The founder of a revolutionary life drawing class in Dundee had her Facebook profile temporarily suspended for posting “pornographic content”.
Joanna Susskind’s All The Young Nudes page was shut down by Facebook admins, who said the images she posted went beyond the company’s “limitations on the display of nudity”.
Hundreds of people have attended All the Young Nudes, a life-drawing event set in a pub, since it came to Dundee in March.
The group was first set up in Glasgow by Joanna to encourage life-drawing in an informal setting and has spawned branches in Edinburgh as well as Dundee.
She said: “There is nothing remotely pornographic about the pictures. It’s pretty ironic really because life-drawing is one of the oldest art forms.
“There are some pictures with nude models in them but it’s not full frontal and it’s not offensive.”
Joanna still retains plans to start an All the Young Nudes event in New York, which is where she was when she discovered her page had been suspended.
“They removed a few pictures but the page is back up again,” she said.
“I guess it’s going to be an ongoing thing because life drawing is all about the nude human form.”
A Facebook spokesman said Joanna’s profile was temporarily blocked for breaking the site’s terms and confirmed some links were removed for breaching their terms on nudity.
He said: “Facebook has a strict policy against the sharing of pornographic content.
“We also impose limitations on the display of nudity.
“But we aspire to respect people’s right to share content of personal importance, whether those are photos of a sculpture like Michelangelo’s David or family photos of a child breastfeeding.”Far from pornographicIt’s seven months since I found myself ogling a naked woman in a pub (see video above), writes Andrew Liddle.
Drinking a pint and holding a long stick of charcoal, you would be forgiven for picturing a seedy scene but it wasn’t.
There was no leering, staring or sniggering.
The minimal chatter was kept strictly on topic the subject of drawing.
This is why it is such a surprise, indeed shock, to see life drawing being banned as “pornographic” by a social media site that allegedly prides itself on openness and sharing.
To be fair, the suspension was brief, but Facebook admit they want people to share content that they find significant, such as Michelangelo’s David, so why not nude drawing?
It seems strange a graphic statue of a naked man can be bandied around the internet, quite literally willy-nilly, while drawings from amateur artists are deemed lewd.
Indeed, a quick trawl of various groups and pages on the world’s most popular social network will, unsurprisingly, yield far more titillating results than some charcoal scratchings by a have-a-go amateur.
Posting pictures of naked people in pubs might sound like something that should be controlled but from my own experience of All the Young Nudes, it certainly is not.