Behind the protest bombarding Facebook HQ with IRL nipples

According to Facebook and Instagram, not all nipples are created equal – male nipples good, female nipples bad. So New York photographer Spencer Tunick, in partnership with the National Coalition Against Censorship, took to the social media giant’s Manhattan headquarters to test this theory by amassing a crowd of 125 nude protesters across the gender spectrum, with all female-presenting nipples covered by male nipples.

To drive the point home, the unclothed crowd held up pizza-sized cutouts of “donated” male nipples. The ten nipples that were featured in photographs were generously contributed by both high-profile donors, such as Bravo’s Andy Cohen and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, and some of the participants, including Tunick himself.

“Online censorship is a symptom of the commitment of those in power to dictate and regulate women’s bodies,” Nora Pelizzari, Director of Communications at the NCAC, tells SLEEK. “It reinforces outmoded ideas of gender and bodily shame and upholds anachronistic societal views, ironic for an industry that prides itself on forward-thinking.”

The National Coalition Against Censorship is currently petitioning Facebook to change their regulations with regard to nudity in a campaign entitled #WeTheNipple in the name of gender equality, but also artistic freedom. Social media has become crucial for artists to gain exposure, but when it comes to portraying the human body, Facebook and Instagram’s strict visual content regulations have proved damaging to artists whose works explore themes of gender identity. The guidelines surrounding the visibility of nipples is one that has proved particularly contentious, with #FreeTheNipple gaining traction in 2014 in response to the curious gender divide inherent in the different rules in place for male and female body parts. Positive bias still seems to be exhibited towards images that objectively sexualise women’s bodies but are ultimately deemed acceptable when nipples are out of sight. A man sunbathing in a pair of Speedos? Yes please. A woman innocuously breast-feeding her child? Put it away!

“This is not a female-male issue,” says Pelizzari of the diverse support for the campaign. “This is an issue of artistic freedom. Many of the artists most affected are those who focus on bodies (including their own) that do not conform to binary definitions of gender. Unequal treatment of bodies in art affects all artists’ ability to create freely.”

The NCAC is currently in talks with Facebook regarding the petition, and are excited by the growing support that the campaign is gathering. “Since the art action, over 500 posts about it have been removed from Instagram alone,” says Pelizzari. “That shows just how far-reaching the impact of these policies are. We are hopeful that by making censorship visible when it is, by its nature, so often invisible, Facebook will take active steps to address the root of the issue.”