"Your profile has some issues"
You BET I have issues!!!
I knew this was coming, and it’s actually a miracle that it took so long to catch up with me: Facebook is banning my drawings of naked bodies.
I am flagged as having “some issues”:
The content that was removed was a link to a Minnie-comic, only the second one I am posting on my new Minnie Substack:
Yes, that’s a deliberately provocative title, and this is the image that went with it:
Boobs! NUDITY!
A Facebook AI took the link down in minutes and sent me a warning.
I protested.
Presumably a Real Human looked at it and issued the same verdict. Can’t have any nudity on FB, not even if it’s drawn in a fun cartoony style; not even when it’s part of a comic calling for body-positivity.
Issues? You bet I have issues!
I’m so glad I can post my Minnie comics online once more (I did so years ago, on Tapas, but they changed their guidelines and well, sigh).
Minnie is my most vocal character - she says all the things I would like to say and do. She has been the perfect vessel for me to rant about bodies, relationships, sex and even politics.
It did not start out that way. Minnie chose to remain blissfully unaware of politics and focus on the parties, as shown here in a comic from 2010, where Minnie and Mia visit the cast of Alison Bechdel’s Dykes To Watch Out For:
But gradually, as Real Life changed, politics and social issues crept in and Minnie got angry about them:
But Minnie will never be a fullblown activist like her girlfriend Mia, who was raised by two very politically aware moms:
Minnie just wants to live her life, as we all do. She wants to dance, go to work, go to the bathroom, flirt, have sex, read books.
Minnie’s philosophy: her being queer has never been an issue for her, so why should anyone make a big deal out of it?
THAT’s the message I want to send into the world with my Minnie comics.
These comics are fun, relatable (even if you’re non-queer, non-white and non-female; because guess what, Minnie is a person, just like you!), sometimes sexy, sometimes political - always positive and looking for the light.
Please Substack, don’t “change your guidelines” in the face of the current politics!
We all just want to live our lives according to what is “normal” to ourselves, so let’s just show the “issues” for what they are: someone’s normal life.
I hope Minnie has found a good home here, and invite you to visit her and her friends:
I'm proud of you for offending Facebook. If Facebook doesn't approve of cartoon nude women drawn by women, then I don't approve of Facebook. Was Facebook not breast fed long enough? Your comics are just about the most wholesome good-hearted artwork possible. So I say, fuck em.
Ik zou eerder denken dat Facebook issues heeft, maar goed.