Ashlee Wells Jackson and Laura Weetzie Wilson have photographed 450 women and their children for a project celebrating post pregnancy bodies.
The Fourth Trimester Project already the subject for a documentary and a book deal has caught the attention of many women around the world for their real and beautiful depictions of what happens to a woman’s body after pregnancy.
Now Facebook and Instagram want them to stop. The social media giants have forcibly removed several of the women’s photographs – even locking out their Facebook page on several occasions.
So what’s all the fuss about? The social media giants have a blanket ban on all photos containing naked children, while Instagram claims they won’t publish any nudity at all.
Take a look at some of the images that were banned:
Ashlee Wells Jackson, who started the project in June 2013 to celebrate post-pregnancy after her own traumatic birth, is outraged by their removal. She said the ‘offending’ photographs have all contained breastfeeding, mums in underwear (no nipples or genitalia visible) and very young naked children.
“[Their actions] make women and breastfeeding moms feel like they’re doing something wrong…,” she told The Huffington Post.
Wells Jackson doesn’t’ dispute Facebook’s right to make their decision, “It’s their platform after all,” she said. But she wants them to be consistent – citing the #sxy hashtag on Instagram and ‘outright’ sexual act photos on Facebook as proof they’re being selective and bias.
She’s now started a Change.org petition asking the social networks to stop censoring her photographs and created a hashtag #StopCensoringMotherhood to support her cause.
Facebook and Instagram have not yet responded to Wells Jackson’s campaign, but hundreds of women have expressed their solidarity by posting their own personal photos of their post-pregnancy bodies.
So what do you make of this? Are you comfortable with naked photos of children on social media? Or would you prefer they stayed offline?
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Top Comments
I'm not sure how I feel.
But I am in complete agreement about the reporting of photos and consistency. I've seen photos of people sharing deliberate photos of mutilated and tortured dogs, on a specific page. One of my friends reported the page numerous times, as well as many of the pictures (which were despicable). Yet Facebook never deleted them.
I know they are a different thing, but the idea still stands.
I would be so mad at my mother if she had of put a naked photo of me on the internet when i was younger, even if you couldn't see any of my rude parts. We spend so much time telling our kids that "be very careful what you put on the internet because it stays their forever". what kind of example are we setting if we put these images up for the world to see? "oh you put a naked photo of yourself on the internet? oh good girl"
Wow just wow!