking anyone or anything that's handy (and that can't fight back). And, man, I get it – I'm angry and frustrated too. But when I gotta punch something, I try to aim my punches at deserving targets – not random strangers who've committed petty transgressions (or, often, who've done nothing at all). Telling the Auschwitz selfie girl to kill herself, or issuing death threats against the kid from Target? I mean, what? I don't even begin to understand that. People who think like that might as well be members of an alien species.

The Internet is still relatively new, and a global, instantaneous communication network is a pretty radical change for a species that evolved to live in small bands. I often wonder if we'll eventually figure out a system of norms and mores that mitigates the worst of it, or if we're just stuck with an inexhaustible tsunami of "HEY FAGOT KILL URSELF" forever.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:40 PM on January 7, 2015 [31 favorites]


Metafilter: a system of norms and mores that mitigates the worst of it
posted by The otter lady at 7:45 PM on January 7, 2015 [17 favorites]


I guess it's inconvenient to mention Beejoli's braggy Defamer welcome post, since that gig lasted, what, two months?
posted by 99_ at 8:00 PM on January 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


Annmarie Chiarini is awesome!
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:18 PM on January 7, 2015 [1 favorite]




I feel so sorry for the kid from Target. He did absolutely nothing, not for the positive attention or the negative. It's terrible harassment.
posted by jb at 8:49 PM on January 7, 2015 [3 favorites]


Remember that woman who tweeted something about Aids before getting on a plane to Africa?

No. Do you remember after the terror report came out and there was some fervor to try Bush and Cheney as war criminals? Probably not, because these stories are what pass as news in the era of the 24 hr news cycle. Bush and Cheney made a career taking advantage of America's gnat-like attention span. Guaranteed the outrage over the Aids tweet lasted longer than the outrage over the terror report.
posted by any major dude at 8:52 PM on January 7, 2015 [21 favorites]


Ecce Homo makes me laugh every time I see it. He looks like a bewildered primate.
posted by betweenthebars at 8:54 PM on January 7, 2015 [5 favorites]


I guess it's inconvenient to mention Beejoli's braggy Defamer welcome post, since that gig lasted, what, two months?

Three and a half, 99, but WHO'S COUNTING? Oh wait, it was me, I was totally counting.
posted by incessant at 9:31 PM on January 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


Ecce Homo used to be one of thousands of somewhat similar renditions of Jesus Christ as a white European. Now it has become part of an accidental sublime, an object that somehow doesn't quite deserve the guffaws it provokes.

Yet provoke them IT DOES.

For my tastes, three is way too few for a viral nightmare followup listicle. Following up on the victims/perpetrators of Internet boners in a way similar to the Seven Up! series would be better than a even a 24/7 reality TV cable channel.

Also I mean, what? I don't even begin to understand that. People who think like that might as well be members of an alien species.

You're right, escape from the potato planet. They're members of the alien species humans commonly refer to as "teenagers."
posted by mistersquid at 9:47 PM on January 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


When Sacco tweeted “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get Aids. Just kidding. I’m white!” she was very obviously joking about racism rather than advocating it, but still, not obviously enough. And you’d expect a “global head of communications” to know better.

It's not joking about racism. It's just a racist joke.

She made a racist statement on a public channel, using a social media account associated with her workplace (her employer and her position were listed right there in her Twitter bio. She richly deserved to be fired.

As for the online abuse and mockery, well, racists deserve to be called on their racism (but no one should ever threaten anyone with violence, of course).
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 12:23 AM on January 8, 2015 [10 favorites]


It's not joking about racism. It's just a racist joke.

The Guardian's assertion that this is "very obviously" a joke about racism does seem exceptionally charitable.

I'm trying to wrap my head around how this could be a clever satire on white westerners' perceptions of the HIV problem in parts of Africa but I'm having a pretty hard time seeing it.

