Hannah McCormack

I recently almost lost my Instagram account for sharing a post showcasing a woman’s stretch marks. Read that again. Sharing a natural and beautiful bodily occurrence is, according to Instagram, an example of ‘adult sexual solicitation’.

This is not the first time my account has come under fire from the app. I was scolded for sharing a post of a woman wearing nothing but rollerskates having a fabulous time in the seventies. An image that sparked joy in me, but was a violation of community guidelines. These guidelines are a “reflection of our diverse community of cultures, ages, and beliefs. We have spent a lot of time thinking about the different points of view that create a safe and open environment for everyone.” But if you are female and/or femme presenting, you best put your nipples away.

By targeting and effectively erasing the female body from the platform, what message is Instagram sending out? That it is shameful and should not be seen? The category that the female body is put into when a violation occurs is ‘sexual solicitation’ - I was put into this category for standing a certain way in a low-cut jumpsuit. Instagram states that nudity is not allowed on the platform. To them, it is always seen in a sexual light. By constantly placing the female body in a sexual context, you are reducing it to nothing more than an object to be looked at on a massive scale. That woman in the seventies was roller skating in the nude because she felt free and comfortable in her body - something that nudity promotes. We’re not all getting our boobs out for other people’s benefit, Zuck.

A friend of mine shared this post by @adrian_rux to her story - censored. I asked her to share her thoughts:

What has your experience been like with sharing content on Instagram?

“My content is pretty innocent, but if I wanted to share something that’s considered more explicit to my story I need to think if there’s a chance of getting a warning. Take the photo of the woman without a top on who was painted blue [above image]. Her nipples had to be covered to not risk getting a warning. I would one hundred percent see it as art and artistic, as did most people who saw it and gave it a like. But Instagram would say that it violates community guidelines because of her chest being exposed.”

How does that make you feel?

“It makes me upset that bodies, especially female ones, are sexualised. Not wearing a bra or showing skin is seen as something sexual, when in reality, it is often only done for comfort or preference. Also, nudity has been seen as something natural for hundreds of years; but with the rise of the internet we view it differently.”

The post in question was allowed to stay on the platform, with commenters theorising that may have been due to the breasts on show being small and therefore less likely to be sexualised. So because her chest looked ‘masculine’ it was allowed to stay. A nipple is a nipple, no matter who it belongs to.

This is where I believe the problem lies. This is a societal issue. It is society’s displease with seeing the female and/or femme presenting body in a non-sexual context. It has always irked me that I can’t take my top off at the beach. This summer, I forgot to shave my underarms and was filled with dread as I sat on a sun lounger in a strapless top. My aunt told me “no one cares.” This was one of the most freeing statements I had ever heard. Body hair is a natural thing, yet on female and/or femme presenting bodies it is seen as the opposite and unclean. Posts showcasing body hair have been limited by the algorithm, perpetuating a narrative that it is wrong and should be censored. Porn has already taught the world that women must be hairless, submissive beings - do we need a photo-sharing platform to teach us that too? I asked a photographer friend to discuss their thoughts on this issue.

What is your opinion on Instagram's community guidelines?

“Today is a fierce reminder of the critical importance of freedom in the entirety of its beautiful shape. With social media platforms, we are constantly trying to expand that free-form, to make it three-dimensional and rewrite all societal standards that have kept too many from soaring. Instagram claims to endorse this movement, alas its giant algorithm is not always a good judge of what content is actually offensive. I've seen too many body positivity posts being taken down under the pretext of “nudity” because Instagram cannot tell the difference between Onlyfans type content and body empowerment imagery.”

Do you think censorship on the platform has gone too far?

“As artists, advocates, or mere supporters of freedom for visual expression - it's important to get our message across, and frustrating when Instagram randomly takes it down. Yes, it's a difficult job creating the perfect algorithm to judge every potential “offence”, but this is precisely why Instagram should increase their staff to at least analyse (deleted) posts sent in for reviews - they owe it to the billion-plus users. People would get less turned off by wrongly targeted censorship and more invested into actually creating and sharing. Real people assessing reports will also be able to help more in the bullying situation that’s also plaguing the platform and that goes hand-in-hand with patriarchal beauty standards - the very ones which today's generations are trying to grow out of.”

It isn’t just body empowerment imagery that the app seems to be confused by, but sex positive imagery as well. Sex and pleasure positivity for those with a vagina has been, quite frankly, a struggle. Sexual education is dire, and in Northern Ireland sometimes delivered through a religious lens. My own secondary school experiences left me with trauma I didn’t know I had, which is why now I am so fiercely behind people with vaginas owning their own pleasure. Recently, body positive content creator and babe Nelly London lost 2062 followers for promoting a sex toy on her Instagram.

In the caption, she also censored the first mention of the word masturbation. The algorithm is very sensitive to words such as these. In one person's reason for unfollowing they cited that, what if a child saw this? You must be thirteen or over to have an Instagram account. I wish I had seen such a post as Nelly’s at thirteen; maybe then some of the shame I felt would have been eased.

However, accounts that promote a body-positive and sex-positive attitude are allowed to survive on the platform. One way that they do this is by setting an age limit on their account. I recently set mine to eighteen. I’m still stunned that in order to share posts that showcase beautiful stretch marks, body hair, squishy tummies, and lingerie without feeling threatened or stifled by the forces that be, I must set this limit.

The female and/or femme presenting body does not exist to be sexualised. Instagram, I'll be requesting a review.

FEATURE- Requesting a Review: Instagram's Fear of the Female Form