EDGEWATER — A company dedicated to raising money for breast health and challenging the stigma of a woman's nipple was banned from Instagram over an animated male nipple on a bikini top, owners said.
When Michelle Lytle, owner and creator of The TaTa Top, went to log in to her company's Instagram Friday, something unusual happened: her page had been removed for violating the site's rules, she told DNAinfo Friday.
The TaTa Top consists mainly of a line of flesh-colored bikini tops that depict male nipples with the intention of drawing attention to nudity laws that ban women from going topless, while raising money for charities and women's organizations through its sales.
Instagram bans "content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks," as well as nipples on women, though it does allow for men's bare chests and photos of breastfeeding, as well as "nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures."
Lytle, who started the company with her wife Robyn, said she was "extremely surprised" that Instagram had removed the brand's page and was unfairly targeting her.
"We very clearly stated on our bio that there was absolutely no nudity in any of the photos," Lytle said. "This is a cartoon representation of a male nipple."
Instagram did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The TaTa Top began as a way to protest local laws that prevented women from going topless at Chicago's beaches, but Michelle and her wife Robyn knew they would have to be clever on how they designed the product.
Chicago municipal code bans women from showing "any portion of the breast at or below the upper edge of the areola," an indecent exposure law that can carry fines of $100 to $500 for each offense.
Because the law allows for men to publicly expose their nipples, the TaTa Top is billed as a bikini top that shows male nipples.
On occasion, Instagram has removed some images from the TaTa Top's page in the past, such as pictures of breastfeeding, although that is allowed under Instagram's own rules.
Until now, however, her page has never been inaccessible. Before it's removal it had about 26,000 followers, Lytle said.
"Instagram is flooded with pornography, violent messages, violent images, and worse but their priority is deleting an account that sells bikini tops with cartoon nipples on them," Lytle said.
In order to get away with being able to wear the product in public, it's billed as depicting men's nipples, which are legally allowed to be exposed. [Michelle Lytle Photography]
There's also been little recourse for Lytle to explain the situation to Instagram, she said. A button that prompts users to "learn more" about why an account was removed led Lytle back to the initial login, which, without an active account, was a dead end.
The TaTa Top's page removal is also a blow to the site's charity partnerships of the month, Keep A Breast and Chicago Women's Health Center, Lytle said.
When the account had been taken down, sales from the bikini top had raised nearly $700 for the groups. Of those sales, about 80 percent had come to the top's website via a link on its Instagram page.
One of the company's main initiatives is to work with groups that support an array of women and other wearers, like breast cancer survivors, breastfeeding advocates and people challenging traditional notions of gender.
"It is beyond belief that they would think it would be appropriate to remove a page that raises money for women's causes — our top customers are mothers and breast cancer survivors," Lytle said. "By removing our page, they are cutting off sales from that platform and reducing the amount of money we can raise for our partnered charities."
Instagram has been criticized for having inconsistency and double-standards when it comes to censoring content, in particular women's bodies.
"Instagram has a long history of censoring women," Lytle said.
In 2015, the site took down a photo of a breast cancer survivor's tattooed chest after she'd received a mastectomy. The site also faced significant online backlash after removing a picture of a "curvy" woman who took a shot of herself after trying on a pair of pants in a fitting room was removed for being "inappropriate" in March.
Now, Lytle said she's looking for help in getting her account reinstated so her company can continue raising money.
Since 2014, the bikini line has raised over $37,000 for women's organizations.
