Dozens of female protesters have gathered outside the New York City headquarters of Facebook and Instagram, stripped naked and laid on the ground clutching gigantic images of male nipples.
Artist Spencer Tunick organized the event in support of a campaign called #WeTheNipple, which aims to persuade the social network to drop its ban on allowing women to post images of their breasts.
Men are currently allowed to share as many images of their nipples as they wish.
But the vital freedom is not available to women, whose bosoms are simply not welcome on Mark Zuckerberg’s social network.
To raise awareness of this issue, Tunick snapped images of nipples belonging to celebrity friends including TV host Andy Cohen and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, as well as his own.
These were handed out to a coven of volunteers, who prostrated themselves outside Astor Place subway station in Manhattan, covering their own breasts with the ‘donated nipples’.
On Instagram, Tunick wrote: ‘It’s the only way to fight back!
“#WeTheNipple Art Action in front of Facebook and Instagram offices this Morning. #StopCensorship.
“These are all male nipple stickers covering female-presenting nipples and male nipple cards covering all the participant’s genitalia.
“There is no reason for Facebook or Instagram to censor this video or block from hashtags.”
However, not all of the artist’s followers were quite so passionate about the topic of nipples on social media.
An Icelandic political scientist with the username GinaJulia2019 wrote: ‘You do understand we women have bigger problems worldwide than this? Like child marriage, physical and sexual abuse that goes neglected, sexual slavery …do I need to go on?’
According to #WeTheNipple, social media ‘has dramatically increased artists’ ability to reach – and build – their audiences’ unless ‘their medium is photography and their subject is the body’.
‘The nudity ban prevents many artists from sharing their work online,’ said a statement on the campaign group’s website.
‘It particularly harms artists whose work focuses on their own bodies, including queer and gender-nonconforming artists, and the bodies of those in their communities.
#WeTheNipple and artists like Tunick are calling on both social media platforms to create an exception to their nudity restrictions to allow for art in the medium of photography.’
Source: Metro News
