Square Theatre loses facebook page over nipple in poster image

Social media censors on woman's nipple and Plein Theatre loses facebook page over nipple in poster image of Cat Smits Company's performance Nouveau Fuck. This digital prudishness and sexist inequality goes way too far, Berith Danse and Cat Smits think.

Facebook is known for a strict "no nudity" policy, at least not for men, as naked male torsos are no problem at all. Photos that the company deems inappropriate will be deleted, and if you really go too far, your account will be temporarily or permanently blocked. It happened to the Plein Theater in Amsterdam Oost after they posted a picture that forms the poster image of Cat Smits Company's performance Nouveau Fuck. The media company's automated censorship system detected a female breast and nipple - and gone was the company's page with more than 4,000 followers.

What is absurd is that the page has been completely blocked without warning and it proves impossible for a person to review it. Appeals are met with an automatic response. It now seems impossible to contact anyone within Facebook and get the page back online.

"In doing so, Facebook is harming our business. The Facebook page was an important place to reach our supporters. Now we have lost 4,000 followers. We are only just recovering from the corona damage, and now this. We have created a new Facebook page and hope to regain an equal number of followers soon, so please like!" exclaims managing director Berith Danse.

Especially the uncovered, female nipple remains to be a no-go, you can read back from Facebook's guidelines. Striking is that there are no problems with showing male upper bodies. That is unfair! - is what the activists behind the Free The Nipple movement have thought for years. Berith Danse and Cat Smits underline that thought.

It is remarkable that the very programmes that seek sexual freedom are censored online. "Did you know that the female nipple is banned on social media and the male nipple is not?" is one of the texts from the show in question, Nouveau Fuck, which is based on Stella Bergsma's manifesto of the same name. "This is exactly what the performance is about. It's about skewed relationships, power, belittling and sexism. Facebook grosses men's nipples and breasts. That my nipple in a campaign image created by visual artist Paulina Matusiak is reason to take away a theatre's reach is downright absurd." - Cat Smits.

Berith Danse and Cat Smits are deeply concerned about our freedom of expression in this day and age. Billions of people worldwide are active on social media. Behind them are huge, American media companies with immense power, acting as moral masters. Extra worrying is that they are not humans who judge, but robots, and no contact can be made with the company.

Of course, there are categories where censorship is desirable. But between the seedy categories, nudity, and the female nipple, there is still a huge grey area, which are not meant to be sexual and/or offensive. Think, for example, of nudity in art, which is also the case in this instance. Showing nudity has been rooted in humanity for centuries. In classical art, nudity was used to celebrate the beauty of the human body. That right should not be taken away from us!

If any person within Facebook is reading this and has a solution or would like to discuss this, Plein Theatre can be contacted at publiciteit@plein-theater.nl