Social media’s censorship of women’s bodies is deeply problematic. The ever changing guidelines for what is and isn’t acceptable on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are inherently sexist and arbitrary. The intense suppression of the female form harms artists and reinforces dangerous and warped ideas regarding value that women have been battling for generations. Moreover, these platforms are not even consistent with the content and accounts they remove, sometimes removing non nude images that depict larger women, menstruation, and pubic hair (to name a few). The constantly reinforced message being that female bodies are obscene if not passed through a patriarchal filter and should be hidden when not. After much public outrage Instagram and Facebook did start to allow images of breastfeeding and mastectomy scars, which is a win if you ignore the fact that it had to be fought for in the first place…..
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