I was almost excited for the feminists and cisgender females who run the ‘Free the Nipple” campaign. I’ve been in discussions with many ladies over the years about why men can show their nipples and not females. While it looked like Instagram and Facebook made an announcement that they would lift the ban on showing nipples, it doesn’t apply to everyone.
There were many times when actress Alyssa Milano from Who’s the Boss and Charmed protested against banning female nude imagery. Specifically, she showed how she was breastfeeding her baby, upset that she had to hide such beauty. Many of us were on her side.
In the latest announcement by Meta’s Oversight Board, it’s agreed to lift the ban on topless women. However, there’s very much a big catch. The new policy only applies to those who identify as non-binary or transgender. In other words, cisgender women who were born female still need to cover up their nips.
This doesn’t help those who are part of the Free the Nipple campaign. If you’re unaware of it, this campaign has been running for a few years now. It consists of members who feel that men and women should be able to show their nipples freely without being banned. What applies to one gender should apply to the other.
I’ve had so many discussions about this over the past decade, but I won’t go into it here. It could easily turn into a 10,000 word article. Suffice it to say, I’m in favor of the movement. The most significant issue is how people have sexualized cisgender breasts, especially men who don’t know how to keep their creepy thoughts to themselves. It should be a beautiful presentation of the female anatomy, not oversexualized for thoughts of desire and fantasy.
Due to this issue in society, Facebook and Instagram are keeping the ban on the nipples of cisgender women. Apparently, Meta human moderators will now determine if the imagery posted should be allowed or banned. It would be interesting to know what makes them qualified to make such a decision. The next thing you know, they’ll develop AI to be the judge.
