Monday, October 27, 2014

Removed: Award-winning artist Aleah Chapin's Facebook Page


Aleah Chapin has a new exhibition at the Flowers Gallery in London Photo: Antonio Parente 2014
The Facebook fan page for artist Aleah Chapin was shut down several days ago for violating Facebook's community standards. The page had more than 8,000 'likes' and was growing in popularity with her recent London exhibit.

Facebook's community standards read:

Facebook has a strict policy against the sharing of pornographic content and any explicitly sexual content where a minor is involved. We also impose limitations on the display of nudity. We aspire to respect people’s right to share content of personal importance, whether those are photos of a sculpture like Michelangelo's David or family photos of a child breastfeeding.

Chapin's work has been all over Facebook in recent weeks. A blurb from a recent Telegraph article explains her work, which is certainly comparable to The David in my mind.

"Chapin’s work has also shone a light on the subject of body image.

“Most women have issues and I’m not immune to that,” says Chapin. “We’re told that our bodies are supposed to be a ‘certain height, certain size, certain weight’. But the pictures we see are completely unrealistic; they’re very Photoshopped.

“We all know it when we look at them in magazines and yet, we still compare ourselves.

“That’s why we need images that show all sorts of bodies – so we can accept every size and shape.”

This attitude is why her work resonates. We may not recognise the individuals depicted in paint, but we recognise them as people"




You can read more about work in this Telegraph article: What Painting Portraits of Naked Women has Taught Me


Update: 2:25PM PST The page is back up.  It was reportedly taken down in "error". Please show the page your support!

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

By removing photos of childbirth, Facebook is censoring powerful female images

"Birth is a fundamental feminist issue right now - women’s bodies should not be sanitised. Facebook should let us see it as it is."

Great article in The Guardian today by Milli Hill of Positive Birth Movement.

Photo


Sunday, October 12, 2014

Bare Reality Page Owner Targeted Again



"My personal account has been blocked again - for seven days. This time it's because I shared a photograph from 'Bare Reality' of a 101 year old woman who has had a mastectomy. Yet photographs of mastectomies are supposed to be permitted by ...Facebook. This is another instance of Facebook applying it's own rules inconsistently - it smacks of sexism and this time age discrimination as well. A photograph of a younger woman with a mastectomy is still up. Is an old woman's remaining breast unacceptable?

I'm not sure why anyone who finds photographs of breasts and mastectomies offensive is visiting this page. Secondly, why are they so offended by an image of that incredible woman's body?

I think the same person keeps reporting me because I detect the same officious tone in the 'different' anonymous accounts used on Facebook and Twitter. Interestingly, Facebook requires me to send them government-issued ID to prove my identity, while the people who report hide behind 'fake' identities. Officious reporter - get a life please?"
Please support the Bare Reality page.