Who's afraid of women's nipples?

Why do we all have nipples?

Male nipples (a mental shortcut for nipples that AMAB people have—not just cis men, but also nonbinary people and some binary trans people) are a reminder that in the first weeks after conception, each of us was gender neutral . It’s not until around week 10 of pregnancy that the male part of the embryo develops testicles , which in turn begin to produce and release testosterone. By this stage, however, the two raspberry dots have already secured their place on the body. By puberty, they will be identical to those that formed in girls.

In most articles on this topic, you will find information that male nipples play no role, they are like wisdom teeth or the appendix – they are simply remnants of the development of our species . They are not needed, but they do not bother anyone, so evolution left them alone.

I would be careful here – I believe that all parts of our body that constitute a potential erogenous zone are absolutely necessary.

It is an undeniable fact, however, that after a child is born, it is the woman's breasts (again, this is a mental shortcut, I mean those belonging to AFAB people) that are responsible for producing food for the child in the form of milk. Their sexual function, although important, is secondary from the point of view of nature.

So why is social media so hell-bent on erasing any trace of nipples once they are defined as belonging to women? Isn’t it possible that it’s the censorship itself that makes us start looking at women’s bodies through the prism of eroticism?

Let's think about this for a moment.

A matter of manners?

Interestingly, it is not the difference in lactation capacity that is the argument for the most popular social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram to censor women's nipples. The basis for their decision is social mores. "Women's nipples are globally considered a sexual object, while men's are not," says Nicole Mendelson, Facebook's vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Except that… that’s not true. Women’s nipples CAN (but don’t have to!) be a sexual object, just like other parts of the body – neck, feet, hands, lips. They can also be a source of sexual pleasure. Just like men’s nipples. As is often the case in life, it all comes down to context.

So where does this unequal treatment come from?

The difference is that we live in a patriarchy, not a matriarchy, for example, and so the perspective that has been imposed on us is stereotypically male and cisheterosexual. Of course, these mossy walls of chauvinism are crumbling and eventually – I very much hope – they will turn into dust. However, this will not happen if we do not collectively and systematically strike at them.

It probably won't be anything groundbreaking if I write that social media have a huge impact on the direction and speed of the world's development, so their impact would be proportionally more powerful. Yes, we are maturing as a society, and yes, the boundaries of our collective consciousness are slowly shifting. We understand more and more, better and better. Empathy, openness, and understanding are growing in us. Reality has long ceased to be black and white.

Facebook, profiting from billions of dollars of reach, should not passively wait for the ugly concrete walls that limit us to be torn down, while in fact supporting these walls until then. I don't know, maybe my expectations of this private corporation are too high if I want it to join the fight for equality. And maybe my naive idealism is coming to the fore, but... Hasn't Facebook stood on the "light side of the force" several times? Did it not allow photos and videos of breastfeeding after pressure from activists in 2014 ? Did it not support Pride Month for LGBT+ people ? Did it not join the promotion of COVID-19 vaccinations?

In the case of women's nipples, Facebook claims to be guided by social customs. But social customs were established by people. They are not principles of physics or mathematics, facts about the world that cannot be questioned. We create customs. And customs change because we change.

Censored

In my personal opinion, photos with covered nipples are often more erotic than the originals. It is possible that something like taboo effect is at work here – we have become accustomed to the idea that behind squares of pixels or dot blur something forbidden, and therefore implicitly desirable, is hidden from our sight.

I know that censorship can be inspiring. I'm sure that many artists have come up with completely new ideas precisely because some kind of restriction was imposed on them. Recently, a photograph in which a girl's breasts were covered by a vertical fragment of a photo of a starry sky made me stop scrolling for a moment and focus for longer than a split second.

But what about all those works that were never created? What about those that lose their true meaning due to censorship?

Instagram removed my friend’s minimalist graphics, in which several black lines formed the shape of a naked woman. It was found that she was spreading inappropriate sexual content. Facebook, in turn, censored the works of prominent Flemish painters – famous paintings by Peter Paul Rubens were deemed indecent. But it’s not just about art. A story in which a famous influencer taught how to properly perform a breast self-examination was also removed.

I experienced censorship first-hand when I ran social media for a Polish lingerie brand. Most of the products were not accepted, even though the entire offer consisted of simple, cotton lingerie, the basic feature of which was comfort. The photos mainly showed smiling girls. It was really hard to see any sexual context in them.

Where is the problem?

Well, unless we consider the female body to be “inappropriate sexual content” in itself. After all, a female body is just a body. And each of us has a body. It is not the body that is the problem here. When the body simply is, by its very existence it does not provoke, tempt, or offend. The real problem I see here is the way it is perceived. That is why I believe that censoring the body regardless of the context is in itself an act of its sexualization .

“We try to reflect the sensitivities of a wide and diverse range of cultures and countries around the world in our policies,” says Karina Newton, Instagram’s head of public policy. If so, what about the sensitivities of transgender and binary people? Can a bot or a staffer confidently determine that a given nipple belongs to a woman if they can’t base their assessment solely on anatomical considerations?

Psst! You might be interested in our article “Biased Algorithms,” which discusses how algorithms learn to discriminate.

There are more questions like that. Of course, you can look for solutions, but is it really necessary? Would the world really go up in flames if women's nipples saw the light of day?

I realize that the text is by no means exhaustive. Treat it rather as a stimulus for your own reflections. :)