Stripped Down

Stripped Down

On my birthday last Thursday I posted a photo I truly loved, and it happened to get reported and deleted for “sexual content”. This was the photo by Jenn Petty:

While there are numerous photos on the app that I feel are way more sexual photos than mine was, mine was removed with the lingering threat that “if it happens again your account will be deleted”. Just slightly terrifying.

I had no idea I was breaking the content rules, I had seen so many photos similar to mine. I genuinely had no idea. Which makes me afraid moving forward… what if I post another photo that breaks the policy and I’m unaware and then POOF my page just disappears into oblivion? Just like that this community I have been building would be gone. It is a devastating thought.

Don’t get me wrong, I would survive without Instagram. Maybe even thrive. But I would have it taken from me without my knowledge or choice and that is very anxiety inducing.

I love being creative with my photos. I love stripping down. This truly is empowering to ME. And now I’m afraid to embrace my full creativity on the app and that’s sad. But I realized that can’t be taken away from me here, on my own site. So I will be using this outlet to it’s full extent.

I took these photos with my friend Lora Wagener this past weekend in Santa Cruz CA - and they’re some of my absolute favorite photos to date. Truly magical in my opinion. I hope you enjoy seeing the content we created here, within this blog, within this safe space - even if it doesn’t hit the squares on my Instagram feed.