Free the nipple

A photo is a powerful means of self expression. As a lover of art, one of my absolute pleasures is content creating for my online communities. And while a picture may speak a thousand words, as the saying goes, it is often also the springboard for my written musings.

Take the photo to the left for example. It's one of my favorite pics from a recent shoot. I felt pretty and sensual. When I saw that I had successfully captured that feeling in the visual, I decided to use it in a post on self-love and body positivity. I was just about to load it up onto social media when I noticed IT - yes IT, oh no say IT isn’t so, practically STARING me in the face.

What was it that made me pause, GASP, and change my mind about posting you ask? Prepare yourself folks…

My nipple could be seen through the lingerie. Quelle horreur!​

Now of course I had the option of blurring it out so I could use the picture on the "they who shall not be named" (cough cough Instagram and Facebook) apps in question. I've seen other profiles do that in order to post (with questionable success as sometimes the apps still restrict, take down the post, or lock the creators out of their own accounts.) But it would have ruined the aesthetic and even more importantly...the very thought pissed me off.

According to the official Community Guidelines on Instagram, nudity is NOT allowed and FEMALE nipples are ONLY permitted “in the context of breastfeeding, birth giving and after-birth moments, health-related situations (for example, post-mastectomy, breast cancer awareness or gender confirmation surgery) or an act of protest are allowed. Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is OK, too.” (*1)  Facebook’s guidelines are similar - which makes sense now that they are the same company.

So if I understand correctly, my nipples are allowed to be seen if I am a mom, having a health crisis, or a gender surgery. And perhaps if someone has created a painting or sculpture of me, we might get a permitted glimpse of this illicit body part. Unfortunately for my content, these conditions do not apply to me. I am not a mom, and have no plans for any mini me’s in the immediate future. Knock wood I am also healthy without any breast related issues. And finally, as a CIS female, the last condition permitting my nipples to be shown doesn’t pertain to me either. So while I certainly appreciate the value in having these exceptions, they don’t help my situation with censorship, and the guidelines overall still have some very big issues in the way they are constructed. 

In the first place, although I respect the rights of these companies to create guidelines, there is a HUGE double standard happening with these rules. See all summer long I've seen post after post of men with their shirts off. Yet if my CLOTHED pics are deemed too suggestive, I get banned (shadow or outright) on the same platforms. 

Please note: I am NOT bashing men with this observation. I love the male body, enjoy viewing it (except for those damn unsolicited dick pics - why are these even still a thing????), and have no problem with them taking their shirts off in public, let alone in photos. I simply wonder why is it that THEIR nipples are OK to see, and MINE are TABOO? Why is my body sexualized whether I intend for it to be or not, and theirs is permissible to show?

I just...don't ...get it…

To make matters worse, the enforcement of the nipple and nudity rules appears to be arbitrary. Do you have a lingerie shop, boudoir photography business, model swimsuits, are a pole dancer, or simply want to post a “look I’m at the beach in my swimsuit” pic - especially as a woman? Better be careful what you post because female bodies are “SEXY” and should not be shown in case they “entice” someone to do something terrible. In 2018, Facebook’s head of global policy management Monika Bickert claimed that the double standard of the nipple was to keep women safe. 

"Fundamentally our nudity standards are about safety. It's very hard for us to determine the age of a person depicted in a nude image. It's also very hard for us to determine consent. So even if it's pretty clear the person consented to the image being taken, it's very hard to tell if the person consented to the image being shared," she said. (*2)

That sounds like a noble argument except for an underlying problem with this logic. These apps do not have a concrete way to verify consent of ANY photo being shared on these platforms. So this reasoning doesn’t hold up to an accountability review. There is NO check point in place to verify that content is truly original to the creator, and that they have given consent to share it - other than the fact that it is posted. 

They DO provide a way for you to report an account for sharing images of you WITHOUT your consent, or is impersonating you. However, as I personally have discovered, many times these platforms come back with a message REFUSING to take down the fraudulent profile, nor do they punish the image thief by taking the stolen content down. The platform’s response to your complaint? Apparently the impersonators have NOT violated Community Guidelines by pretending to be you and misappropriating your original content. 