It seems a hell of a lot more like "lol black Africans get AIDS right?"
posted by Dext at 2:00 AM on January 8, 2015


I'm generally of the opinion that ironic racism is still racist, and if people can't tell your satire is satirical, you are doing bad satire.
posted by smoke at 2:06 AM on January 8, 2015 [11 favorites]


I know the Star Wars Kid had a rough time of it but he seems okay now.
That ridiculous video resume guy...? well he's dead.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:10 AM on January 8, 2015


I've never known anyone who had a big viral moment, but I've known a couple of people who have had bad and highly visible professional failures, along the lines of being the chief engineer for a bridge that collapses, say. All of them are still working in the field -- there seems to be about a year of purgatory and sometimes an immediate firing, and then all is forgiven. No one really forgets, but everyone shrugs and moves on.

I was surprised to read that the guy who tweeted a joke about hitting a cyclist was fired, though, since usually you can run over a cyclist for real with no repercussions at all.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:01 AM on January 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Ecce Homo is hilarious, I would hang that on my wall
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:08 AM on January 8, 2015


I'm generally of the opinion that ironic racism is still racist, and if people can't tell your satire is satirical, you are doing bad satire.

I agree with the first half of that statement, but I'm not sure I agree with the second, depending on how you mean "people." Some of the best satires are things that some people are think are serious, especially when it's the targets of the satire who don't realize it's satirical. Exhibit A being the classic Onion article, "Harry Potter Books Spark Rise In Satanism Among Children." [Relevant Snopes article]

I'm not defending the (ironically or not) racist tweet, but I think the more general condemnation of satire that not everyone recognizes as satire is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:39 AM on January 8, 2015


I would like for someone to explain the Target employee thing, because I don't get it.

A nice young lad is bagging goods at a checkout line, I get that part. Please explain why it's a thing.
posted by ovvl at 6:43 AM on January 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


> Ecce Homo used to be one of thousands of somewhat similar renditions of Jesus Christ as a white European.

Every single portrait of Christ I have ever seen that was painted by a possum has depicted Him as a possum.
posted by jfuller at 7:22 AM on January 8, 2015 [7 favorites]


Every single portrait of Christ I have ever seen that was painted by a possum has depicted Him as a possum.

I can't believe I actually just spent time to investigate this.
posted by amorphatist at 7:53 AM on January 8, 2015 [3 favorites]


I would like for someone to explain the Target employee thing, because I don't get it.

A nice young lad is bagging goods at a checkout line, I get that part. Please explain why it's a thing.


It still smacks of viral marketing to me, though many swear up and down that it's not.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:58 AM on January 8, 2015


People who think like that might as well be members of an alien species.
escape from the potato planet

Nah, that's just human nature bubbling to the surface.

What seems alien to me is this seeming compulsion of younger people to immediately post every single thought or feeling they have to social media, even when doing so, as in some of the examples in the article, will obviously have serious repercussions for them.

Even if you don't give a shit about anyone else, surely you're concerned about destroying your own life? I just don't understand how over and over and over again people post racist/sexist/disgusting things to Facebook or Twitter and bring down a shit storm on themselves.
posted by Sangermaine at 7:59 AM on January 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Last night at the MefiChi meetup, the teevee in the bar was showing local news. There was a shot of Local Man, captioned with this name "John Q. Localman" and the legend "car won't start".

We spent a rollicking five minutes imagining the Google-persistence of his legendary news appearance as John Q. Localman: Car won't start.

(Presumably, it was a story about the weather. For those who have somehow failed to hear national weather reports, it's cold in Chicago.)
posted by crush-onastick at 8:56 AM on January 8, 2015


I would like for someone to explain the Target employee thing, because I don't get it.

A nice young lad is bagging goods at a checkout line, I get that part. Please explain why it's a thing.


Here's the New York Times article linked from the Guardian article, but the TL:DR is that random kid worked at Target, random other kid stumbled on a pic of him bagging goods on one social media site then reposted that pic on a different social media site, along with a note that made it obvious that second kid thought the kid in the pic was totally hot, and then the pic went viral, with tons of other kids clearly also thinking Target kid was hot and re-re-re-re-re-ad infinitum posting the pic & commentary on social media.

So Target kid ends his shift at Target, turns on his phone, and discovers that roughly 1 bazillion people all over the world are suddenly publicly discussing how cute he is. And things snowballed from there, in both (possibly) positive and negative ways.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:27 AM on January 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


Thanks, yeah, I read the NYT link, so "...I get that part". But still not the why?
posted by ovvl at 10:37 AM on January 8, 2015


Because people like looking at pictures of pretty people, and it got reblogged through tumblr (I think it was tumblr) which is about 99.999999999999999999% comprised of people who like looking at pretty people.

