We've all seen a lot of butt photos on Instagram, right?
Paulina Gretzky, Kim Karadashian, the Jenner sisters, not to mention belfie queen Jen Selter, have all posted revealing pics of their mostly bare derrieres.
So imagine Meghan Tonjes' surprise when she discovered that Instagram had removed one of her photos because it violated the company's "mature content" clause à la Rihanna.
The offending photo? Oh, just a butt selfie, which shows the singer/songwriter lying on her stomach in her undies.
Tonjes captioned the pic: "Booty appreciation. #honormycurves #effyourbeautystandards."
So, why was her photo taken down, when photos such as this are allowed?
According to Buzzfeed, Meghan said she thinks that someone flagged the photo because they were uncomfortable with the size of her butt. As a result, the photo was taken down "without any real review of whether it violated guidelines."
Fortunately, Instagram later restored the photo and sent her an apology, which Meghan posted:
Although she was appreciative of the apology, the experience made her realize that people still judge women based on the size of their bodies and that being surrounded by images of models and celebrities makes us uncomfortable with women of who have different body shapes.
“For me, it’s more important that whoever flagged the photo realize discomfort in viewing something doesn’t make it wrong,” she told The Gloss. “It’s OK to not like things. It’s not OK to unfairly make that decision for everyone else.”
As a result, Meghan made a video explaining why people can be uncomfortable with looking at bodies like hers.
“I want you to think of how many big girls you see,” she said, “wearing bathing suits, lingerie, shorts, dresses, tight- fitting clothing, who aren’t openly mocked … And now you have the answer as to why a lot of who look like me — and by a lot, I mean not very many — post pictures of themselves showing their thighs or their stomach or parts that other women and other people show proudly and are never questioned on because that’s what we’re used to seeing and we’re comfortable with that.”
Well said!