Sick of censorship
We artists are sick of having to censor perfectly normal images.
We're fed up with your prude mentalities. We're fed up with your rotten minds that sexualise everything and must always find sin where there's not. We're sick of this irrational fear of human bodies.
You have some serious introspective work to do if the first thing that pops into your mind upon seeing a human body is sexual in nature. Bare skin is not inherently sexual, it's an exposed organ of our bodies and it's natural; what makes something sexual —or 18+, or NSFW— is the intention to arouse.
Everybody has skin, everyone has a body. It's concerning how society and media are steadily but slowly brainwashing us into associating natural human features with degeneracy, sin, debauchery, sex or child corruption even.
Tell me why must we artists censor and cover every single nude study we draw and post on social media while influencers and porn bots dominate these online places, constantly flooding the net with obscene twerking videos in scarce "clothing"?
These influencers and porn bots have clearly the intention to arouse and/or provoke a physiologic reaction on the viewer. Our artistic studies exist to practice anatomy or show appreciation towards the human beauty. Keyword: intention. I can't stress this enough. For something to be sexual, there needs to exist an intention behind it. This is why we can have pornographic content that's 100% sexual yet it features fully clothed people.
We get punished for posting watercolour blob nipples, meanwhile actual harmful scammers and trolls roam free preying on the vulnerable and social media apps allow it. We get warned, striked, banned, accounts suspended, posts removed, posting restricted... All because of a 2D depiction of what appears to be an adult female human nipple. God forbid we post a book scene where two consensual adult characters kiss naked on a bathtub: that would be the final downfall. Vanished forever from Instagram, TikTok, Tumblr, Ko-Fi... All of this happens while the same sites turn a blind eye on OnlyFans models posting thirsty videos of themselves wearing wet tight clothing while playing with some cylindrical object in an obscene manner.
Yes, I know. It's inconsistent. The rule of thumb is we never win as artists, no matter the craft. You thought you could escape? Ha! You wish. This fist punches illustrators, writers, photographers, painters...
Years ago a friend of mine wouldn't stop having issues with Webtoon because the comic he posted featured artistic nudity. It wasn't erotic, it wasn't sexual, just people chilling naked on a paradisiacal field. At the same time, I was having issues with Art Amino's bot striking me for posting bare chest PG13 women and Instagram shadowbanning me for the same reason. Because of this, my friend coined the term "Nude Crusade". From that moment on, we decided we'd rebel against this misogynistic censorship that equals women's bodies to filthy porn. We sheltered in smaller communities that will not censor our artistic creativity, mainly welcoming Discord servers, Patreon and our own websites. This allowed us to rediscover the joy of creating what we like without restricting ourselves: we realised we were unconsciously limiting and censoring what we created in order for it to be "social media post material".
We don't have to put up with social media's tyrannical bullshit. We can fight it. Social media is nothing without an userbase, leaving the apps means they'll receive less money and you'll also improve your mental health (and most likely gain lots of free time you didn't know you wasted doomscrolling). We absolutely can reclaim our community and find support among us. We can de-industrialise our art process and create freely far from the shadow that social media giants cast.
Join me in the comments and share your thoughts about this issue. Please feel free to tell me about your experiences with social media censorship. I'd love to hear what everyone has to say.
Thanks for reading, have a wonderful week!
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