On December 27, 2008, a group of mothers appear in front of Facebook’s headquarters in Palo Alto. All have small children in their arms, some are breastfeeding. I am here to ask the social media giant to stop censoring their bodies and viewing breastfeeding as a pornographic and sensual act. A lot has changed since then. In 2014, Facebook admitted to posting pictures of breastfeeding, but the campaign #freethenipple it’s just begun. To be precise, in 2012 in New York during the filming of the documentary of the same name by director Lina Esco, which highlighted the difference in the treatment of male (permitted) and female (censored) bare torsos. Today, a decade later It looks like the Meta group, which owns Instagram and Facebook, has finally decided to “liberate the nipples” and lift the ban on nude photos.
In a decision dated January 17, the Supervisory Body, made up of a group of academics, politicians and journalists who advise the company on its content moderation policy, recommended that Meta change its policy on adult nudity and sexual activity. “that it be based on clear criteria consistent with international human rights standards.” Over the years, artists and activists have thought about it to highlight that the default sexualization of female breasts was discriminatory. In 2015, Los Angeles-based artist Micol Hebron created Instagram-friendly male nipple stickers for use on female bodies and circumventing (and highlighting) unequal treatment. In 2019, photographer Spencer Tunick staged a rally in front of Facebook’s New York headquarters in which dozens of naked men and women posed with enlarged nipples.
Even a few celebrities, from Miley Cyrus to Rihanna, have joined the campaign and continue to do so. Just a few weeks ago, Florence Pugh showed up at the Valentino show in Rome in a sheer dress and said: “I don’t want to offend anyone, but I think it’s because my nipples can be so offensive?” As told GuardianWhen Mikol Hebron was invited to Instagram headquarters in 2019 with a group of influencers to talk about the company’s nipple policy, she realized that There were no transgender people on the content moderation team.. “For me, that was all I needed to understand that the conversation about gender and inclusion doesn’t happen at Meta.”
In fact, it is transgender bodies that show the absurdity of discrimination between female and male nipples. A trans woman can show her nipples on Instagram before transitioning, but not after: At what point does change really occur? The Meta Review Board decision that marked the change in course was born out of an appeal by an American transgender and non-binary couple who censored a post about a breast mastectomy. The Council found that the censorship policy was “based on a binary view of gender and the distinction between male and female bodies.” This makes the rules against nipples “obscure” when it comes to intersex, transgender and non-binary users.
Soon then everything will change, even if many questions remain. There remains a difference between a post that raises awareness about breast cancer, a post that shows adult bodies, and a post that shows nude minors. Can the algorithm make the necessary distinctions? The risk is that the weakest and most marginalized categories will again lose out.
Source: Elle