Once again, a social media platform, Tumblr, has conflated nudity with lewdness and banned nudity As part of the naturist community, it is important that we are aware of the dangerous message that this proclaims to all. We should not take it in stride that of course it is OK to ban nudity. We need to make sure our message is heard — our message is that Nude is NOT Lewd.
Tumblr is a social media platform that allows individuals to create micro blogs. There were many naturists, including professional photographers, that did just that. However, Verizon bought Tumblr in 2013 and then Apple banned the Tumblr app from their store. So, with 14 days notice, Tumblr banned nudity from postings on December 17, 2019. It is still permissible to post textual pornography on Tumblr, just not nude pictures.
Many people have found this ban to be offensive. From the New York Times, The Problem With Banning Pornography on Tumblr by Jessica Powell, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/06/opinion/tumblr-adult-content-pornography-ban.html , “This is not the first time a social media or blog platform has banned adult content. Twitter, Facebook, and many other platforms all prohibit pornography. But in the United States, we seem to ignore public debate about the censorship of sex and the human body, reflecting the American tendency to get more offended by the sight of a female-presenting nipple than by guns, hate speech or violence.”
The challenge is how to fight this trend. Of course finding a place to host your nudist blog is one part of the what needs to happen. One substitute that I can direct you to is www.mewe.com, which has reached out to refugees from Tumblr. On a different front, while I don’t expect to be able to change Tumblr, Verizon or Apple’s mind, I do want to tell everyone I talk to about their misjudgment of nudism. Spread the word. If we all talk about it, maybe it will eventually make a difference.
