The battle over how Instagram will allow women’s bodies to be portrayed rages on.
According to reports, the popular social photo service has banned the hashtag #curvy because it was used for porn and therefore violated the site’s terms of service.
As you can imagine, some folks are not happy.
Madeline Jones, editor-in-chief of Plus Model Magazine wrote in a post on the magazine’s web site, “Instagram has decided to suppress the hashtag #Curvy, as porn companies were using it. While many questionable hashtags are still searchable, we wonder about the logic of this bold move.”
#Curvy is no longer searchable on the site, but Buzzfeed points out that words such as “skinny,” “fat” and “thin” are still searchable as hashtags.
If the responses on Twitter are any indication, the move did not go over well.
Many body image advocates have used the site and the hashtag #curvy to further the cause of acceptance of all sizes. Plus-sized super model Tess Holliday came to fame via Instagram using #EffYourBeautyStandards.
But Instagram is known for suspending users accounts for what it deems “unacceptable content.” The #freethenipple movement began as a response to the site’s objection to photos featuring breasts, even those which were part of art work.
Artist Sam Roddick had her account was deleted by Instagram after she posted a vagina shaped cornice, but Huffington Post noted that #vagina is not banned from the site.
“They have banned images of breast feeding, stretch marks, domestic images of menstruation and classical art works that respectfully portray nude women and now they ban the hashtag #curvy,” while it still allows “b***h, fat slag, hookers, thin,” Roddick said to HuffPost UK Lifestyle, calling Instagram “not a safe platform for women and especially young girls.”
