Instagram Experiment Highlights The Hypocrisy of Men’s Nipples Being OK While Women’s Are Not
Can you tell whether these nipples belong to a man or a woman? Instagram couldn’t.
The #FreeTheNipple Instagram movement has been gathering steam for some time with users protesting that not all photographs of the female nipple constitute “sexual content”. It got its latest piece of ammunition after a “little experiment” courtesy of start up adviser James Shamsi.
“Instagram allows male nipples, but not female,” he wrote on Instagram, referring to the company’s community guidelines. “I wanted to show them how stupid this policy is, so I did a little experiment… I uploaded the picture [above], the full form of which you can see [below]. The nipples are all male.”
He then asked his Facebook friends to report the image to Instagram. Shortly afterwards, Instagram removed the post “because it doesn’t follow our Community Guidelines”.
However, when James emailed the company and explained that the nipples belong to a man, it reinstated the original image.
Just to be clear: it was always the same image, no matter whether Instagram was under the impression it was a male chest or a female one, but it was only a problem when it was considered to be female.
The company is under increasing pressure from users to amend its policy; many female celebrities have backed the #freethenipple movement, including Cara Delevigne, Scout Willis and Rihanna.
What do you think of Instagram’s approach to nipples? Let us know @YahooStyleUK
All images: James Shamsi on Instagram
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