Hi, I am Mooma, the owner of @especiialty on Instagram, a body positivity page that has been wrongly deleted three times. My first account, @especialty, was deleted for posting "sexual content" which is a lie. Nothing I ever posted was ever obsence, and I have over 12k people (which is the following I had when I was deleted) to vouch for me on that. I then had @especiallty, and I had been deleted for the same reason after a little over a month. What did I post? Body positivity. Pictures that people shared anonymously, celebrating parts of the bodies that aren’t typically seen in the media. That's all I've ever posted. I ALWAYS censored all my photos (especially the ones that contained nipples – and they were always covered, no matter the gender), yet it seems that wasn't good enough for Instagram. I feel as if all I have done is bettered the community, and helped thousands of people feel better about themselves. People would constantly tell me that my account had made them feel better about parts of their bodies that aren’t typically shown in modern culture, yet Instagram ruled my account "unsafe" and deleted me. It was so hard to make another account. I felt like I had lost everyone that had found love and support through my page, yet then I realized that if my previous pages could share positivity, then my future ones could too. However, when I decided to make my third page, even that one was deleted, after not even two days. But I didn't give up, I made another account. I refuse to let Instagram stop my mission of positivity, and my goal of equality. I wish to bring to light the issues and stigmatism surrounding our society today. You see, the world is changing. And equality is a big issue, especially on social media. Instagram is my favorite social media outlet, but here's the problem, body positivity pages are apparently "unsafe" for the community due to the rules. The rules, as verbatim off of Instagram’s website state: “We know that there are times when people might want to share nude images that are artistic or creative in nature, but for a variety of reasons, we don’t allow nudity on Instagram. This includes photos, videos, and some digitally-created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks. It also includes some photos of female nipples, but photos of post-mastectomy scarring and women actively breastfeeding are allowed. Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is OK, too." I believe Instagram needs to change, the way that our society and our world is constantly changing too. I understand that the rules are set for a reason, but it creates a very sexist stigma, especially for people who are already struggling with their nude bodies. There isn't anything wrong with the naked body, even breasts, especially when portrayed in a non-pornographic way. One of the largest factors in the fight for equality is the #FreeTheNipple campaign. It may not be for everyone – some women may be too shy, self-conscious or modest to expose their bare chest on social media, or in public. But this campaign argues that women should be able to choose whether or not to wear a shirt and bra out of a personal decision, and not because it’s illegal for them not to. When we look at history, men (or anyone with unproductive breasts) have been able to be topless since 1930. Before then, all nipples were seen as immoral and evil) and they too weren't allowed to be topless in public. It was only after years of protest and outrage they finally lifted the male topless ban in 1936, and suddenly a man’s nipples were no longer “obscene” in society, but rather commonplace and natural. Of course, in the beginning, many felt outraged and overwhelmed, but eventually, the male nipple became accepted. Men now take full advantage of their legal freedom and society has learned to accept the male torso as commonplace. The same thing must happen for women's nipples as well. Although for women, there is much more that needs to be done. Hypersexualization is a big issue on and offline, and Instagram has make it abundantly clear that they are not body positive, especially towards anyone feminine. They say "some female nipples" but this is extremely contradicting because anything with even a peek of areola is deleted. Even pictures that have been blurred to ensure Instagrams "safety" get deleted, that weren't sexual in any form, nor did they contain nudity. These photos were in a non-sexual setting, but they were deleted anyways. I could post the same photo of someone with a flat, chiseled chest, and someone with a large, rounded chest. Both in a completely non sexual setting and I promise the one with the rounded chest will be deleted, but the chiseled chest will not. But why is the females nipple considered nudity, if a males nipple is not? Where is the difference? On the outside, they both have breast tissue, areola, and nipples. The only real difference is that a female breast is used to feed and nourish young children, and provide them with the nutrients needed. The human body is a beautiful thing that should not be hidden, but loved and celebrated. Yet there's so much hate, aimly body related in our culture. All these body standards we must abide by, but never falling into. Body positivity accounts, such as mine do SO much, but they get reduced to being pornographic and that is heart breaking. How can positivity be degraded to sexuality? body appreciation into sexualization? Instagram NEEDS to make a change. The least they could do, is perhaps add a "18+" setting in their profile (like tumblr) and so it can still be for all (younger users & people who don't want to see nudity can just turn the parental controls on -18) so those who want to have nudity, can and those who don't, don't have to see it. It's a win win for everyone. Nudity is already posted. And will continue to be posted. As is porn, prostitution, nude positive pages. Having the rules doesn't stop them from posting this. People still see it. Creating the 18+ setting will help this. Backtracking to the thought of people seeing it, the average American child sees more than 200,000 acts of violence and 16,000 murders on TV before they turn 18, according to the American Psychiatric Association. But the things deemed far too scandalous and damaging for them to witness? Women's breasts. Just in the U.S., it is completely illegal for women to appear topless in three states and ambiguous laws in other states prohibit it in effect, according to Time. “Women's breasts are not the problem. Sexual objectification is the problem. There's a difference between sexualization and sexuality. Breasts don't hurt children, breasts FEED children, and it's the sexualization of women's bodies that's actually hurting children the most” (Chemaly). The female breast is one of the first sights a newborn sees when they come into this world. Most mothers breastfeed their children for at least the first six months of life. The breast nourishes children. The biological purpose of the female breast is to provide for their young. When children are born, they don’t see breasts or anything sexual. Children are taught. Even when they go swimming at a young age, young girls typically don’t even worry about wearing a top when they go swimming, since their nipples aren’t sexualised. What makes a developed breast different? If a child isn't raised to fear their body or to sexualize others bodies, it won't happen and they won't be seen as sexual. In cultures where nudity is the cultural norm, it is not sexualized. We grow up in a society where we are taught to hate our bodies from a young age. Children are grown up in a society where the victim is blamed due to what they’re wearing, because what they wear is seen as sexualized. “Maybe if she just covered up more” or “Well, it seemed like he was asking for it.” A body should only be sexual if they’re consenting for their body to be seen in a sexual matter. We live in a sexualized culture, yet it doesn't have to be this way. We can make a change. Instagram can make a change. By setting up a way to remove of rape culture, to create a society in which nudity is normalized and not seen as obscene. Just as men did for their nude freedom back in 1936. If we just stand by and do nothing, there won't be any change and things will continue to get worse for people seen in a sexual light. We MUST be the change we want to see in the world. Change starts in small steps. Let’s be the change that the world needs.