NSFW nor for Pinterest: A study in pinning boobs

All I saw was a woman's naked butt. My head shot around each shoulder to check on the adults in the room. As a five year old, I thought something might be wrong with having a framed naked butt on an office wall, and especially wrong of me to stare at it. But they were too busy chatting about adult stuff, which I've learned is quite dull.

Dali

Taking their lack of interest as approval, I continued looking at the print, eventually noticing every five year old's favorite president, Abraham Lincoln. (Five year olds know everything about Lincoln from his log cabin to his weird beard that is easily recreated with bubble bath bubbles.) It's a classic Salvador Dali piece ("Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters becomes a Portrait of Abraham Lincoln (Homage to Rothko)" Learn more.), but to a child it's mostly known as "That Naked Butt Picture That from 20 Meters is Still Embarrassing".

Surprisingly, I didn't die, I didn't become a moral hazard, and I didn't grow up to be a porn star. Or amateur. That naked butt and all the naked butts and boobs and penises I've seen since then (ahem, in art) haven't soured me. In fact, I love a good nude. I find nothing offensive with the naked body nor with most* erotica, nor do I think anyone should.

But this worldview isn't supported by most public social networks. And I begrudgingly understand.

Let's take the golden child Pinterest as a case study. A combination of following standards set by such bodies as the FCC and fielding complaints from the more prudish elements of the community has led Pinterest to ban photographic images depicting full-frontal nudity, fully exposed breasts and/or buttocks. The policy, however, does not apply to sculptures, paintings, and other non-photographic mediums. [Source.]

If I wanted to be intentionally obtuse, I'd say their policy seeks to prove that photography isn't art.Why the need for censorship? Although it didn't hurt my development, some people fret that a young, impressionable child using Pinterest could stumble upon bare asses. Not a baseless point. As Mashable reports, Consumer Reports estimated that 7.5 million Facebook users are under 13, despite an age restriction policy Pinterest also follows. Even the adults are afraid of coming across erotic images, as Dazy Graves found after posting this picture.

Stormtropper

From Dazy:

A woman, let’s call her Mary, left her a comment simply saying ‘Pervert’. After far too much tooing and frowing, she came to the conclusion that we were filthy reprobates who should be stopped immediately before we poluted the squeeky clean minds of the viewing public. Her parting shot involved us working with starving children in Africa, rather than looking at these pictures and hopefully one day, we would find Jesus. I wish i could post a link, but pinterest deleted the image shortly after the climax of the three day long debate.

I think it's an interesting, comical shot. And yet those whom we accuse of not "getting it" can easily convince Pinterest to remove it and anything like it. In response, a number of pro-nudity Pinterest community members are protesting... on Pinterest... about Big Brother censoring them and violations of Freedom of Speech. Entire boards even.

pinterest censor

It's the classic struggle to push limits. To push a new point of view. To kill censorship of art. And yet... many of the same people and blogs have paradoxically rallied behind Pinterest's recent censorship of pro-anorexia and self-harm pages. Following a similar move by Tumblr, Pinterest will - as of April 6 - ban any content that

“creates a risk of harm, loss, physical or mental injury, emotional distress, death, disability, disfigurement, or physical or mental illness to yourself, to any other person, or to any animal.”

The images in question include "photos of jutting bones, sliced wrists, and slogans like “Nothing Tastes As Good As Skinny Feels”" and use the hashtags #thinspo and #perfect. [Source.] Example of one of the #thinspo pins:

thinspo

Where's the bandwagon against censorship? Everything is okay or nothing is. That includes things that make us uncomfortable, queasy. Things that make us want to... censor them. But that's the idealist me. The community manager and marketer me has other experiences. And that's often a painful realization. Good social architects build communities on compromise. It's about balancing the vast expanse between where you're offended and where I'm enjoying the view. Good business/media does the same thing. And let's not be mistaken - Pinterest is a business. Their goal is to avoid pissing you off to the point where you leave the site. Their goal is also to avoid pissing off the more prudish members to the point where they leave the site. No regulatory board is making them censor. It's of their own volition and based on the standards they wish to set for the community. Any social site will do this to keep customers. It's why I always found the titillating case of Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction a pointless legal battle. (Although the incident occurred at the 2004 Super Bowl, it was only a few months ago that CBS won and didn't have to pay a $550,000 FCC fine. The Parent's Television Council said the court ruling "reaches the level of judicial stupidity and is a sucker-punch to families everywhere.”)

CBS likes parents - even prudes - and children, and it really doesn't want to lose such valuable viewers. I take the not-so-controversial viewpoint that government censorship rules aren't necessary at all. One, because I see nothing wrong with Janet Jackson's boobs, and two because CBS will keep things off the air that will prevent viewers from coming back - that includes "offensive content". Or they'll show seedier stuff at times when children and prudes aren't around... or a subscription network will show it based on its community standards. See: omg so many tits on HBO's "Game of Thrones". Pinterest and other sites (including Facebook, which gets lots of attention for banning breast-feeding pics), deal with barrels of erotic, violent, and otherwise controversial images every moment. Report buttons and blanket censorship of photographic nudity is Pinterest's current solution. But like Deviant Art, they could apply filters for erotic images. Or have opt-ins for "adult themes". Or create second sites exclusively for porn/erotica. (Well, Pinterest clone Snatchly already does that. TechCrunch article - SFW.) But all these options are still censorship of a kind.Kurt Vonnegut wasn't being glib when he said

The most daring thing to do with your life is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

Building a stable open community is daring, and if you want to do it without censorship you may lose some (or most) of the community. As Jason Falls said in BlogWorld's recent post:

It’s a sticky issue. Once you start censoring content, you’re legislating the users with your worldview. Some will stay, some will go and you will forever be seen as potentially big brother-ish. On the flip side, you become Topix.com which is quickly becoming the worst excuse for a website on the planet all because of user comments, not its content. What these companies need to do is take a stand, define their worldview and worry about users that are comfortable with it. Catering to everyone never works anyway.

Enough with that. Here's some nakedness for you. Remember, if it's a painting, it's okay. But this photograph is not okay.

*My standard is that the nude/erotic piece involves 1) fully consenting 2) adult 3) humans.

Art credit: Top photo. Last two pieces of art on the page.

okay

not okay