I once read and enjoyed a book called “The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired” by Francine Prose. Being a product of the 20th and the 21st century, I took a picture of the cover and shared it on two social media platforms.
It took 1 minute.
I had been reported. Indecent content. A woman. Against our guidelines. Breasts. Not our policy. Nipples. Feeling at ease in one’s body. The female body. Nudity. Pure and simple. Nothing pornographic about it. An image.
The female body is demonised. Since when are nipples offensive? They are shoved into infants’ faces to nourish them, help them grow in their mothers’ protection and well-being.
What is projected onto the female form is essential here. That’s where everything happens. It is thoughts, images, fantasies, desires and words projected onto the female body that may be of a malicious or blemishing nature, not the body itself. That’s anatomy. That’s biology. That’s human nature. That’s our bodies.
This reporting in the midst of a cascade of pornographic images is laughable. Report where and when it matters.
The meaning of this book cover has nothing harmful about it, on the very contrary.
Since when did we become so afraid and offended by female bodies? It’s okay here, but not there. It can be used here, but not there. A simple photograph of a half-naked woman on a literary work is cause for scandal and controversy. No need to dig into the double standards and how money is made with the female body. When it is convenient it can be monetised. Meanwhile, I see male nudity and body parts all over my social media and guess what, nothing I haven’t seen before and if I don’t project my thoughts onto it and make it something it hasn’t intended to be (take some responsibility for your mind), the image is simply an image unless it states the obvious; that’s another discussion.
Croque-Melpomene 