December 20, 2015
Dear Mr. Zuckerberg,
I’m writing to you to discuss the suspension the Facebook account of a member of our organization, Beth Fairchild. Beth’s account was recently suspended because she posted a picture of an areola tattoo that she performed on a woman who has been through a mastectomy with reconstruction. Beth is an important member of our organization, MET UP, whose mission is to change the landscape of metastatic cancer through direct action.
Like many of our members, myself included, Beth has metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, and is incurable. Everyone with metastatic breast cancer will die of or with their disease, including Beth. And yet, despite this devastating diagnosis, Beth has decided to spend the time she has left being a fierce advocate for women who have breast cancer, including using her amazing skills as a tattoo artist to help women who have been through breast reconstruction.
Many people don’t realize that breast reconstruction after a mastectomy is nothing like breast augmentation done on women without cancer. In a mastectomy, the entire breast is removed, including the nipple. In order to rebuild the breast, doctors can build a nipple with tissue, although it will never feel like the removed nipple because it no longer has any nerves in it. And after a surgeon builds a nipple, it has no areola. In order to have the nipple look like the one that was removed, a tattoo artist like Beth must tattoo an areola on/around the rebuilt nipple. In addition, some women can’t or don’t have the nipple rebuilt, and instead have a 3-D areola tattoo, like the one Beth created and shared in the photo.
Facebook has standards for determining when nipples can be shown in photos shared on your site. Your community standard states, “We also restrict some images of female breasts if they include the nipple, but we always allow photos of women actively engaged in breastfeeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring.” The photo that Beth shared clearly shows a mastectomy scar at the top of the breast. And yet, your staff have suspended Beth’s account because she has been accused of violating the community standards–standards that explicitly allow this photo to be shared. The photo that Beth shared is at the bottom of this letter.
Those of us in the breast cancer community have found ourselves repeatedly targeted by people reporting post-mastectomy photos. This is consistent with the ongoing sexualization of our disease–a disease that will take Beth’s life, and mine. That our cancer involves our breast does not make pictures of our scars and our reconstruction pornography, any more than photos of people with other amputations is pornographic. It has become exhausting having to repeatedly defend the posting of such photos, and to be blunt, your staff seems to have a difficult time following your standard that such photos will “always” be allowed. Indeed, Beth is not the first woman to share such a photo whose account has been suspended.
And so, I’m writing with two requests: that Beth’s account be reinstated, since she clearly has not violated Facebook’s community standards; and that you train your staff to recognize a post-mastectomy photo, so that this harassment from your users of women recovering from a mastectomy will finally end. I await your response to my requests.
Sincerely,
Beth Caldwell
Co-Founder, MET UP
Shame on FB. I always show off my new preventive mastectomy boobs in certain Brca groups and no one took down my pictures. You try to take it down Mr Zuckerman and j will write and complain to the whole world about this nonsense. And we should get advocate groups to overthrow his decisions in upset about this.
Thank you for educating me and others ignorant of post-mastectomy issues. Shame on FB. So many inappropriate sexual posts/pics go undetected it enrages me that a post that can open up people’s eyes to something serious and sensitive is targeted. I try to catch all your posts and read your passionate advocacy.
Censorship is supposed to be about common decency… there isnt anything offensive about a woman retaining her dignity in anyway she chooses whatever the case may be. I support you Beth.
Thats is awesome u are a amazing person keep it up one day at a time
I fully support both Beth’s and I find the double standards of misogyny in what is deemed acceptable just laughable. Breasts of all kinds are beautiful, natural and I love to see them celebrated and cherished in this way.
It’s a shame our society overreacts at the sight of a breast or a tattoo. Women need to feel normal and whole again after such terrible wounds. By providing the services that Beth provides is part of healing. Why should they feel ashamed to show what is simply a part of their body? For that matter, why should breast feeding women feel shamed and hide what is a fact of nature. There is beauty all around us and being denied to show it serves no one. Get with the times and stop being so close-minded, people.
Good job – looking forward to seeing the response!
I m Ekant frm india. Great job..a salute to beth fair child.my mother was also a patient of metastatic cancer she is no.more.bt I knw the pain of ladies whose breast surgery was done bcz of cancer.ladies also looses their self confidence after having breast surgery.my mother was really beautiful she lost her self esteem as well after the breast removal.its a great job done by beth tatoo artist by giving them a beautiful niple tattoo to those ladies who r breast cancer patient.the pain a metastatic patient bears is unbearable.I really salute from the core of my heart beth and thank u so much for making those ladies happy who lost their self esteem.u r a wonderful person I would say.
I don’t have cancer, but people I love do. I am amazed at how ignorant I was to the fullness of this disease. It is important that you remain vigilant, and open letters like this one (clear, informed and respectful) are an important step in educating gate keepers of information.
I’m glad you wrote this. Just last week, I had a post removed and blocked because it showed pictures of an implant reconstruction and a FLAP Tram reconstruction. Both showed pictures of nipples but clearly also showed scarring. So, the rule of showing “breastfeeding” or “post-mastectomy scarring” is false because mine was targeted. You can see my open letter to Facebook. Unfortunately, it was not shared much on Facebook but I’d still like to change that. https://littlebsbigc.wordpress.com/2015/12/12/asking-a-favor-from-the-blogging-community/
And here is the post that was blocked. https://littlebsbigc.wordpress.com/2015/12/12/decisions-decisions/
Carrie, this is so frustrating. I hate that this happened to you too.
Thanks, and besides writing these letters, I’m not sure what we can do about it.
Well said Beth, as always. Thank you for sharing! I’ll be looking for this type of tattoo service sometime next year. That’s outrageous that she was shut down.
Rebecca Timlin-scalera recently posted…May the Force be with You…