Photo by R. McGinley, Censored by FB

This is the image that got comic book legend, Wendy Pini, suspended from Facebook for 24 hours today. Its not even her art!

This morning Wendy Pini went to check into her Facebook account and found that she has been suspended for 24 hours due to a complaint about an image she posted yesterday of a nude woman drapped in a live wolf. (It’s a beautiful image.) Thanks to one of her fans, the image owner is known.

“Hi Wendy, it was my profile pic that caught your eye, he’s one of my favourite photographers, his name is Robert Mcginley, if you want to know more, the scratches are fake and part of a series of photos with nudes and other animals, and it isn’t a coyote, it’s a wolf: http://ryanmcginley.com/” -Mercedes Yrayzoz

So why did Facebook suspend Pini for an image that someone else has not only used on Facebook, but WAS NOT suspended for?

Bunchh censored by FB

Her fans are not at all happy. The Facebook page “Save Bunchh’s Boobs” has been very busy with outraged fans that see nothing wrong with the image or the content. Pini thinks she may have a stalker that is out to ruin her/her business. Posting an image of her character Bunchh from Masque of the Red Death, a hermaphrodite with blue skin, was her first “offense”.

According to  Steve Nunez, personal friend of Pini: “You know, this is stupid… I mean, Facebook’s idea of censoring an image, is to remove it, and then to make sure the person never uses their freedom of speech again, we’ll remove them too….Facebook says if she is caught in violation again., they will take further action and she will be suspended, and her account locked.”

On  personal level, this bothers me so much.

1. I’m a woman that believes there is nothing offensive or disgusting about the human body. We all have one. We all know how it looks and what it does. If the human body bothers you, don’t look. Your head turns the other way, ya know.

2. Stalking someone is not cool. Especially if you are doing it just to get someone into trouble. You make the victim paranoid and frightened. Don’t stalk, its creepy.

3. Who doesn’t like boobs?! WTF? I have been greeted by gay male friends that say hi to my boobs before they say hi to me. Straight men like boobs. Gay women like boobs. Babies like boobs. Animals like boobs. EVERYONE LIKES BOOBS!!! If you don’t like boobs, something is wrong with you. Boobs are awesome.

4. As a female nude model for art classes, I’d feel horrible if someone said they found my body to be “offensive”. How dare they?! I’ve spent most of my life coming to acceptance with my own body image to the point where I can look at myself nude in a mirror now without crying, pose nude in front of a class of strangers, to let my partner see me nekkid before we make love. They have no clue what strength it takes to pose nude, especially for photos. How dare they be offended by someone brave enough to pose nude?

Artist Wendy Pini

5. I worry for Wendy. She is paranoid about what she can/can’t post to her fans any longer. No artist should have to worry about this. No artist should ever have to be scared of showing their art or the art of others’. Her current ElfQuest endeavor with Boingboing.net includes scenes of  a human mother giving birth. Will this be offensive to someone? Facebook will, no doubt, have issues with it since they seem to not like boobs. Just see how many breastfeeding pictures they censor because of boobs. Its not right. Its not okay. and on top of all of this, think of how stressed out this woman is! Pini is a nice woman with loads of talent and such a sweet demeanor, you can’t even imagine her “trying” to offend someone. She’s just not that type of person. *BIG BOOBIE HUGS FOR WENDY*

Wendy Pini’s friends and fans have rallied behind her. Facebook does not have an Appeals process if you have a complaint about you. This needs change. If Wendy’s account is deleted, not only will many of her fans lose contact with her, but this will hurt her business, her reputation, and her personally.

Pini friend, Sonny Strait, posted this for Wendy to her fans:

Since Wendy has received a second warning she has been suspended from facebook for 24 hours. So I said just tell me what you want to say on this issue and I’ll post it you profile page. Here’s Wendy’s words, “This story is no longer about the arbitrary censoring of an image that may or may not be fit for public consumption. This story is now about what can happen to any of us when someone targets us with a specific purpose of interfering with us and ultimately trying to get us taken down. I am convinced that the same person who reported Bunchh reported this.”

Video by Steve Nunez

You can meet Wendy and her friends (sans Me):

Wendy Pini, Sonny Strait, and Warky T. Chocobo (Steve Nunez) Live in Reno, Nevada at SNAFUCON. September 28-30

Read Boingboing.net’s response to this HERE.

Related articles

• Pini’s Bunchh Censored by Facebook (lezgetreal.com)
• Pini’s Unexpected “Boob-Ha-Ha” Over Bunchh’s Body (lezgetreal.com)
• Join the “Save Bunchh’s Boobs” Protest: We Have T-shirts! (lezgetreal.com)
• Wendy Pini’s Bunchh & Her Inspiration (lezgetreal.com)
• Save Bunchh’s Boobs: The Protest That Facebook Couldn’t Stop (lezgetreal.com)
• “Masque of the Red Death” Creator Pini (& 20+ Speakers) @ SDCC’s 25th “Gays in Comics” Panel (lezgetreal.com)
• ElfQuest’s Final Quest Premiers @ BoingBoing.net (lezgetreal.com)