World News: “Facebook to Reconsider Nudity Policy After Photographers Protest” via PetaPixel

According to this article in PetaPixel, a website that specializes in covering interests and news related to photography, Facebook might at long last be putting some thought into reconsidering their puritanical link between nudity and explicit sexual content (thereby banning both):

“Facebook has agreed to rethink its stance on nudity following an outcry from photographers who have been protesting the social network’s banning of artistic nudity in photographs.”

This comes on the heels of another recent protest against Facebook, where “Anti-Censorship Activists Strip Nude Outside Facebook HQ to Fight Nudity Ban” (via Rolling Stone). Feel free to read the linked articles for more information on these two events.

Now, as a female-identifying (and -looking) topless equality activist who has been struggling against social media in general, and Facebook in particular, I’m not holding my breath on Facebook or any other large social media platform actually changing their sexist and transphobic policies against “nudity,” including considering female-looking nipples as “nudity” but not male-looking ones (btw if you seriously think that nipples themselves have genders, I invite you to spend some time on the Genderless Nipples instagram–unless their account has been banned yet again, that is.). Of course, videos directly targeting bullying behavior towards LGBTQ, women, people of color are perfectly allowed–see Carlos Maza of Vox’s current battle with Youtube for giving a free pass to a channel that has dedicated itself to launching hateful homophobic and racist attacks against him. But to actually allow, say, a female-looking woman (so called because as long as you “look male,” social media will allow you to post topless content, regardless of what you identify as or what your legal identity is) to post a video of herself sitting on her bed reviewing a classic sci-fi movie? GOD FORBID!

Anyway, seething cynicism aside, I am glad to hear there are at least some rumblings that maybe Facebook etc will knock this shit off. Even if nothing changes (as I expect it won’t), it’s gratifying to hear that I’m not the only person on the internet outraged that this blatant sexism continues unabated and unacknowledged. Keep up the fight!