Instagram Censors Photo of Fully Clothed Woman on Period, Causes Uproar

[rexbobcat]

More moral outrage in the first world.

Honestly, I don't think it should be censored, but wow, this is what people consider...oppression...

NSFW (blood)

This Instagram Was Deleted Because It Showed A Woman s Menstrual Blood

 

[KmH]

PC.

 

[limr]

No, not PC. What the hell does period blood have to do with political correctness?

And yeah, I'd be pissed if it were my photo and it were removed twice. Why should it be censored? Because it has blood? Please, with all the violent content that is readily available in the media, they'd be really upset about a little bit of blood? Nope, not it. There seem to be other pictures on Instagram that show blood and they were kept up.

She's fully-clothed, so it's not nudity. She's not performing a sexual act or harming herself. That's not it.

Oh, she has her period! UNCLEAN!

Censorship might not seem like oppression, but the less outraged we get about it, the more it will happen until it does become oppressive (and some might already think it has) As for oppression felt by woman about menstruation? That is not an imaginary first-world problem. Sure, here it might "only" a shameful little secret that we women have to keep, but it's not like that everywhere. It's still a very real problem in much of the world, where women's freedom is severely restricted when they have their periods because it's shameful and dirty, and they can't be in the presence of society when they are "unclean" and "untouchable."

 

[pixmedic]

#firstworldproblems

(well, the instagram part anyway)

 

[W.Y.Photo]

As Limr has already stated this sort of censorship definitely borders on the oppressive.

Imagine if instagram started censoring images of people with missing limbs or genetic disorders like Downs because "noone wants to look at that". Thats essentially what they are doing with this...

...and its not like its some useless snapshot like "Lolz, l00k i g0tz my peri0dz" It's a meaningful series with the intent of making the period less of a "Taboo" subject. Censorship in that range borders on violating peoples rights.

 

[rexbobcat]

I'm not saying it's not a problem, but this case of censorship has about as much clout at a company firing an employee because their activity on social media does not fall in line with their code of ethics.


The conversation is important, but I don't think this is the best example to wave as a flag for the oppressed and censored, especially when this incident is not isolated among only this type of image.

Michael Stokes, for example, got a 30-day ban from Facebook for posting and image of two clothed men kissing in police uniforms. Someone reported the post. Social media, because of its reach and size, rely on community moderating. One person might have flagged this post, and one other person working for IG might have deleted it along with however many others they were looking at.

I just can't get mad at Facebook for deleting gay images in the same way that I get mad at ISIS for throwing an allegedly gay man off a building to his death. I just...can't...It's not the same.

 

[pixmedic]

well, with some small fear of seeming like im accusing someone of making mountains out of molehills....
instagram, FB, Flickr...whatever the site happens to be, is a private company. Like TPF.
i would be surprised if they didn't have some clause in the EULA letting them pretty much arbitrarily decide what content they can filter and to what degree.

i would feel fairly certain that they simply buckled under what might have been social pressures, OR, maybe it just got reported multiple times and was deleted by a mod with a hair trigger just trying to err on the side of caution. It happens to the best of us.

 

[rexbobcat]

It's a slippery slope, though. I mean, why do they censor nonsexual nakedness? We're all born naked.

I understand the sentiment, and I agree with it, but we're not really talking about rights as it pertains to the government and the state's ability to suppress the flow of free thought and information across the board.

We're discussing a free service that people voluntarily use or don't use. Besides, I can't imagine that she thought IG would have no problem with it. I think IG did exactly what she wanted them to do: prove her point, and get her publicity.

Like I said, this is an important topic, but there are sooooooo many better examples that help illustrate the harm of this mentality. The hyperbolistic response to this particular event just kind of dilutes the response to issues that women are dealing with that really warrant such a reaction.

 

[pixmedic]

It's a slippery slope, though. I mean, why do they censor nonsexual nakedness? We're all born naked.

I understand the sentiment, and I agree with it, but we're not really talking about rights as it pertains to the government and the state's ability to suppress the flow of free thought and information across the board.

We're discussing a free service that people voluntarily use or don't use. Besides, I can't imagine that she thought IG would have no problem with it. I think IG did exactly what she wanted them to do: prove her point, and get her publicity.

Like I said, this is an important topic, but there are sooooooo many better examples that help illustrate the harm of this mentality. The hyperbolistic response to this particular event just kind of dilutes the response to issues that women are dealing with that really warrant such a reaction.

plus...you know...it was kinda gross

 

[480sparky]

There's a sign hanging right by my front door.

I'm with pixmedic. So when you're on Instgrams' website, you're at their house. So you get to play by their rules.

If you don't like their rules, don't play there. Go somewhere else, or start your own website so you can play by your rules.

 

[rexbobcat]

It's a slippery slope, though. I mean, why do they censor nonsexual nakedness? We're all born naked.

I understand the sentiment, and I agree with it, but we're not really talking about rights as it pertains to the government and the state's ability to suppress the flow of free thought and information across the board.

We're discussing a free service that people voluntarily use or don't use. Besides, I can't imagine that she thought IG would have no problem with it. I think IG did exactly what she wanted them to do: prove her point, and get her publicity.

Like I said, this is an important topic, but there are sooooooo many better examples that help illustrate the harm of this mentality. The hyperbolistic response to this particular event just kind of dilutes the response to issues that women are dealing with that really warrant such a reaction.

plus...you know...it was kinda gross

I mean, it's not something I would put on the Internet. I can't stand real blood in any capacity. It runs in the family (ironically since my mom's a nurse). One time at school we had this drunk driving seminar that included a skit with fake blood. My brother fainted immediately.

But I still think she's totally in her right to do it.

It's just rather annoying how she's not using this publicity to help move the conversation along. Instead of bringing to the table a thoughtful discussion about why this issue goes beyond just "Ew that's gross, delete" and how changing public perception is actually a step in the right direction for changing women's rights for the better across the globe, she went this route:

"i bleed each month to help make humankind a possibility. my womb is home to the divine..."

Yeah, I think Tumblr can have Rupi Kaur. I'll be paying attention to Malala Yousafzai and others.

 

[limr]

But their rules are enforced in a completely arbitrary way, so just why am I supposed to play with them? Not to mention that the picture in question didn't even break the rule.

 

[limr]

It's just rather annoying how she's not using this publicity to help move the conversation along. Instead of bringing to the table a thoughtful discussion about why this issue goes beyond just "Ew that's gross, delete" and changing public perception is actually a step in the right direction for changing women's rights for the better across the globe, she went this route:

"i bleed each month to help make humankind a possibility. my womb is home to the divine..."

Yeah, I think Tumblr can have Rupi Kaur. I'll be paying attention to Malala Yousafzai and others.

But she did move the conversation along by writing a hell of a lot more than that soundbite provided above. When Instagram took her picture down the second time, she posted the picture on Facebook with more than 500 words of commentary on it.
The Removal Of Rupi Kaur s Instagram Photos Shows How Terrified We Are Of Periods

 

[runnah]

Why would someone post that anyways?

 

[limr]

Why would someone post that anyways?

Read the link I posted above - it gives the picture more context. It was part of a larger project she was doing for her university studies.