Lissa Rivera is a photographer and curator at the Museum of Sex, NYC. Rivera’s artwork explores gender stereotypes. Her photographs are saturated with narrative, placing the traditional male artist gaze on its head and transforming her gender non-binary partner BJ into a contemporary neo-classical object of desire.
Rivera’s photographs and her curatorial projects have both been censored on social media. Her artwork has been scrutinized for nudity, which is especially poignant because they challenge the exact issues of male gaze that Instagram’s policy encourages (specifically in sexualizing the female body).
Also in her role, as curator of the Museum of Sex, Rivera must be especially careful. Instagram is an essential marketing tool for small businesses and museums are no exception. In addition to sexualizing the female body, Instagram policy reinforces a culture that shames realistic views of sex. It’s policies are confusing because the platform also encourages celebrities to sexualize themselves in hyper stylized “skin-a-max” photoshoots. Below are images from the museum’s feed.
NOTE: when reposting of screen-grabs from previously censored work, Instagram’s algorithm will recognize the tiny blurry thumbnail and count them as a new violation toward the user.
Museum of Sex Instagram, Screenshots, Curated by Lisa Ano
IMAGE CREDIT: Venus (Series: Beautiful Boy), Archival pigment print, 2017, Metamorphosis (Series: Beautiful Boy) , Archival pigment print, 2015, Court (Series: Silence of Spaces), Archival pigment print, 2017. Images Courtesy The Artist, Lissa Rivera.