Tommy Lee posts full-frontal nude to Instagram and everyone’s pointing out the double standard
Instagram slammed for letting Tommy Lee penis pic remain for hours while women and queer artists routinely censored (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
Tommy Lee posted a full-frontal nude picture on Instagram, sparking a fierce debate about censorship and misogyny.
The 59-year-old Mötley Crue drummer shared the extremely NSFW photo on his Instagram page on Thursday (11 August), showing his naked penis in full view.
Hours later it was taken down from Instagram. The photo is, at the time of writing, still viewable behind a “sensitive content” notice on Twitter, which has a more relaxed policy towards nudity than Instagram.
Tommy Lee captioned the selfie, in which he was fully naked: “Ooooopppsss.”
The comment section was full of disbelief, with one user commenting “your drumstick fell out”, and influencer Daniel Mac asking: “How long will this stay up?”
Even Grindr weighed in, commenting on Lee’s photo: “Wrong app, babe”.
A carefully cropped version of Tommy Lee’s ‘d**k pic’ selfie. (Tommy Lee/Instagram)
Despite jokes about the Tommy Lee’s NSFW selfie, many accused Instagram of double standards in allowing the photo to stay on the platform for hours.
The platform has previously been criticised for quickly removing female and LGBTQ+ nudity, with images of women’s nipples routinely removed. Trans men’s nipples have also been censored by Instagram’s nudity rules.
Journalist Hannah Van De Peer commented: “Tommy Lee can get his full d**k out on Instagram but god help women if they show a SEMBLANCE of nipple!”
Tommy Lee can get his full dick out on instagram but god help women if they show a SEMBLANCE of nipple!
— Hannah Van De Peer (@hgvandepeer) August 11, 2022
Another Twitter user said: “I have no issue with Tommy Lee’s full frontal Instagram post. Doesn’t bother me in the slightest and things rarely offend me anyway – but what does offend is that friends have had photos taken down of breastfeeding.”
Others noted how Lee was met with jokes and compliments from the public, with hardly any of the slut-shaming commonly hurled at women.
Jennifer Savin wrote in a Cosmopolitan op-ed: “Could you imagine the stark difference in replies if, say, a fellow female musician decided to share a vulva photo?
“Look at how Kourtney Kardashian was shamed for posting a semi-nude image, with trolls more than happily letting her know they found it unacceptable for her to strip off as a mother (Tommy Lee is a father of two, by the way).”
In 2021, trans and non-binary Instagram users created the hashtag #DeserveToBeHere after a trans model had their images removed, despite otherwise identical images of cis celebrities remaining up.
Trans model Jude Guaitamacchi posted a photo wearing boots and a leather jacket with their hands over their crotch – recreating a photo of Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine – however it was removed by Instagram.
“I am being repeatedly silenced,” Guaitamacchi said in a follow-up post. “I have spent 99 per cent of my life hiding and covering my body, being fully dressed on beaches, feeling excruciating dysphoria. This shoot was one of the most beautiful and empowering experiences of my life.
“This is trans erasure.”
Guaitamacchi’s photo has since been allowed back on Instagram following complaints, and Facebook admitted they “made the wrong call”.
A Facebook spokesperson added: “We are committed to addressing inequity on our platform, and last year created a dedicated team to better understand and address bias in our products.”
PinkNews has contacted Instagram for comment.
