InstagramJames Franco makes us uncomfortable with his Instagram on the daily, and yet he is free to flash his pubes whenever he wants. But when singer-songwriter Meghan Tonjes posted a photo of her butt clad in some underwear to her profile, Instagram removed it. Why? Well, they claim because it violated their mature content rule. But Meghan thinks otherwise.
She believes that the photo (shown below) was flagged because people were uncomfortable with the size of her butt.
Instagram eventually restored the photo and sent Meghan an apology, but not before Meghan called out the company for removing the pic in the first place:
"Yo, @instagram. This is a body. I'd apologize if it makes you uncomfortable, but I don't particularly care about your warped definition of nudity or mature content. Please let me know if when my genitals are completely covered and I'm not doing anything sexual, how much skin is allowed to be seen and how responsible I am for the sexual lust inspired in people who view said body. You created a platform for people to share the human experience through photos. Here's the human experience."
Why was Meghan's photo singled out? It can't just be because she showed some butt cheek. No way.
Because it's hard to scroll Instagram for longer than 10 seconds without running across someone flashing their ass or other parts of their body. There's even a women who made a career out of showing off her ample backside on Instagram (that would be Jen Selter, shown above).
If you check out our Instagram news page, you'll see story after story of some celeb rocking side-boob or mooning the camera. Did their photos get banned? Nope.
There's not anything wrong with being proud of your body and posting revealing photos to Instagram if that is your prerogative. Just let everyone be proud of their body. And if you don't like what Meghan or anyone else on Instagram is posting, you don't have to follow them. Seriously! There's an "unfollow" button and everything.
And to the people who leave Meghan disrespectful comments on her photos and to anyone else generally trolling the Internet to spread hate, go look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself what purpose it serves and why in the hell you're doing that in the first place.
Meghan took to her YouTube channel to talk about the ordeal and speak openly about why her photo being banned while other more revealing pics are left alone really irked her.
"I want you to think of how many big girls you see on the Internet, on television, in magazines wearing bathing suits, lingerie, shorts, dresses, tight- fitting clothing, who aren't openly mocked. Who aren't torn apart as being disgusting. 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."
Meghan's story and that video have gone viral and are popping up on news sites and blogs everywhere, which means the conversation she hoped to start by questioning Instagram's policy is currently going global.
"It's a proud moment for my butt," she told The Gloss about the attention she's been getting.
It's a proud moment for women of all shapes and sizes everywhere. Thank you, Meghan. And keep being your flawless, gorgeous self.