Madonna is calling out Instagram for removing her photos.
On Thursday (Nov. 25), the 63-year-old Queen of Pop took to the social media platform to republish a series of snapshots showing her in various poses and wearing black lingerie, noting in the caption that Instagram had removed the same post from the prior night because it violated guidelines by exposing her nipple. In her new post, Madonna used a red heart emoji to conceal her left breast.
“I’m reposting photographs Instagram took down without warning or notification….. The reason they gave my management that does not handle my account was that a small portion of my nipple was exposed,” Madonna wrote alongside the gallery.
She added, “It is still astounding to me that we live in a culture that allows every inch of a woman’s body to be shown except a nipple. As if that is the only part of a woman’s anatomy that could be sexualized. The nipple that nourishes the baby!”
Instagram’s community guidelines page states, “We don’t allow nudity on Instagram, with some exceptions, like photos of post-mastectomy scarring and women actively breastfeeding. Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is OK, too.”
A spokesperson for Meta, Instagram’s parent company, told CNN that photos which breach the company’s rules are removed “whenever we find it, no matter who posts it.”
Madonna argued in her response, “Can’t a mans nipple be experienced as erotic ??!! And what about a woman’s a– which is never censored anywhere. Giving thanks that I have managed to maintain my sanity through four decades of censorship…… sexism……ageism and misogyny.”
She also tied the ordeal into the Thanksgiving holiday, writing, “Perfectly timed with the lies we have been raised to believe about the pilgrims peacefully breaking bread with the Native American Indians when they landed on Plymouth Rock! God bless America.”
See Madonna’s post on Instagram below.
