To My Hater: Thank You!

I have a hater.

It’s not for my political views, my spiritual suggestions or my messy house.

At least, any haters I have for those things have remained silent.

The person in question is hating on …

my boobs!

I know, I’m as surprised as you are! Because, really – and I’ve heard this many times now – they are quite pleasing to the eye.

Now I have to admit, I don’t know who my hater is.

Friend, Foe, Frenemy or Family – whoever it is they are keeping quiet about it.

Sort of.

Maybe quiet isn’t exactly the right word.

Maybe anonymous is more suiting.

So here’s how it all played out.

The first of the Happy Friday cleavage photos that was reported to Facebook, and later approved.A few weeks ago, I put on one of my lovely sun dresses with a very flattering bra and John and I went downtown.

He stopped me on the sidewalk to get a photo of my cleavage, because – well, you’ve seen them right? It was a beautiful photo.

I posted it on his Facebook wall with a Happy Friday greeting from me.

There were a few lovely comments – and a few that bordered on skeezy – but it wasn’t really a big deal. After all, only my friends and his friends could see it.

And then I got a message from Facebook.

My photo was under review because someone had reported it for nudity!

I was weirdly thrilled by this! First of all, I had never had anything reported, so it was interesting to me to see how it worked.

Also, for all of our reputation for being “dangerous”, I’m really not nearly “bad” enough most of the time.

So what did I do?

I took a screenshot of the message from Facebook and posted that on my own wall – set to public so anyone could see it.

Why did I share it again?

Facebook approved my Happy Friday cleavage picture because it doesn't violate their community standards.I wanted people to see how Facebook reporting works, and I was just so amazed I wondered if anyone else thought it was a vulgar picture.

Not long after that, Facebook let me know that the photo didn’t violate the community standards so it could remain.

And, yes, I took a screenshot of that message – including the photo in question – and posted it publicly too!

Hilariously, someone reported that image – the screenshot of the approval of the photo – as containing nudity and we did another round the same day.

Many comments and much hilarity ensued. And then we got back to life.

It’s a whole new tradition!

The next Friday, I thought it might be nice to continue this new tradition of a booby greeting for my man.

That one was reported, too!

The first share, as before, was just for our friends, but sharing the report was public again.

Week three was a video. Still harmless cleavage, this time with a little flashing light. Silly, but similar.

Less than 90 minutes later I already had news it had been reported.

A curious thing is happening here.

Each time my photo is reported, I feel a bit like I’m winning a game.

Each time I share that report, I feel seen and heard – which is a beautiful balm to scars that have never fully healed that I wasn’t seen and heard as a child.

Each time, I get to feel grateful for these lovely assets of mine, and get to enjoy them thoroughly and publicly knowing that they won’t be here forever.

Each time, I have supportive comments from a wide and growing circle of fans who encourage me to continue.

And each time, we all get to have a little bit of fun distraction from the heaviness in our lives – and on Facebook.

It’s a rush!

But why is this happening?

One thing people have been suggesting, though, is that I need to know who is doing the reporting and I need to get them off my friends list.

Actually, a few people have made comments that they know the person is “uptight”, “jealous”, that they have too much time on their hands, and more. One comment even tries to profile the complainant, and it’s not at all flattering.

The thing is – we don’t know.

We don’t know why this person has chosen to make this their big statement every Friday.

We don’t know why they haven’t noticed that every report encourages me to share the photos more publicly and more often – which we might expect is pretty much the opposite of what they are hoping to accomplish.

Or is it?

Again, we don’t know.

And we don’t need to.

To my hater – or admirer or jokester or whatever you are:

Thank you! Turns out I love what you’re doing, so don’t stop. It’s a fun game, and I’m really enjoying the distraction and the attention.

I’ve got a great reason every week to give my man a picture of one (or two!) of his favourite things – and we all get to celebrate the beauty of boobies together!

What more could a girl want, anyway?

Thanks and butterflies to you!

To all of my encouraging commenters:

Thank you all! I appreciate your support so much. Let’s try to be respectful and not make assumptions about my hater, because we really don’t know who they are or what their story is. Let’s keep the name-calling, profiling and nasty wishes out of it.

When it comes down to it, let’s just have some bouncy Friday fun together, okay?

Hugs and butterflies to all of you!

Let’s keep it going!

Week 2 Happy Friday cleavage photo was also reported and approved.A few people have suggested that everyone who wants to join in the fun also post their cleavage on Facebook on Friday, tagging me so my Timeline is filled with boobies!

I would love that! Such fun! Let’s do it!

Let’s play clean, everyone, and ensure there’s no actual nudity. It’s all about celebration, fun and support (do you see what I did there?)

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One Response to To My Hater: Thank You!

  1. Kathy Sprinkle July 13, 2015 at 2:42 pm #

    I love how you are handling this Teresa. I was at a conference ( #WDS2015) with Kid President this past weekend and this is what he says about “Haters” “Hater’s gonna hate. Huggers gonna Hug!”

    Another speaker quoted Madonna, “If you don’t like me and still watch everything I do B*tch you are a fan!”

    Thought you might enjoy!!

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