The social network Instagram does not treat posting male and female bodies equally as women are not allowed to publish photographs of bare breasts. The theoretical part touches on social networks, the role of photographs in communication, later on focuses on the representation of the female body and rounds up with a discussion about sharing photographs on Instagram and the Free the Nipple movement. The movement forms the central part of the thesis as it stands against the censorship policies regarding the photographs of female breasts exercised by Instagram. Female users from around the world are therefore encouraged to join and post photographs showing their bodies. However, they employ different strategies that allow them to circumvent the censorship and disregard the rules imposed by Instagram. The empirical part, which provides a semiotic analysis of 16 photographs and their corresponding comments, shows that the censorship is absurd as the strategies used distort the female body. The problem arises as soon as the female users are not allowed to have a free choice about posting photographs displaying their own bodies; furthermore, some strategies seem almost comical and ironic, which can lead to misinterpretations from the viewer’s part. The strategies were classified into four categories, i.e. covering, replacing, deleting or manipulating, and changing the medium (changing a photograph with a drawing). I found that Instagram should lift the censorship because the analysis conducted shows that manipulation of the female body brings a higher number of negative consequences than the censorship itself.
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