Instagram recently banned the single, evocative word “curvy” in hashtag form because it violated its policies. The issue with “curvy,” Instagram said, isn’t what it represents — often body-positive images of voluptuous figures in various states of dress and undress — but how it was being used. An Instagram spokesperson told ThinkProgress the tag was being used to share pornography, which is strictly forbidden on the site.
Ralph Rosen, PhD, a classics humanities professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has experienced social media companies’ compulsion to ban words firsthand. He started a Facebook page in 2009 for his Scandalous Arts class, which evaluates why certain visual, literal and musical works are considered offensive and could unduly influence society.
“What was so amusing but annoying was when I set it up they did not let me use the name of the class because it had the word ‘scandalous’ in it. It was a banned word at the time.” To get around it, Rosen had to spell the word with a “k,” playing on its Greek origins.
“It’s always words or images that drive people crazy,” Rosen said. “With words there are sometimes ways to get around it more than with images, because images are more direct.”
Instagram’s decision to ban the hashtag whole cloth is the latest in a string of attempts from social media sites to minimize offensive content but still allow users to be expressive.
Model and social media maven Chrissy Teigen, known for testing the boundaries of restrictive policies, slammed Instagram in June for taking down a topless photo she posted from a W Magazine photo shoot. She repeatedly re-posted the image in protest each time it was removed. Rihanna’s account was suspended — and then deleted in protest — after she posted a nipple-baring photo from magazine shoot in 2014, Nicki Minaj caught flack for posting her album cover artwork with her squatting back first in a G-string and Jordans.
But celebrities posing in risque photo shoots aren’t the only posts Instagram targets. Instagram removed artist Rupi Kaur’s photo of herself laying in bed, fully clothed but with menstrual blood seeping through her sweat pants and onto her sheets. Instagram soon restored the photo, apologizing for its accidental removal.
But Kaur didn’t buy it, saying “Thank you Instagram for providing me with the exact response my work was created to critique. You deleted my photo twice stating that it goes against community guidelines. I will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society that will have my body in an underwear but not be okay with a small leak. When your pages are filled with countless photos/accounts where women (so many who are underage) are objectified. Pornified. And treated less than human. Thank you.”
Cartoonists have even been caught in Instagram’s anti-nudity web. Brooklyn artist Tara McPherson’s cartoon “An Interruption of Blood” was removed because it depicted a woman’s animated bare breasts. Instagram restored the image with apologies.
Last year, a plus-size teen was kicked off the site for posting a selfie in a bikini. Critics accused the site for praising a thin, toned beauty standard and condemning curvy bodies as explicit or “mature content.”
Ralph Rosen, PhD, a classics humanities professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has experienced social media companies’ compulsion to ban words firsthand. He started a Facebook page in 2009 for his Scandalous Arts class, which evaluates why certain visual, literal and musical works are considered offensive and could unduly influence society.
“What was so amusing but annoying was when I set it up they did not let me use the name of the class because it had the word ‘scandalous’ in it. It was a banned word at the time.” To get around it, Rosen had to spell the word with a “k,” playing on its Greek origins.
“It’s always words or images that drive people crazy,” Rosen said. “With words there are sometimes ways to get around it more than with images, because images are more direct.”
Instagram’s decision to ban the hashtag whole cloth is the latest in a string of attempts from social media sites to minimize offensive content but still allow users to be expressive.
But celebrities posing in risque photo shoots aren’t the only posts Instagram targets. Instagram removed artist Rupi Kaur’s photo of herself laying in bed, fully clothed but with menstrual blood seeping through her sweat pants and onto her sheets. Instagram soon restored the photo, apologizing for its accidental removal.
But Kaur didn’t buy it, saying “Thank you Instagram for providing me with the exact response my work was created to critique. You deleted my photo twice stating that it goes against community guidelines. I will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society that will have my body in an underwear but not be okay with a small leak. When your pages are filled with countless photos/accounts where women (so many who are underage) are objectified. Pornified. And treated less than human. Thank you.”
Cartoonists have even been caught in Instagram’s anti-nudity web. Brooklyn artist Tara McPherson’s cartoon “An Interruption of Blood” was removed because it depicted a woman’s animated bare breasts. Instagram restored the image with apologies.
Last year, a plus-size teen was kicked off the site for posting a selfie in a bikini. Critics accused the site for praising a thin, toned beauty standard and condemning curvy bodies as explicit or “mature content.”
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