censorship | The Happy Womb

I have just been “cleansing” my Pinterest account from illicit images at their request – “it looks like the pin may have had nudity on it.” Pinterest prohibits content that is “is sexually explicit or contains nudity, partial nudity or pornography…We don’t allow nudity—photos that show breasts, buttocks or genitalia on Pinterest.”

The threats are real – the closing of your account if you do not comply. I understand their reasoning – I have come across some of the most horrible porn on Pinterest which has no right being there.So now we know that I’m not advocating Porntrest… let me puzzle something out with you.

I’ve been trying to figure out what I am “allowed” to keep on my boards like the Goddess, Mother Love and The Happy Womb boards… so for example genitals are not allowed – but how about cupcakes made to look like genitals?

So am I allowed this? It LOOKS like a yoni… but it’s not, it’s an aerial photograph of the Earth!

It’s not to do with being “sexually alluring”, because that happens everywhere with clothes on, that is the norm in our twisted society. Women looking sexual, erotic to sell everything from shower gel to cars. I have already dumped some beautiful goddess woman images before I thought to share them with you here, which because they were bare-breasted, though not in the least “erotic” would come under the ban.

So went for a trawl through Google to find some images… the sort which would be doing the rounds, totally above board, on the likes of Pinterest. There are LOTS of women in figure revealing dresses, underwear and swim wear on the fashion pages…

This would be allowed, because she’s wearing a bra to cover her (evil) breast flesh and nipple. So even though we can see the OUTLINE of her breast shape, and the COLOUR of the fabric is the same as her skin… I’m guessing it’s OK…So when they say no breasts… what I think they mean is no nipples…

Oh, sorry, female nipples...I think we’ve been here before! So this is OK, because he has a penis. (Which we are not allowed to see).

But this would not be OK…

Or this I think…

Because they don’t have a penis. Now the reality is I don’t think ANYONE, male, female, young or old would find these images offensive or sexual. They are simply the human body doing its thing (I guess you could argue sex is too, but usually those images are there to titillate and arouse and are, therefore, “adult”, which is fair enough.)

But – it depends on your medium, because this is OK

Because it’s sculpture. Not REAL flesh. It’s by Rodin. So it’s ART people.

And this…

is just fine too I think. Because it’s a painting… (by a man…)

So it’s just real women’s bodies that are offensive?

Ah, OK! We’re back to that basic argument of women’s flesh is bad methinks! In the digital age, nothing it seems has changed.

Last weekend we went to the swimming pool, the whole family. It brought home to me how alive the gender divide still is when it comes to our bodies. My husband just put his trunks in the bag and went, where as I spent half an hour de-fuzzing my armpits and legs from their winter growth.

And then as we got ready to swim, I looked at my two girls, aged two and four. Each completely themselves. One in a pink floral patterned ultra girly swim suit, with frilly parts to draw the eye to her non existent four year old bust. And the other in a pair of her brother’s old pirate monkey shorts. Topless.

“You look like a boy,” my seven year old son said to her.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because she’s only wearing shorts and I can see her nipples,” was the reply.
And yes, there she was, nipples to the wind, just the same as he was at that age.

And it felt good to me. And to her. And everyone else just got on with their lives assuming she was a boy.
Because truly, there is no shame in a girl’s nipples. It feels ridiculous to even say it.
Why do they need to learn to be “discrete” with a non-genital part of their body, when little boys can bear them in public, shamelessly? It is just learning a body shame which will get worse as they get older. Something is seriously wrong with our culture, when nipples are fine on the cover of lads’ mags, and Page 3 of the daily paper in the UK, but are considered shameful to be exposed for their biological function: feeding a baby.

I see pictures of tribes’ people around the world with longing. There are the women – from 14 to 70 with their breasts, all shapes and sizes, to the wind.

Their beautiful, normal breasts.

But the first sign of civilisation, when other cultures impinge on theirs, is the covering of a woman’s breasts. I remember hearing an Aboriginal elder, one of the lost tribes, who was “discovered” by a white explorer in the 1950s. She looked back at the photographs he took of their lifestyle, this woman who was wearing a baggy T shirt. Oh look she says, we used to go everywhere with nothing on our boobies! And laughs.

And I feel a longing to have that freedom. When the sun shines, to not be tangled in a bra for support, and a T shirt for modesty, but to join my husband and son and every builder in Ireland as we whip off our tops to feel the sun soak into our skins.

Not to make a statement, or to tittilate or shock. Just because the sun is out, my body is not shameful, and I put my nipples to the wind.