Nude Portraits Without Nipples Challenge Sexist Censorship Policies

by Priscilla Frank

''Artist Sasha Frolova’s dreamlike series “Busts” was inspired by an occurrence familiar to many women online: the internet tried to police her body.

Around a year and a half ago, Frolova took a self-portrait in the bathtub shortly after suffering a panic attack. Although the image wasn’t in any way sexual or suggestive ― to Frolova, the image was one of vulnerability and strength ― Facebook (and Instagram) censored it. Because Frolova’s nipples were visible, the platforms deemed the photo inappropriate and promptly took it down.

After taking a hiatus from photography, Frolova wanted to address the complex network of eroticization, judgement, censorship and disempowerment women face simply for living in the bodies they were born with. The resulting images combine photography and painting to challenge social media’s loaded censorship policy, which, according to Frolova, “does not delineate pornography from anatomy.”...''