Potential reason behind term "female-presenting nipples" in Tumblr ban announcement

NOTE: For all latest, breaking news related to Tumblr adult content ban as well as its alternatives, head here.

Update (December 09):

We have stumbled upon two more platforms – Explicitr and Suffra – that are also pitching themselves as Tumblr alternatives. More info on them here.

Update (October 08):

Owl pics? Here’s how Tumblr censor bots are being fooled.

Update (December 07):

BREAKING: A secret new Tumblr alternative might be in offering. Yes, screenshots detailing some features of the new platform have been shared by someone who says they received them from an “anonymous source”. For details, head here.

Update (October 06):

Want to move Tumblr blog to another platform? Here’s how to export data.

Update (December 05):

Tumblr users are planning a 24 hour ‘log off’ protest against the company’s recently announced porn ban, but will it help? Read our latest coverage by heading here.

Originally story follows:

As if Tumblr’s announcement to completely ban adult/explicit/NSFW content (save for some exceptions) wasn’t enough of a nasty surprise already, an uproar of sorts has broken out on social media – especially Twitter – over the use of the term “female-presenting nipples” in the company’s official announcement.

Here’s the excerpt from the announcement where this term comes for the first time:

Adult content primarily includes photos, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples, and any content—including photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations—that depicts sex acts

People are taking to social media to condemn the use of this term, calling it a sexist move by the company. Understandably, some are even confused as to what this term actually means.

https://twitter.com/Lizzieandstuff/status/1069706977721237504

https://twitter.com/NaturallyLexi27/status/1069662462734155776

https://twitter.com/dondrapershadow/status/1069652318298271749

Then there are those, who took no time to make fun of the term. Take a look: 1,2,3,4,5.

Frankly, even we are confused what that term exactly means, and so do some other journalists. But we were able to spot something which we feel could be a potential reason why Tumblr went for such a term.

Leaving aside the debate on why the ban is only on female nipples and not male nipples, the bone of contention here is the use of the word ‘presenting’. A Twitter user shed some light on the matter by saying:

i definitely feel like they added “presenting” following @raindovemodel going head to head with Instagram over gender identity

https://twitter.com/babesapienne/status/1069837697831788544

To which Rain Dove (whose Twitter bio describes them as Gender Capitalist- in fashion, film and activism) replied in affirmative.

Yes they did. Everyone freaked out at the loophole which resulted in IG being forced to allow me to keep up my topless photos or risk breaking the user agreement contract I had entered into with them

To give you some context, earlier this year, after Instagram – which doesn’t allow photos of female nipples – removed a topless photo Rain Dove shared through their account, the activist called out the company for breaching the user agreement saying they are not female.

Following which, when Rain re-shared the same photo and it was reported to Instagram again, the company refused to take action saying it does not violate Instagram’s community guidelines.

So it’s possible that Tumblr used the term ‘female-presenting nipples’ in order to avoid any such back clash. Of course, there could be a completely different reason as well. We’ll let you know as and when we have more clarity on the matter.

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