Facebook, the nipple, and the 17th century

(photo courtesy of survivor.net)

Peter Paul Rubens was an enormously successful Flemish painter who lived at the end of the 16th and the first half of the 17th century. Like all men, he was fascinated by women. At the time, the ideal of beauty was slightly different from what we know today. Shapes were rounder, fuller, up to a level that in our image-obsessed society, we might call obese.
Flash forward to the 21st century. The age of freedom. Freedom from religious restrictions, freedom from absolutist monarchs, from the tyranny of one class over the other.
Yet, Rubens's paintings of full-bodied nude women were not banned in the 17th century. They were banned in the 21st. By Facebook.
I'm  not joking, but over the past few years, Belgians were outraged that the paintings of one of their greatest artists were banned, from Facebook, because they were showing too much skin. 17th century skin.
It is outrageous and silly at the same time that in a modern age, an age where Brigitte Bardot and Kim Kardashian are icons, when nudity in advertising and movies and at parties is all around us, that a place like Facebook should still hang on to Victorian concepts of nudity.
As the protesters in the picture - and they are breast cancer activists, not strippers or porn stars - rightly pointed out, the human body is nothing to be ashamed of, and should not be kept hidden at all costs.
Yes, there is a place and a style for everything, and nudity can be disrespectful in some instances. But overall, the nipple is an innocent part of the body.
Forty years ago, people went topless on Mediterranean beaches, a fashion which later expanded and became completely normal in the rest of Europe. Slowly, US courts are coming around to approving more generous rules in favor of topless women.
As a naturist, I hope I can see the day when nudity is acceptable anywhere in the world, anytime, any place. I know I'm being overoptimistic, because in some parts of the world, people still get killed for far less, but the trend toward more tolerance for nudity should be applauded.
And that's why every inch of progress counts: from a woman daring to go topless on a beach in a country where it is not yet allowed, to the breast cancer victims speaking out and actually being heard by Facebook, to the Free the Nipple campaigners. None of them might be naturists, but they all help with our common aim: making social non-sexual nudity acceptable around the world.