Sneaking Female Curves Through Instagram's Ban 1 Favorite 

Practitioner: 

Date: 

Jan 1 2016

Location: 

Hong Kong

It all began during Claudia's final art project at the London College of Communication, where she delved into the issue of "sexual objectification of women," a topic close to her heart as she navigated her womanhood.

Her initial series, "Scenery," emerged in 2016, with "Birds Flying To The Moon" marking its inception. However, when she posted the imagery on Instagram, it was promptly censored and removed for violating community guidelines—deemed too sexually explicit and harmful. Undeterred, Claudia reposted the image with two birds added, now titled “Birds Flying To The Moon,” which was approved. This adaptation birthed the series, challenging media censorship and questioning societal norms in our hyper-sexualized world where soft-porn imagery was accessible.

Since then, Claudia's work has continued to confront societal norms surrounding women's sexuality and gender roles through cheeky and thought-provoking illustrations. With meticulous attention to detail and a playful approach, her art serves as a reflection of womanhood and personal experiences. From dissecting modern dating culture to exploring sexuality and the biological clock, Claudia's illustrations aim to provoke conversation and challenge perceptions.

Cover photo from:
"Time Limits & Fertility" - Personal Project, 2024
Is there ever a right time to have a baby?
How many eggs does a chicken have in a lifetime?

Supportive photo from:
"Shame Shame" - Personal Project, 2019
“Shame Shame” series is a continuation of the “Scenery” series that questions our societal views of the human body and sexuality. Nudity is taboo, yet soft-porn imagery is everywhere. Sexualisation is openly abundant in our society, yet media censorship tells us our bodies are indecent - “Our bodies are shameful, we have to hide!” When I started my illustration career, Instagram censored my works showing female body parts even though the style was far from explicit. I then played with the boundaries of the censorship algorithm, adding flying. birds or sceneries into the images, finding these details would keep the post from being deleted. My creative practice has become a process of reclaiming ownership of my own sexuality.

External sources: 

https://www.claudiachanhoi.com/info
https://theartgorgeous.com/female-curves-sneak-instagrams-ban/
Posted by f.abbado on Mar 11 2025

Staff rating: 

0

Effectiveness

How does this project help?

Amplifies (issue or campaign)Brings public and political attention to an issue or campaign.  Can include prefigurative action, making the invisible visible.
Shifts (culture)Shifts the cultural landscape in order to imagine and enable change.

Timeframe For change

This project seems to be part of a campaign with a clear short-term goal. Short-term goals tend to be things like: create or repeal a law; get a President impeached; make the city administration repair a sidewalk. A campaign with a short-term goal needs a clear theory of change, complete with targets that can be cajoled or pressured into effecting the goal.
Bypass censorship laws governing instagram and other social media outlets, which forbade the expressing of female forms in any way. This work could be seen as falling into the #FreeTheNipple campaign that aimed to show the paradoxes of instagram imposing a ban on "female" nipples, whilst allowing for "men" to post pictures with their chest bare.
This project seems to be part of a campaign with a clear long-term goal. Long-term goals tend to be things like: end racism; end homophobia; make the sun stand still in the sky. A campaign with a long-term goal also needs to have some kind of theory of change.
The longer-goal falls into the dismantling of the patriarchial system and the feelings of shame induced in many societies by politics and religion around sexuality and gender.

Notes

The art is witty, funny and inventive, however it speaks to broader societal constructs which may be relateable only for some (ie. people who access the online social realm).