Instagram account @thenippleacttt is full of nipples and they're totally not getting taken down. It's wonderful because the whole account is a celebration of the female form (essentially, it’s nudes, in every shape, size and colour you could imagine) and unusual, sadly, because we’ve become so used to the constant and strict censorship of Instagram, that this kind of positive display is a very rare sight.
The images themselves are beautiful, but that’s not the best part of this account. Zoom in and you soon realise that each image is made up entirely of emojis. Combining to form the most delightful duo since strawberries and cream, #FreetheNipple meets emojis for possibly the most 2017 thing that has happened so far.
If you weren’t already aware, Instagram is pretty strict when it comes to women’s nipples. Let’s be honest, if they’re going to shut down Rihanna’s page, then they must mean business. So, it was always going to take a serious case of thinking outside the box to get around them. Introducing 22-year-old artist and Central Saint Martins student Camila Gonzalez Corea, who is aiming to ‘promote the normalisation and de-fetishisation of the female nipple’ one nude at a time. The project runs entirely off submissions from women of all types and ages, and she’s already received photos from women from 18 to 60 years old.
The Costa Rican artist says that during research for her Masters' dissertation she focused a lot on feminist cyber activism, which is what she considers this project to be. Instagram has come repeatedly under fire recently for their censorship. Their official stance is that they 'prohibit all forms of nudity on Instagram because some audiences within our global community are particularly sensitive to this type of content' and despite the claim that they remain 'committed to artistic freedom', users may not post 'nude, partially nude, pornographic or sexually suggestive' photos on the service.
The problem is, thanks to the society we find ourselves in, that the female body is seen as an inherently sexual thing. So, unlike nipples on a man which are allowed on the app, (and sadly the streets of London on a hot day like today), female nipples – you know, the ones with an actual biological purpose – are prohibited.
Campaigns such as #FreetheNipple have taken on huge momentum in the last few years, identifying the double standard between genders when it comes to the nudity, but there is still a huge way to go. As a result of their guidelines, inbuilt into Instagram is an algorithm which detects and removes female nipples from the app. Camila’s use of emojis is particularly clever because it tricks this algorithm, acting as a genius insta-protest.
So it’s probably about time we answered the question on everyone’s lips, can I get my boobs turned into emoji art? Well, you’re in luck, because the answer is yes. She accepts submissions from anyone who is over the age of 18 and identifies as female, all boobs are welcome. Images can be sent through insta private message either to her directly @camilagc or her @thenipleacttt account. Plus, Gonzalez Corea is now also selling her art as large scale prints, if you haven’t checked it out already it’s well worth a look, and a zoom.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.