Author : Fiona Woollard , Professor of Philosophy , University of Southampton

This article was published in The Conversation in March 2024 https :// theconversation . com / social-media-continues-to-censor-womens-healthposts-as-pornography-and-it-may-cause-serious-harm-224200

Global Health Asia-Pacific is republishing it under Creative Commons licence .

Women ’ s bodies are often perceived as sexual , regardless of circumstances .

Well , on social media , at least , the difference seems to be that women ’ s nipples and pubic hair are considered pornographic and subject to censorship � no matter what the context . Even if it ’ s a social media post about health issues , such as periods and breast cancer .

Over the last few years , there have been numerous reports of censorship of women ’ s posts about issues from sexual health to breastfeeding and cesarean sections .

This is sad , but not surprising : women ’ s bodies are often perceived as sexual , regardless of circumstances .

Breast campaigns classified as porn There ’ s something particularly shocking about treating a breast cancer awareness campaign as pornography . Think about how the woman sees her breast in that moment . She is worried that she may have a life threatening disease . She is concerned about her health .

The labelling her image as pornography overrides the woman ’ s own view of her body and replaces it with an outsider ’ s view . It treats her body as an object for the sexual pleasure of the viewer . Feminists call this sexual objectification .

In the case of the breast cancer awareness campaign , the clash between the woman ’ s perspective of her body and pornography classification is stark . This makes it easier to see

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