A Vancouver Island photographer whose male boudoir photos were flagged and removed by Facebook says the censorship amounts to a sexist double standard.
The “Dudeoir” photo session posted to Masika May’s photography page were shared more than 100,000 times and reached more than seven million people in just 24 hours before they were taken down by the social media site Wednesday night.
Facebook flagged the photos for nudity, but May said her photography subject was never nude during the session.
“He was wearing tighty whiteys in every photo – they’re not naked,” she said, adding that someone reported the photos to Facebook after she posted them on her page.
“There is one photo in the bath but he’s covered in bubbles and you certainly can’t see anything.”
The photo subject is a longtime friend of May’s, who wanted to do a male boudoir photo session as a humourous surprise for his wife’s birthday.
The photo shoot features the hairy husband in tight underwear lounging in sexy positions on a bed, partially obscured by billowing drapes, gazing whistfully out a window, and hiding in a bubble bath.
The photos were posted on social media Tuesday, when the Langford man presented his partner with a photo book of the final product.
“She just loved it,” May said.
In three years of posting female boudoir photos to Facebook, not a single photo has been flagged for nudity or inappropriate content, the photographer says.
“There is a double standard,” May said.
“I have boudoir photos of women with no tops on and their boobs just covered by their hands, so it’s strange to me that someone found the ‘dudeoir’ photos so offensive that they reported them.”
May says even more concerning is the fact Facebook remove her business page altogether if she’s flagged again.
“It’s frustrating because if it happens again because I’m at risk of my whole photography site being taken down,” she said.
The photographer re-posted the male budoir photos to her site Thursday morning.
