What’s the difference between a picture of 11 female rowers pictured covering their breasts with life-jackets and a picture of 16 male rowers naked, their penises covered up by sitting on the shoulders of their fellow team-mates?
Both pictures were part of Warwick University’s much-famed rowing club’s charity calendars, designed to raise money through their provocatively cheeky images.
But when they were released within weeks of each other one was slated as ‘explicit porn’ and thrown off Facebook; the other was described as ‘gorgeous nakedness who make our ovaries explode.’ No prizes for guessing which way round.
The sexist reaction to the University’s naked calendars was particularly hurtful to the girls who’d braved stripping off for pictures they hoped would raise significant funds for the Macmillan Cancer Support charity.
‘The guys had been doing it for about four years before we put out the first calendar problem-free and I thought it was a powerful message for the girls to do it, too,’ one of the calendar’s subjects Hettie Reed explains to The Debrief.
‘We all went out the night before and had some left over Dutch courage, but we’ve all been rowing together for ages, know each other so well that it wasn’t a big deal and were there to support each other. Yes, there were some maintenance men on the bridge above honking their horns and a fisherman who probably lingered a bit too long nearby, but we tried to just think “What the hell?” and carry on.’
They certainly weren’t expecting the furious reaction – which started with the pictures being thrown off Facebook for violating their policy against distributing pornography. ‘We knew we’d come close to violating the terms and conditions of Facebook because we’re nude, but we covered the body parts we were required to – namely nipples and vaginas.
‘The pictures are a million miles away from being pornographic and we had no intention of the pictures to be overtly sexy – they’re actually pretty classic and tame,’ Sophie Bell, a 20-year-old Politics student about to return to university for her third year explains to* The Debrief.*
‘The men’s calendar has never had this kind of a problem – it’s essentially wrong and shows basic inequality.’
Aside from being frustrating because distribution via Facebook is the primary means of making money through sales of the calendar, Sophie believes it’s sexist.
‘The men’s calendar has never had this kind of a problem – it’s essentially wrong and shows basic inequality. Facebook has since come forward and reinstated the page, but it’s no doubt because people have got behind us and it looks bad for them.’
Hettie agrees that what smarted the most about Facebook’s decision was how tame their page was compared to other pages the platform allows. ‘Someone alerted me to the fact that a Rolf Harris page remains on the site, while some girls doing something for charity and a bit of fun was deemed too offensive to stay online,’ she says.
And it wasn’t just Facebook. The backlash against the girls’ pictures came from all corners of the internet and was, at times, vitriolic. ‘Feminists seemed to be quite upset by what we did,’ explains Sophie. ‘I think they’ve just misunderstood what we were trying to do. Nudity isn’t anti-feminist – you just need to look at the number of pictures of a naked Germaine Greer to see that.
‘We’re all well-educated girls who have thought about what we were doing and our opinion is that we are striving for feminism, we’re also showing great body image and self-image to young girls. We’re not promoting an image of perfection – that’s a powerful, exciting thing to put out there.’
That ideal made it even harder to read the comments from internet trolls pointing out the girls’ cellulite and calling them fat.
‘Sure, it hurt when people were pouring over our bodies in comment sections – especially as I’ve had a number of close friends who have suffered with eating disorders and I know how damaging those messages can be – but people are always brave behind a keyboard and say stuff they’d never actually say in person,’ Hettie explains.
‘Sure, it hurt when people were pouring over our bodies, especially as I’ve had a number of close friends who have suffered with eating disorders and I know how damaging those messages can be.’
But what about their parents? Surely they weren’t that pleased? While Hettie insists her parents have been thrilled with her new-found fame – even stockpiling newspapers where she’s been featured to get framed – Sophie admits hers have found the whole thing a bit more difficult.
‘They were just concerned that it would be the first thing potential employers saw when they Googled my name,’ she explains. ‘But I think it shows initiative and good marketing skills – and luckily, so do the civil servants I’m interning with at the moment.’
The girls are far from regretting releasing the calendar though, which has now sold 1,500 copies and raised £4,997 for Macmillan.
‘I think it’s telling that high-profile campaigns like Free The Nipple have shown us their support. It shows we were on to something,’ Hettie explains. ‘Plus, we’ve raised a fortune for charity and there’s been an increase in the uptake of women joining the rowing club. We can’t ask for more than that.’
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiecullinane
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.