Female-Presenting Nipples

Female-presenting nipples is a much-ridiculed term which was first used by Tumblr in an update to its Community Guidelines that banned adult content from being published on the platform. 
The ban was announced on December 3 2018, and came into effect on December 17, 2018. For more context surrounding the ban, refer to Tumblr NSFW Content Purge.
The phrase "female-presenting nipples" was used as one example of what Tumblr considers to be "adult" content, and attracted widespread ridicule and derision from users for its clear sexism, its bizarre phrasing, and its vagueness (even though the term was clearly intended to be specific). Many creative jokes, memes and variations on the term were posted to Tumblr.
==History==
===Origin: Tumblr Announcement===
Prior to December 2018, Tumblr's official stance on the posting of "NSFW content" was:
On December 3, 2018, Tumblr announced that a full adult content ban would go into effect on December 17., Tumblr staff, December 3 2018 Tumblr's Community Guidelines were updated, and the Tumblr Support post about the update contained the following:
===Response===
====Phrasing====
Tumblr's decision to remove content that showed "female-presenting" nipples while allowing "male-presenting" nipples to remain untouched (subject to a few exceptions) was immediately controversial and confusing. For one thing, it excluded many of the typical subjects of artwork and fanart on Tumblr such as alien beings, robots/androids, magical creatures and animals whose gender presentation might not be defined or obvious. For another, it was a blatant attempt to dress up old-fashioned sexism and outdated ideas about sex and gender (the view that female breasts = inherently dirty or "bad") in modern, progressive-sounding language. In a nutshell, it appeared to show Tumblr's users how completely out of step the staff were with their userbase, and short-sighted the adult content ban was.
Because gender presentation is often conveyed via things like fashion choices, make-up and facial hair, a number of users made jokes along these lines when questioning how Tumblr would be able to tell "female-presenting" nipples apart from "non-female-presenting" nipples.
====On Tumblr====
* protest post by orbititties
====Beyond Tumblr====
Supernatural actor Misha Collins joined in by tweeting a picture of himself drawing lipstick on one nipple and writing, "So @tumblr just banned "adult content" including something called, "female-presenting nipples". I can only assume my nipples will now sadly be banned there."Omg the king has spoken!!! @staff by starsmish archive link
=====News Media=====
*Tumblr’s ‘female-presenting nipples’ language isn’t semantic — it’s oppression by Tristan Greene
* What The Heck Does Tumblr’s “Female-Presenting Nipples” Mean? by Vikas Shukla
* What the Hell Are 'Female-Presenting Nipples'? by Harron Walker
===Tumblr Staff Response===
On December 17, 2018, the day that the ban on adult content went into effect, Tumblr Staff published a lengthy post which attempted to address the widespread user dissatisfaction with its new policy. Notably, the post acknowledged users' distaste for the term "female-presenting nipples" in a bracketed aside:
It also contained some visual examples of imagery that was still permitted within the policy, including an image of artistic nudity, an image of a mammogram, an image of a breastfeeding woman, and an image of some topless protestors.
For some Tumblr users, the fact that Tumblr would go so far as to acknowledge their userbase's dislike of the term and yet blithely continue to use it without acknowledging any of its inherent issues was the ultimate insult. ""Yeah, we know you hate this term, but we're gonna keep using it anyway"" -- , posted December 17, 2018, posted December 17, 2018 "The flippancy of that bit is wild. Like, you're spending this whole post trying to assure your userbase that you care, and then in a single parenthetical make it clear that you don't? Why even go to the effort?" -- Tori Sheldon @daeranilen Replying to @RawLoadsTaken @surfacage (December 17, 2018) "Thanks a lot for sharing! Their insistence upon continuing to use "female-presenting nipples" shows just about how much they actually care about what anyone has to say about this whole thing lol" -- Tweet by @homodachii, posted December 17, 2018
To cap it all off, users who posted the exact same images that Tumblr had used as an example of permitted content found that they were flagged by the algorithm. by Hudson Hongo, Gizmodo. Published December 17, 2018 (Accessed December 18, 2018).
==Blocked Content==
Tumblr's woefully inept automatic flagging AI led to many images that were only somewhat nipple-shaped being erroneously flagged, along with supposedly 'safe' male presenting nipples of actors. Activists pointed out that the clause may have been aimed at squelching issues surrounding gender identity expression.
Tumblr users attempted to determine how the new algorithm functioned and identified nipples:
* "So here's something. Users are testing the limits of Tumblr's new algorithm that flags adult content (aka "censorbot"). This one found that a man's chest was flagged, but a man's chest next a 50% scale owl went unnoticed."Users are testing the limits of Tumblr's new algorithm, December 7, 2018. archive link (Accessed December 20, 2018)
==Memes and Parodies==
The bizarre language of "female-presenting nipple" was immediately mocked and parodied by Tumblr users in a variety of creative ways. Some took it literally, creating images of females literally presenting nipplesFemale presenting nipples, by 1astbreath via Tumblr. Posted December 4, 2018 (Accessed December 20, 2018). while others played on established memes and jokes:
CollegeHumor posted a parody vid on December 17, Tumblr CEO: No More Porn, timed to coincide with the adult content ban coming into effect, which featured Tumblr "CEO" "Harry Pancake" defending Tumblr's "extremely clarified nipple policy", and getting into a discussion with an off-screen staff member about whether a sexualised frog with breasts was "female-presenting".
===GIFs & Manips===
* archive link - truth coming out of her well (with female-presenting nipples), also an example of the "Your post was flagged as explicit" meme, w/ tumblr's refusal to unflag
** truth coming out of her well to shame mankind (tumblr safe version) aka with truth completely removed. archive link
* archive link - why would x do this meme
* THIS IS HOW LIBERTY DIES archive link
* distracted boyfriend meme archive link
* 
* The Good Place "titty finder algorithm" archive link
* tumblr=titty archive link
* Drax archive link
* Adam Driver archive link
* Esmeralda, wtih Frollo response archive link
* Drake archive link
* John Mulaney archive link
* Vin Diesel archive link
* 10 Things I Hate About You archive link
* Tumblr after 12/16/18:
===From Artists===
* googly eyes boobs on old painting plus discussion of why the art was controversial back in the day Wayback; archive link
* titty painters archive link
==Discussion & Controversy==
On fandom content and policing, essay by fozmeadows: 
An artist, Luke/Takoto responded thus:
As non-binary and trans activists pointed out, the clause may have been aimed at suppressing issues surrounding gender identity expression after a non-binary activist, Rain Dove, was allowed to keep their topless photos on Instagram because they did not violate the specific wording of Instagram's user agreement. 
firefighterzarya regarding the exceptions for "nudity related to political or newsworthy speech":
==Further Reading==
*"Female-presenting Nipples" on Know Your Meme
*Nipplegate, an early Livejournal non-fandom wank involving the breastfeeding community
==References==
Category:2018 Tumblr
Category:2018 Memes
Category:2018 Events
Category:Scandals