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Facebook doesn't want you to see the most famous painting of a vagina
By Jessica GentileApril 14th, 2011, 8:30 amComments (13)
It's a famous work of art that can be seen in Paris' Musee d'Orsay, but dare to post it on Facebook and your whole account will be suspended. That's what happened to one Frenchman when he made Gustave Courbet's The Origin of the World his profile picture. The 1866 oil painting, which depicts the lower half of a woman, including her prominently splayed nether-region, apparently goes against the social network's decency standards. Because God forbid nineteenth-century art offends millions of Farmville users.
The anonymous Frenchman is now suing Facebook, demanding they reinstate his profile and "compensate him in a substantial manner." (We think that means he wants Mark Zuckerberg to give him a lot of pussy paintings.) He might just have a case though. It turns out this same painting has caused similar issues for at least two other users, and such blatant censorship is pissing a lot of people off. As French writer, Luc Wouters, put it, "Facebook wants to impose a form of Sharia law on the Internet by prohibiting the naked female body from being shown in the splendor of its natural beauty." Yet meanwhile, porn stars the world over get to keep their fan pages without scrutiny.
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Commentarium (13 Comments)
A guy is really upset that he can't have a vagina as his profile pic? His life must be so rough.
I thought a Frenchmen would be proud to have as his main pic the standard French battle ensign - a white eagle on a white background.
*man
So dumb. FB doesn't allow nudity and can't have a policy that somehow distinguishes between what is art and what is not. I hate when people play the art card.
Jessica, do you see any irony in Nerve making fun of Facebook for not showing a painting of a vulva when Nerve, a website largely devoted to sexual matters, refuses to display photographs of vulvas, penises or pubic hair? Black pot, please meet black kettle.
*Used to be. Nerve used to be largely devoted to sexual matters.
Thinkywritey: I'm going to stand by "largely" -- not predominantly or primarily, but still largely. Look at the items between which this one was sandwiched: "Fetish website paid homeless men to get beaten up by scantily clad women on tape" and "Anti-gay crusader changes mind, kills National Organization for Marriage Facebook page." That said, I still think your brain is the hottest thing about this site now. :-)
Also, FWIW, I lost a bet with myself that the associated image with this item would be replaced by Managment by this afternoon. I guess that while photos of pubic hair are verboten, painted depictions are still ok under the Sean "New Coke" Mills regime.
Agreed, and furthermore -- "prominently splayed nether-region"? Seriously? It's like someone asked the Pope to write porn.
You make a point, prof. It would be nice if there were more, I don't know, POSITIVE sexuality stories... but I suppose the overarching theme stands.
I agree with profrobert about vocabulary. For a sexual web site you need an anatomy lesson - the outer parts are the VULVA (labia majora, minora, clitoris etc...). The vagina is the inner tube that leads to the cervix and uterus. Get it right Nerve! (and Eve Ensler...)
" As French writer, Luc Wouters, put it, "Facebook wants to impose a form of Sharia law on the Internet by prohibiting the naked female body from being shown in the splendor of its natural beauty."
Sill, silly arguments both by M. Wouters and Jessica. Facebook is a private enterprise that allocates itself the ability to decide what is and isn't permissible. Don't like it? Don't use Facebook.
No case. No nakeds means no nakeds, whether famous painting or no. Pretty simple.
I am forever indebted to you for this inofmration.