Interview to @genderless_nipples

“We are not against the rules, but we think rules should be applied to all genders equally; society is changing and it’s time for the rules to follow this behavior” explains Evelyn Weiss - copywriter at Miami Ad School Europe and co-founder of Genderless Nipples - “we just want to make it clear to Instagram that their rules no longer fit the current society. Between male and female nipple there is no difference". 

Genderless Nipples starts in November 2016 when Evelyn Weiss, Morgan Lee Wagner and Marco Russo -  three students from various offices of the Miami Ad School in Europe and America -  were simultaneously in New York for an internship during the American election period. US presidential election held in 2016 saw the Democratic leader Hillary Clinton lose to the entrepreneur Donald Trump, a Republican politician who has done much talk for its xenophobic and misogynistic statements creating an immediate reaction on social media with the launch of some hashtag such as #wegrabback, #notmypresident and #dumptrump.

Genderless Nipples arises in this context of civil protest as a reaction against the progressive objectification of the female image, reaching in just three months a following of 41.4 MILLION people on their Instagram account. We interviewed Evelyn Weyss to investigate how the current policy of censorship is active on Instagram. 

#1 When did you decide to develop this project and how the idea come about?

We started interning in New York shortly before the elections. During that period, so many horrible things were said by candidates, and their supporters, about woman rights and gender equality, that we decided we should do something about it. And what better way to start spreading a message of gender equality than pointing out the rules of social networks? No matter people’s gender, everybody should be treated equally.

#2 Which results did you hope to reach by creating Genderless Nipples?

We wanted to spark a conversation, get people talking and thinking about it. We are still hoping of a reaction from Instagram, we want to start a friendly open dialogue with them. We want to challenge people’s perception of what is sexual and what actually might not be it at all and in this regard we call on those who wish to contribute to "shave" the nipples before. Of course there are also male nipples with no hair and female nipples with hair, but there is a stereotype about this and by eliminating this discrimination is more difficult for Instagram to detect whether they  men or women’s.

#3 Have you ever had any of inadequacy reports from Instagram or other users because of the content of your post?

We had one of our nipples removed from instagram but ironically turned out to be a male nipple; they couldn't tell the difference themselves -who could?
We had a first account a couple of weeks ago and it got hacked but we did not stop.

 #4 On your page you say that everyone can contribute if 18+...

We hate this age thing but we have to because we got some big complaints and we don’t want to get into any legal issues even though... if a nipple is a non sexual body part then any nipple no matter what age is non sexual. You’re not asking people to be over 18 if they wanna share a picture of their elbow, right? 

#5 Beside that, anonymity is at the base of your project. Do you believe is important?

One day this kind of taboos will no longer exist and anonymity will not be necessary anymore but now is essential and help putting a spotlight on the real issue: the policy of censorship based on gender.

#6 Your account has reached dizzying numbers quickly, you definitely hit the mark. Are you satisfied with the results?

We hope and think we succeed in raising awareness on this topic. Comments are a great source of both feedbacks and satisfaction, people are debating and talking. We get so many direct messages on instagram and emails telling us stories of how they’ve felt with gender discrimination or simply saying thank you; some days we even  get 100 emails with nipple donations. We are incredibly happy with the result and we hope we can keep inspiring people! 

Support ALL genders!