I'm Too Sexy For My Book, Too Sexy....

Tart with a cart

Too sexy for my cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o, I might add.

Molly Malone has been selling her seafood in the heart of Dublin for an age, but those who decide what is fit to post on Facebook are obviously quite unaware of the statue.

She represents the pretty girls of Dublin's fair city, and artist Jeanne Rynhart created the iconic sculpture to express in bronze what a lyricist put into song. Ask an ordinary Dubliner and they're likely to refer to the statue as the tart with a cart, so yes, the sexiness of Molly Malone is generally recognized.

But no one in conservative Ireland is roaring about removing the buxom wench, either, so it can't be all that offensive.

Except to Facebook.

Too sexy for a book on Facebook

Frank Whelan thought that Molly would make for a nice image on the cover of his book. Once the cover was designed, he needed to promote his prose and he thought of posting the information on Facebook. It's free, it's marginally effective, but it's a way to get the word out that you're selling your book so your friends and family can make the required purchase to keep the peace.

Whoever monitors morality over at Facebook took one look at Mr. Whelan's cover and found it shocking. Not in the artistic quality of the thing, or the curious composition.

No indeed.

Facebook's authority on good taste thought that Molly's bosom was heaving a wee bit too much for a post on a family-friendly website.

According to news reports, Facebook thought Mr. Whelan was actually advertising a dating site. Right, don't ask. It makes no sense whatsoever, even in Ireland where women were locked up in slave labor camps for the crime of being too pretty and tempting to the male eye.

Facebook would not allow the image to be posted, and Mr. Whelan was quick to point out that the lady on the cover is just a statue that's been in Dublin since the 1980s, right there out on the street in the public view, and you can hardly walk past the thing for the tourists snapping photos. With their children, in fact.

Facebook has thus far refused to budge, not unlike the parish priest whose word was once law in the back of beyond. The website would look doubly foolish to backtrack after learning the facts, right? So the ruling must stand and Mr. Whelan cannot promote his book cover, which makes it rather difficult to promote the book.

So let that be a warning to all you authors who think you can include noted statuary on your book covers.

Can you imagine the uproar if Michelangelo's 'David' was to grace some novel about Renaissance Italy? At least Molly here has a dress on to cover her more than the average bit of carved marble that you'll find just about everywhere art is housed.

Keep your models covered. Photoshop in some critically placed fig leaves or risk the censure of Facebook.