Shona McAndrew’s life size sculptures show subjects in their most personal spaces. One self portrait features McAndrew in bed with her partner, another presents her on the toilet brushing her teeth, others simply stand nude and proud.
McAndrew’s posts are removed under the pretense of nudity but more and more the artist finds her sculptures are scrutinized because they are plus sized bodies. Here we see Instagram’s enforcement of conventional beauty standards in full effect.
The most egregious example is a few years ago when McAndrew’s sculpture Charlotte (which shows female nipples) caused her account to be banned on the same day sports illustrated posted Kate Upton with a wet t-shirt, clearly showing her nipples.
McAndrew’s account is also Shadow Banned. This effects her exposure in many ways. With 28k followers, she usually gets over 100 likes in the first couple minutes of posting an image. A recent post of “Charlotte” only received 1 like in 3 mins (and that was from McAndrew’s boyfriend who was sitting on the couch next to her). This post IS allowed under Instagram’s policy however the algorithm is punishing her in a new creative way by not letting followers see it.
Example of an image that was not deleted but still censored. The image on the left only had 1 like in the first 10 second. It was “Shadowed” by Instagram’s algorithm. The image on the right had almost 2,000 likes after the artist re-posted it with nipple pasties.
NOTES ON THE SHADOW BAN
Instagram admits they remove content which violates their policy, however they don’t acknowledge the term “Shadow Ban”. This is a secretive way in which Instagram limits the exposure of certain users without their awareness or consent. No one knows what the rules are but here are some issues users have run into:
User’s post will not show up in the main stream “discover” page.
User’s posts may not appear in their followers feed.
User’s posts will not appear under any hashtags (if they hashtag an image #contemporaryart, it will not appear while searching that hashtag).
User’s name is harder to search. Often when searching for a user, an approximation of their name will lead you to them. Shadow Banned users must have their name spelled exactly to be found.
Artists have found that using certain words reduces their outreach. In one instance saying work is “For Sale” limited engagement. In another stating #Ihatecancer received fewer likes.
IMAGE CREDIT: “Charlotte”, 72”x38”x32”, Paper mache, Wood, Aluminum Wire, Linen, and Acrylic, 2016-2017, Courtesy Chart Gallery and Shona McAndrew