Through Her Eyes Part IV: Beauty Queens in the Surreal Realm

Editor's Note:

In the last chapter of our visual manifesto, we asked what happens when the female nude—long painted, posed, and pixelated by male hands—finally looks back. 

Through the eyes of feminist artists, queer muses, and erotic outcasts, we witnessed the nude reclaim her story. But what about now—when feminism itself is filtered through platforms owned, moderated, and monetized by men? 

What does erotic resistance look like in the age of surveillance, shadowbans, and soft-porn selfies?

Archives d'Éros, Auguste Belloc. Public domain photograph of 19th-century erotic portrait. Credits Picryl.com

Joan Semmel, Mythologies and Me,1976. Credits Joan Semmel Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York

We’re no longer just staring at Venus through cracked marble. We’re scrolling, swiping, and reshaping her—one filtered thirst trap, curated nude, or subversive OnlyFans drop at a time. 

Welcome to the surreal new era of algorithmic erotica, where the muse is the artist, and the naked body is both weapon and wound.

Painted Desert Rainbow, 1974 acrylic on canvas by Martha Edelheit,  credits Artnet

Arches Nat’l Park, 1974-75 acrylic on canvas by Martha Edelheit,  credits Artsy Net

The Nude, Reprogrammed

What is erotic today depends on who’s watching—and who’s getting deleted. From Victorian ankles to geisha necklines, eroticism is always in drag, always in disguise. 

Artist Martha Edelheit, now 93 and as bold as ever, defines it not by breasts or genitals, but by warmth, play, and consent. Her legacy—alongside Joan Semmel, Tom of Finland, Paul Cadmus—echoes in the provocative curation of Erotic City, a New York exhibition tracing radical eroticism from the 1950s to now.

Black Sand Beach 2, Photography by Shawna Ankenbrandt. Credits Saatchi Art Austria

J x 2, 1971 acrylic on canvas by Martha Edelheit, Eric Firestone Gallery East Hampton, New York Credits Artsy Net

In these works, nudity isn’t shock. It’s invitation—to touch, tease, consent, and reclaim. Edelheit reminds us: “Erotica digresses. It arouses without harming.” But try telling that to the algorithm.

Courtney Love 2023, photo by Hedi Slimane

Filtered Out: Feminism vs. the Algorithm. #Nipplegate - The War That Shouldn't Be

There’s a war on nipples, and Instagram’s winning. What began as playful rebellion—topless flowers in NYC, #FreeTheNipple protests, erotic selfies as self-authorship—has collided head-on with shadowbans, double standards, and fatphobic, racist censorship. 

What’s truly shocking in the age of algorithmic nudity isn’t how much we see—it’s what gets censored. The nipple, long free in ancient frescoes, Renaissance portraiture, and royal court fashion, is now flagged, filtered, and shadowbanned.

Just ask the #RealAgnes: La Dame de beauté Agnes Sorel, the 15th-century mistress of Charles VII, famously wore gowns with one breast intentionally exposed, posing as Virgo lactans, —because power, beauty, and erotic audacity were part of her courtly influence. If she had an Insta today? Suspended. Labeled for "nudity."

Over a single breast bagatelle. The same one that once graced oil paintings, tapestries, and royal halls.

Jean Fouquet, close up of Agnès Sorel depicted as Virgo lactans (The nursing Virgin) after the Virgin of Antwerp, ca 1452-1455. Chateau de Loches, France. Credits Meisterdrucke

Flor Garduño, Torsos, Mexico 1999 Silver Gelatin Photograph

What changed? Not the breast. Just the platform—and the gatekeepers behind it.

Who gets to be erotic online?

 Curves? Suspicious.

 Color? Monitored.

 Nipples? Male: fine. Female: flagged.

 Nonbinary? Not even in the backend settings.

Naomi Campbell was featured on the cover of Lui Magazine, 2015 issue. The cover story was photographed by Luigi & Iango

In 2014, Scout Willis, daughter of Bruce and Demi, topless flower-shopping through NYC for #FreeTheNipple Insta-movement, boycotted Instagram and launched an anonymous protest account—pop royalty with punk ethics. 

In 2015, Naomi Campbell posts a topless photo of herself from a Garage Magazine shoot and hashtags it #FreeTheNipple. Instagram promptly removes the post.

Supermodel and host Chrissy Teigen shared a topless snap on Instagram to promote her appearance in W magazine’s social media sirens shoot by Marcus Piggott & Mert Alas in 2015, but it was  taken down. Twice. She continues to post the image as a sketch or coloured pencil crosshatch drawing or oil painting, and it is removed each time.

As activist artists and sex-positive creators push boundaries, platforms push back. The result? A surreal battleground where the right to show yourself is political. The body is still censored, still commodified—but now with hashtags, terms of service, and algorithmic shame. 

Paige Strabala@paigestrabala, Venus as a pearl @scoutlaruewillis Photos shared by Scout Willis on Instagram, 2024  

Join Premium now and check out the deluxe version of the article including:

• Self-Sexualization: Empowerment or Echo Chamber?
• Digital Feminism & Erotic Publicity: The New Icons and Their Scandals\
• FEMINIST ICONS OF EROTIC MODERNISM. The Erotic Archive We Were Never Taught
• Erotic Art as Persona Politics. Heroines of the New Flesh
• Photographic Portraits of Power: From Sane Seven to Janashvili      
• Too Queer, Too Hairy: Feminist Outcasts, Erotic Rebels
• Side Salad: Glossary of the Surreal-Erotic Era 
• Final Flash: Can Eroticism Be Democratic?
• 50+ additional pics
• and MUCH more...!!

Click HERE for the first part of the "Through Her Eyes" series

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