Instagram's community guidelines (Rupi Kaur's "Period" photo deleted, then restored)

[MichaelChang]

<p>A photo was removed by Instagram for failing to meet community guidelines; the owner writes an open letter in response. <br>

<a href="http://www.scoopwhoop.com/news/insta-photo/">http://www.scoopwhoop.com/news/insta-photo/</a></p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>As reported on an Indian site: <br>

<a href="http://homegrown.co.in/period-shaming-on-instagram-rupi-kaurs-photoseries-deleted-due-to-community-guidelines/">http://homegrown.co.in/period-shaming-on-instagram-rupi-kaurs-photoseries-deleted-due-to-community-guidelines/</a></p>

[DrBen]

<p>The photographer is pushing societal boundaries; she should not be surprised that there will be pushback. Whether it is Instagram or the Louvre Museum in Paris, it is the owners, not others, who ultimately decide which works are "suitable" for display. Sometimes public input will convince them that they need to be less restrictive, and change occurs.</p>

<p>In this case, the photographer is confronting menstrual taboos, which are nearly universal in ALL societies, ancient and modern. In the West, in the last hundred years, there have been some changes in our tolerance for words and images related to menstruation--but not very much.</p>

<p>Fifty years ago, no publisher would have accepted an ad for menstrual tampons and napkins that actually showed the product and certainly not any depiction of its absorption qualities. Today, such ads are widespread, but the liquid used is blue. No one yet dares to use a red liquid that resembles actual blood.</p>

<p>When I was about 10 years old, my mother read a popular women's magazine "The Ladies Home Journal". Every issue had a full-page ad for Modess sanitary napkins. The ads were always a fashion style, full-length photo of a beautiful woman in an evening dress. The only prominent words were "Modess...because". I had no idea what the product was. Of course, my mother did. She immediately understood that Modess could be counted on never to leak. The photographer for some of the Modess ads, which were published from 1948 to the mid-1970's was Diane Arbus. Here's some examples 1950's:</p>

<p>http://bridechic.blogspot.ca/2011/04/modess-because.html</p>

<p>Today, on TV we see an athletic girl who scales a wall in shorts and the camera shoots up from below toward her crotch. She makes a remark about being glad she chose a certain brand of tampon. However, there is no comparison in the shot; we do not see among the other women scaling the wall any red stain betraying the ineffectiveness of their tampon brand.</p>

<p>Until recently, even the word "period" was taboo in ads for menstrual products, and the color red was never used anywhere in such ads. Finally in 2010, the company Always, for the first time in history, used the color red in one of their print ads. In the middle of their graphic depiction (not photo) of a menstrual pad, they placed a very small red dot--a sort of large red typographic "period". The ad was developed by an intern at Always, who writes about her breakthrough:</p>

<p>http://jezebel.com/5856336/how-i-made-the-first-feminine-hygiene-ad-to-show-blood</p>

<p>That was in 2010 but in advertising, menstrual blood is still a thin blue liquid poured from a chemist's beaker.</p>

<p>The menstrual taboo is very strong in Judaism, Islam and Hinduism. There has never been any official teaching that menstruation makes women unclean in any major Christian denomination, nevertheless, the depiction or public discussion of menstruation has always been and for the most part still is discouraged in Christian societies.</p>

<p>I salute the photographer's intentions and courage, but has, as the old rural saying goes, a long row to hoe. Five-thousand year old taboos do not go away without a fight.</p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>Appreciate your thoughts, Benoît. </p>

<p>My feeling about the Instagram backlash is that the photographer probably made a poor choice by posting it there given the site's user demographic.</p>

<p>Had the images been posted here, and the first image was selected as a PoW, the ensuing discussion would have been quite different and probably more inline with how the photographer had intended it to be received.</p>

<p> </p>

[john_h.1]

<blockquote>

<p>My feeling about the Instagram backlash is that the photographer probably made a poor choice by posting it there given the site's user demographic. Had the images been posted here, and the first image was selected as a PoW, the ensuing discussion would have been quite different and probably more inline with how the photographer had intended it to be received.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I suspect the intent was to purposefully make the 'poor choice' to inspire the discussion that IS taking place.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Rupi Kaur's photo was restored today, with an <a href="http://www.rupikaur.com/">apology from Instagram</a>. More than likely the photo was auto-deleted without anyone at Instagram even looking at it, after having received multiple complaint reports from users. Same way trolls and folks with political and cultural agendas manipulate content on Facebook, YouTube and any site that allows users to flag content for removal. Only after receiving an appeal from the user whose content was deleted will any actual humans in administration or moderator take a look at the content.</p>

<p>Also, some social media sites contract out content moderation to the lowest bidders, often in countries like the <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/10/content-moderation/">Philippines</a> where social and cultural mores differ from Western values. It's up to the social media outlet owner to provide training and policies for the content moderators to follow to ensure consistent treatment of user content.</p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>Thanks for editing the thread title, Lex. </p>

<p>Not much of an apology, is it? Claiming it's an "accidental" deletion. Good thing is, it gave Rupi Kaur the exposure money can't buy. </p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>As she said herself, Instagram's actions helped reinforce the point of her "Period" project.</p>

[thomas_k.]

<p>Just a remainder about some down sides of public sharing sites. Use your own web site - control your own content.</p>

[GerrySiegel]

It has religious roots in an a tribal herding society which knew nothing about the female physiology. And it is no great shame but no great honor to bleed "down there" in the often mysterious place even to women. Recall the shower scene in the movie " Carrie." A course I once took on popular culture and advertising. Teacher told this anecdote - was a while ago of course. A tampon company wanted to find out what qualities women wanted in its product for design and marketing. They got boilerplate unterview answers and were seeking a way to get around this sort of taboo subject with respondents. They devise a ruse. They began by asking a bunch of sexuality questions, have you ever tried this.... and how often do you do this...., and do often dream of this...... Then at the end, with subjects squirming just a bit, they hit the paid interviewees with the question of what they hoped for in a tampon. ( Finally one we can answer ! without squirming)

I don't know how or if it worked. But it was an interesting approach. If a little shady. What, advertisers shady? Nah.

 

PS. But I note ,in passing only, ahem, an emerging freedom of photo expression regarding the naked pudendum. As photo worthy. Not bloodied of course. Just "unbowed." Don't you? You may comment about buttocks but never never about the external genitalia. We are not there yet. I say yet....as usual in such matters a psychologist would suggest fear as the root of the taboo, but that goes way back to our own hominid roots I bet.

[Norma Desmond]

The reason I don't generally comment on anatomy parts is that I'm more interested in commenting on the photograph. In

the vast majority of the cases you speak of, Gerry, the inclusion of that part of the anatomy is frivolous, exploitive, or both.

When women's bodies are objectified like that by photographers who often seem more juvenile than seasoned,

photography seems more like a ploy than anything else. Have you read some of the comments on the buttocks in our

nudes section. That will provide a clue to how women are being treated here and the level of discourse of some of the

photographers involved. Our society, as evidenced by the memstruation taboos, has a ways to go when dealing with

women as people as opposed to fodder.

[Norma Desmond]

And maybe 50 years or so after male photographers can maturely discuss the pudendum, we'll tackle men being able to

discuss the photographed penis, of course with the all-important qualifier "I'm not gay but . . ."