As for TFA... I read this article and two things struck me:

1) Thin. Very, very thin. If you are going to write a "whatever happened to..." article (and I'm not convinced you should; see #2) maybe it's worth digging a little deeper?

2) I'm not really convinced that articles like this help. I'm totally on board with "where are they now" for celebrities--that is people who chose to be (in)famous--who have faded out of the spotlight. You put yourself in the public eye on purpose, that eye is more or less never going to leave you.

But these people didn't do that. (I really, really feel for the kids especially). They just got made famous by internerds... and now there's yet another article (and a forum discussion, here) about them sticking around in the Googles forever. I'm not saying the Grauniad should have been prevented from publishing this, free press and all that, but maybe an editor should have thought "Are we really helping these people move on, or are we just rubbernecking and contributing to the problem like everyone else?"
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:47 AM on January 8, 2015


I don't know why, but I was very surprised when the article turned out not to be by Jon Ronson.
posted by rollick at 2:05 PM on January 8, 2015


But still not the why?

In all non-snarky seriousness, why what?

Why do people think the kid's hot? Why did this kid's pic go viral instead of someone else's? Why is it news or remarkable that his pic went viral at all? What "why" are you asking about?
posted by soundguy99 at 3:41 PM on January 8, 2015


1) Thin. Very, very thin. If you are going to write a "whatever happened to..." article (and I'm not convinced you should; see #2) maybe it's worth digging a little deeper?

I took out the photo captions and ads: 2006 words 11029 characters

That's why it stops at three.
posted by phearlez at 8:09 AM on January 9, 2015


Justine Sacco Is Good at Her Job, and How I Came To Peace With Her is a good article about the "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm White!" tweeter, written a year after the incident.
posted by dfan at 8:49 AM on January 9, 2015


More than two years later, tourists continue to trek to the village of Borja to marvel at what has been dubbed the “worst restoration in history”.

This under-classes the money changers in the temple. The vandalized painting could have (and should have) been fixed by now, but instead the church, the woman and the village are content making money off of being a kitschy global laughing stock.

Rhesus wept.
posted by dgaicun at 8:49 AM on January 9, 2015


. The vandalized painting could have (and should have) been fixed by now

I think the consensus was that it couldn't be fixed:
The city already commissioned a professional study that concluded it was impossible to restore the piece.
It would be a matter of just removing the entire painting and starting over. I applaud the church's and village's response. The value of this piece of art was overestimated from the very beginning. It was nice, but academic and generic. Even before the damage, there is no way the church could have afforded its proper restoration and no chance of ever raising the funds to do it. This was a boon and they've been smart about it.
“I can’t explain the reaction. I went to see ‘Ecce Homo’ myself, and still I don’t understand it,” said Borja’s mayor, Miguel Arilla, from his art-filled office.

In the economic crisis of the last six years, 300 jobs vanished, he said, but with the tourism boom, restaurants remained stable. Local museums, he added, also benefited. The nearby Museum of Colegiata, housed in a 16th century Renaissance mansion, experienced a rise in annual visits to 70,000 from 7,000 for its religious, medieval art.
posted by Miko at 9:33 AM on January 9, 2015


Turning your temple of divine worship into a road-side attraction, where tourists pay you to laugh at a painting of your God as a monkey is a sub-Springfieldian sacrilege.

Even from a secular perspective, colluding with your bullies to profit off of your own degradation is not an opportunity worth embracing.

But it's the era of reality television, and the syncretization of Capitalism and Christianity is all but complete, so I realize that this radical notion of costly self-respect trumping infamy and materialism is mostly greeted with that confused headturn that dogs make when you slowly let the air out of a balloon.
posted by dgaicun at 12:18 PM on January 9, 2015


you make a very interesting point dgaicun, but there's also the question of forgiveness, rolling with the punches, and the greater good of the community.

while I don't know what was in the hearts of the church when they decided to continue the way they did, and while I do believe that religion and money make a terrible mix, i like to think and hope that the church decided that God was more interested in forgiveness and support than another nice painting.
posted by bitteroldman at 12:32 PM on January 9, 2015


Turning your temple of divine worship into a road-side attraction, where tourists pay you to laugh at a painting of your God as a monkey is a sub-Springfieldian sacrilege.

