For those that persist in believing #FreeTheNipple was truly something more than social media’s 2012–15 must-bare hashtag originally coined to pimp movie of the same name (Pick of the Week 14th Jan. 2015) and giving opportunity for “not sexualised but here they are out” alt-models and for comedienne Chelsea Handler to reinvent her act as topless protagonist baiting Instagram (celebrityoopsdigest.blogspot.com, Nov. 2014):
Controversial artist Spencer Tunick protests the Facebook and Instagram ban on female nipples with a gathering of nude models in New York City (dailymail.co.uk).
Dozens of nude models protested against the Facebook and Instagram ban on female nipples with New York City gathering that was coordinated by controversial artist Spencer Tunick.
With “models” in context of “artist’s model” rather than Insta or glamour with Tunick taking photos of e men and women holding up a pictorial disc depictions of nipples during a Sunday morning demonstration outside the Astor Place subway station in Manhattan in collaboration with the National Coalition Against Censorship, with #FreeTheNipple everted into #WeTheNipple for their campaign in protest at Facebook and Instagram banning photographic representations of the nude body.
Several photos show the naked men and women holding nipple signs in the air while lying on the ground.
The women were shielding their own nipples with images of male nipples that Tunick calls “donated nipples”.
Seemingly the pictorial disc depictions held up being of the same no-need-to-hide male nipples acting as pasties on those of females present and, all naked apart from those male nipple pasties, the other nipple disc placed or held at waist level.
Artists Andres Serrano and Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Bravo’s [radio and television talk show host] Andy Cohen, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and Tunick himself all donated photos of their nipples for the signs.
With it in fact legal for females to bare breasts in NYC since 1992 (timeout.com, Aug. 2016) as Scout Willis’ topless protest stroll proved back in the origional #FreedNipple campaign’s heyday (celebrityoopsdigest.blogspot.com, Jun. 2014)
Although F’book and Instagram allow nudity in depictions of paintings and sculpture, at least supposedly, they do not allow nude photos, with the #WeTheNipple campaign calling on both social media platforms to “create an exception to their nudity restrictions to allow for art in the medium of photography” as it is important for any photography artists who’s subject is the body to share their work:
“The nudity ban prevents many artists from sharing their work online. 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,“ their website reads.
But although I’m not so sure personally that it is photography artists being singled out, with I’d bet the term “pornography” being used in message of removal in response to any uploading of any of my humble bawdy illustrations, and thus raising the question should they be granted that “exception” when the question of exactly when artistic photographic nudity turns into pornography is just as imprecise; I mean can you really ever expect ad and endorsement funded social media sites with an audience of age 13+ to ever be able to countenance the posting of some inevitable homage to Robert Mapplethorpe’s own body focused infamous 1978 Self Portrait with Whip? (artsy.net).
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