Wait what? Let me get this straight...So I have a way to report that I did not consent for them to use my content, but there is no action taken against the perpetrator? Dig deeper into the “why” of such a response and you discover that it is an automated algorithm often answering you. In other words, no human is looking at your complaint, and the computer doesn’t care.

If you are confused by the complexities of what can and can’t be posted, be assured you are not alone. The more one travels down this rabbit hole of “nipple or no nipple”, the deeper the puzzlement gets. 

For example, the inconsistencies in policy administration are evident in legitimate profiles as well. Some profiles are allowed to show practically pornographic material, while others are harassed by the algorithm for “violating community standards” for decency. I’ve  been on the receiving end of such seemingly subjective enforcement a few years ago when a picture of me in a long formal red dress was taken down for “nudity”, and violation of community standards. The odd fact that I was fully clothed and no “illegal” body part was showing seemed irrelevant to the algorithm gods. (Later it was allowed to be re-posted but the “appeal” process itself is almost nonexistent. I somehow just got lucky that time.) 

And let’s not disregard the fact that nipples, pubic hair, and pornographic art content DO exist on these sites - some on the blue check verified creator profiles. How or why it is allowed on some profiles vs others seems to be a genuine mystery as we are all supposedly policed by the same algorithm. So why are some people - who do not fall into the listed exemptions - still allowed to post content that I would be forever banned for showing?

But wait…there’s more…

Women, as a gender, get even more conflicting messages as to what is encouraged or acceptable on these platforms because of how we are targeted by “fashion” ads. Such ads often depict trends in which we are encouraged to be as slutty as possible in order to “catch our perfect partner”, as though being an independent person is a disease. Females are given the message that we MUST be admired, possessed, and a part of a couple - on a path to matrimony and the creation of littles - in order to be VALIDATED as a human. Flaunting our sexuality is encouraged for the sake of entrapment of a mate, but not for the simple celebration of our miraculous bodies. 

Apparently I am not the only one confused by this blatant discrimination, and the arbitrary rules of what can and cannot be shown on our individual content curated pages. More and more creators - of all gender identities - are speaking up asking the very same questions. Why are female bodies considered scandalous and shameful, but men's bodies are celebrated or even encouraged to be viewed? 

Women are targeted by fashion influencers to wear dresses up to our clits, and tops that show off our tits. Yet heaven help us if we show the same on our individual pages, and the algorithm police catch us. The consequences of transgression is banishment to social media hell - enforced isolation OFF the internet and soon forgotten. (Or so they like us to think as the same platforms who monitor us so closely, ALSO suggest we post MULTIPLE times a day to stay relevant and present in the eyes of our followers).

I realize there are those who may try to insinuate that, as an adult entertainer, my motive for this piece is really to give me the right to post “nudies” on my pages. (Uhm no, peeps can pay for that subscriber only content on my Fansly or OnlyFans). However let me remind my gentle readers that I am ALSO - first and foremost forevermore - a POSITIVITY influencer. It is my passion (and my job) to promote healthy body image, mental health, and overall wellness. This includes working to STOP female body shaming and unfairly censoring content creator’s images depicting the female body. 

Furthermore, letting an algorithm judge out of context the intent of photographic art is not a way to keep community safe. This intense focus on the female body in a sexual context - as though our body parts are here for the wanton enjoyment of carnal pleasures only - is limiting as well potentially dangerous. You want to keep us safe? Allow us to be seen as humans first, before sexualizing our appearances.

Interestingly all of this discussion also dismisses one very important attribute of social media accounts. As a user of the platform, I CHOOSE which accounts I like to follow. And as a content creator, I can also choose to make my materials private and thus control my viewing audience.  Therefore if I do not want to see something, I can simply opt not to follow an account. And for my own content, I can control what I wish to share.

It’s 2022 peeps. I think it’s about time we free the nipple, and celebrate the wonderful miracle of our beautiful bodies. Or simply get the right to post our pictures without being attacked for showing one of our many extraordinary, yet quite ordinary, physical parts.

xoxo
Tink

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​Footnotes:

*1    From Instagram’s Community Guidelines in the subsection “Post photos and videos that are appropriate for a diverse audience”  https://help.instagram.com/477434105621119

*2 Quoted from this Yahoo article by Rob Price https://www.yahoo.com/news/facebook-bans-most-photos-female-193051117.html

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