Have you ever been to a European cathedral? Or even an American cathedral? Tourists are welcomed, people gawk, money is collected, the church's work is supported. It's not as though places of worship aren't already tourist attractions. They have been for centuries, and not undeservedly.

radical notion of costly self-respect

When I think about what he generally thought of people who espoused "costly self-respect," I have a feeling that Christ would be looking on the viewers and the artist and those who sought to support their church and their village in this unexpected way in a kindlier light.
posted by Miko at 12:40 PM on January 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


Why do people think the kid's hot? Why did this kid's pic go viral instead of someone else's? Why is it news or remarkable that his pic went viral at all? What "why" are you asking about?

1) cute, not my type, but I get it.
2) ?
3) ???
4) 2 & 3
posted by ovvl at 7:06 PM on January 9, 2015


Well, I'll give it my best guesses . . . .

Why did this kid's pic go viral instead of someone else's?

Beats the heck outta me, although answering this kinda question is something everyone from poets to biologists to marketers has been trying to figure out for a loooooooong time. If anyone could actually really truly reliably figure out WHY and HOW one person captures the public's attention rather than another, they would rule the world, pretty literally.

Why is it news or remarkable that his pic went viral at all?

Well, I mean, even 10 years ago (before social media on the web really took off), any random cute kid in Suburban Nowhere U.S.A. would've had, what? maybe 20, 30 people at most who thought he was cute, and all of those people would be in his more-or-less immediate social circle, or at least in a small geographic area, and any discussions about how cute he was would be pretty much private between 2 to 5 people, and the kid himself would likely not really know that a bunch of people thought he was cute and were discussing it amongst themselves; he might get a sort of fourth hand idea, where John tells him that Katie overheard Donna and Sue raving over him, something like that.

But here, it's a girl in an entirely different country who notices the kid's picture, and the whole thing exploded on social media in a matter of hours - his manager had to take him off the register and send him into the back to work because people were showing up just to stand in line at his register to see what he looked like in the flesh. Thousands or even tens of thousands of people from literally all over the world knew what he looked like and were commenting on his looks - I've seen at least one source claim that online mentions of the kid hit one million in the course of one day. And the kid found out about it really quickly.

This would not have even been possible a few years ago, so that's why it's at least somewhat remarkable.

And while plenty of things have gone viral over social media, the spread of the Target kid had a speed and volume that was, maybe, unprecedented, especially for someone who wasn't actually trying to get attention, who was actually a sort of innocent bystander in the whole thing. The pic that went viral wasn't even a selfie or taken by a friend.

And then there's a sort of feedback loop happening, where once people from more "standard" media outlets (like Buzzfeed and CNN) noticed the "Alex from Target" thing, they published stories about it, which meant even more people knew about it.

So I guess the TL:DR to "why" is that this viral phenomenon was, possibly, just different enough to make people really sit up and take notice that "the whole world connected via the internet and social media" was more than a pipe dream or marketing slogan, that it can actually really happen, and that there may be some unexpected and unpleasant side effects of this connectivity.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:43 PM on January 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


The Alex from Target thing scares the bejeezus out of me, and for very good reason. Dude didn't even do anything except exist in public, didn't even know his photo was being taken because he was busy doing his job, and in the blink of an eye he's on Ellen and he and his girlfriend are getting death threats because again, people know he exists, so he should die.

What the fucking fuck. And this shit could happen to literally anyone. Andy Warhol's quote needs some serious adjusting now: you can be famous in fifteen seconds and never hear the end of it for the rest of your life, and then everyone wants you dead. Or something like that. Dear god, I hate social media for bringing that level of worldwide public scrutiny upon all our heads.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:42 PM on January 9, 2015 [3 favorites]


I see Alex from Target as the latest iteration of Ridiculously Photogenic Guy (a.k.a Zeddie Little...remember him?) Except the reaction to RPG was pretty much universally positive, while AfT faced a good bit of backlash.

Why the difference? I'm not entirely sure. I have a suspicion or two, but nothing more.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:40 AM on January 10, 2015


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