An image can speak a thousand words and those words depend on you. Everything has a literal meaning; denotation. But it can also hold universally unique meanings towards individuals, one that is heavily influenced from their cultural experiences and surroundings; connotation.
For an example consider this image here. A simple bathroom selfie with a figure displaying a naked muscled torso. Its context depends on an individual’s knowledge and experience.
Some wouldn’t pay it any mind, but others may jump on the display of what they perceive as feminine qualities of the figure and conclude that this person is a woman displaying a naked image of their breast.
It is no secret that society has an obsession in sexualising female anatomy. Not only that but they limit the freedom of gender expression. How can it be fair for a social media platform to determine the gender of an individual, one that is opposite to that person’s own beliefs and then to further censor the content based on the normalities of societies gender ideology.
This post is of a non-binary actor, Bex Taylor-Klaus calling out social media platforms and their blatant sexualisation of the human body from a heteronormative mindset, forcefully placing individuals in social brackets based on their physical attributes and not what they, an individual identify as.
The image was taken down regarding it having breached Instagram guidelines on the premise of appropriation for an audience. Instagram does not allow nudity including: “photos, videos, and some digitally-created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks.” Further including the display of “female nipples.” For anyone that doesn’t identify within a gender binary this action was insulting.
Gender is not a natural born concept; it is a manmade ideology and social construct that has developed over time and generations. Every culture has variations of gender other than male and female and has only most recently began to recognise anything outside these binary notions.
Gender is not a natural born concept; it is a manmade ideology and social construct that has developed over time and generations. Eckert ‘et al’ noted in Language and Gender that “gender is the social elaboration of biological sex.” Every culture has variations of gender other than male and female
and has only most recently began to recognise anything outside these binary notions. Gender and sexuality a said to be seen more as a spectrum. This is influenced for a wide variety of reasons such as religion, social ethics and so on.
The actions taken by Instagram in the removal of the image is interesting as it brings forth the question of when media, social media platforms especially, will begin to amend their own guidelines? To have them more inclusive for those that do not conform to a binary gender and the ‘social norm’?
~Until next time~
Comfort Zone Begone 