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Facebook bans nipple photos from its Web site, including most recently a woman's postmastectomy pic--though the ban does not seem to apply to men's nipples.(Credit: Screenshot by Elizabeth Armstrong Moore/CNET)
Facebook and *****. The parties just can't seem to get along. Be it what kinds of pictures to allow (photos of breastfeeding and mastectomies, for instance) or what kinds of campaigns to host (even breast cancer campaigns such as I like it on have been frowned upon by other breast cancer awareness campaigns), the social network can't seem to steer clear of breastly woes.
Now the removal of U.K. Facebook user Melissa Tullett's recent double mastectomy image is raising more than a few eyebrows.
The question at hand is the exact nature of Facebook's nudity policy. Time magazine has called the policy a "war on nipples," as breasts whose nipples are covered are allowed. And since breast cancer survivors Sharon Adams and Anna Antell were allowed to keep their photos of scars provided they did not show "further" nudity (specifically the dark areola around the nipple), Facebook's' decision to remove Tullett's photo may seem like yet another policy reversal.
What seems to be the deciding factor in Tullett's case is that her image included not just her scars but also her reconstructed nipples. "It was showing my actual tattoos, because my nipples have had to be tattooed on," she tells the BBC. (At first her entire account was disabled, but Facebook says it has since reinstated her profile after deleting the image.)
At this point Facebook's response is vague--the company told the BBC that the photo was removed because it contained nudity. But in fact what makes Tullett's story notable is that its policy is now more clear than ever: the nipple, be it real or reconstructed, in a context that is strictly sexual or simply anatomical, is an offender in Facebook's playbook.
The sentence: nipple banishment. Unless you are a man.
Facebook did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
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