On Instagram, a new challenge has just emerged and is exciting us. Its inventor: the fat activist and DJ Barbara Butch, who invites you to "#SqueezIt" (that is to say squeeze your breasts) against the grossophobia of networks.
DJ, activist and plus-size model, Barbara Butch has been the victim of Instagram censorship on several occasions. This Monday, October 26, 2020, after a new discussion with the platform, she is launching the "#SqueezIt challenge". Explanations.
Barbara Butch versus Instagram
Barbara Butch vs. Instagram, an epic battle aimed at overcoming grossophobia on social media. Indeed, if many women have no problem when they post photos of themselves naked, the activist sees some of her photos censored. In particular, its very beautiful cover of Telerama, where she poses naked, gazing into the distance. If we do not see Barbara Butch's nipples, Instagram still hung it in February 2020. Earlier, it is a photo of her in a swimming pool, arms and a ball hiding her chest, which had been banned. Again, the nipples, so dreadful according to Instagram when they belong to a woman, were not visible there.
Like Insta, a platform that belongs to Facebook, so justifies this censorship? According to Barbara Butch, who has spoken with the platform several times following the outcry, the posture of "squeezing" her breasts is identified as pornographic by Facebook. But, as the artist explains, this gesture has no sexual character. "For many of us it is above all that we have big breasts which are often heavy and so as not to show our censored nipples, we hold them, hide them with our hands", she explained under the photo in the pool, which she reposted for the occasion.
Why is Instagram's algorithm a problem?
What is once again at issue is the sexualization of women's bodies and only this one, since men on Instagram do not face this censorship. Beyond the chest, it is the photos of non-standardized bodies that are targeted by the platform. After this new consultation by telephone with the Instagram team, Barbara Butch announced that the censorship of "breast squeezing" was on the verge of disappearing. "This rule has finally been lifted and will actually be in place from Wednesday 28 (october 2020)", she explains under her post. In order to ensure the veracity of this new measure, the DJ is launching the #SqueezIt challenge: an invitation to post a story, with the dedicated hasstag, a photo of yourself where you press your chest. See you on Wednesday (and in the weeks that follow) to take up the challenge!
In reality, it is Instagram's algorithm that is being called into question.