Tumblr is bringing back the female-presenting nipple, allowing the formerly forbidden cherrilets as well as other flavours of nudity to return to the platform. It's an enticing lure to both former and potential new users, and fortuitous timing considering the currently proposed mass exodus from Twitter prompted by Elon Musk's takeover.
Though Tumblr had a thriving NSFW community in its heyday, its 2018 ban on adult content gutted the blogging platform and led to a drastic drop in traffic of nearly 30 percent. Today's announcement appears to be trying to undo some of that damage, and re-establish Tumblr as a sex-positive place where nudity is allowed and embraced.
"We now welcome a broader range of expression, creativity, and art on Tumblr, including content depicting the human form (yes, that includes the naked human form)," Tumblr said in a post on its staff blog(opens in a new tab).
"So, even if your creations contain nudity, mature subject matter(opens in a new tab), or sexual themes, you can now share them on Tumblr using the appropriate Community Label(opens in a new tab) so that everyone remains in control of the types of content they see on their dash."
Introduced in September, Community Labels allow Tumblr users to mark their content as depicting drug and alcohol addiction, violence, or sexual themes — including "erotic writing or imagery."
"Nudity and other kinds of adult material are generally welcome," reads Tumblr's Community Guidelines,(opens in a new tab) newly updated today. "We’re not here to judge your art, we just ask that you add a Community Label to your mature content so that people can choose to filter it out of their Dashboard if they prefer."
This doesn't mean Tumblr is letting users go balls to the wall on posting porn. "Visual depictions of sexually explicit acts" as well as "content with an overt focus on genitalia" are still firmly forbidden, so any actual action will have to remain implicit. However, the platform does make an exception for "historically significant" images of people going at it, such as those you might find in a "mainstream museum," as long as the appropriate Community Label has been applied.
This pass may not always extend to historically significant art depicting bestiality, such as 1814 Japanese block print The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife or an ancient Roman statue of the god Pan with a goat(opens in a new tab). Tumblr's Community Guidelines still explicitly prohibit bestiality under "violent content and threats, gore and mutilation."
"Instances that fall outside of our specific guidelines are reviewed individually by our team, who evaluates the context surrounding how such content is used," a Tumblr spokesperson said when reached by Mashable for clarification.
Tumblr has gained renewed attention recently due to Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter. Users critical of Musk's proposed changes have compared his takeover to the disastrous downfall of Tumblr after Yahoo's $1.1 billion acquisition in 2013. Enacting wildly unpopular changes such as the infamous porn ban, Yahoo and its eventual parent Verizon drastically slashed Tumblr's value as alienated users fled the formerly popular platform in droves. Current owner Automattic snapped Tumblr up six years later for just $3 million.
Yet despite Tumblr's fall from grace, the even greater revulsion at Musk's plans for Twitter have some users proposing a return to the late 2000s' blogging platform of choice. As such, Tumblr's revival of the female-presenting nipple may be just the stimulation needed to make some dig up their old accounts.
Tumblr's new nudity decree isn't quite a return to its golden age of boobs, butts, and blogs. According to CEO Matt Mullenweg(opens in a new tab), reviving Tumblr's previous "go nuts, show nuts" mantra simply isn't feasible due to how app stores', credit card companies', and governments(opens in a new tab)' attitudes toward adult content have changed since it was founded in 2007.
Still, it's undeniably a firm step closer to the Tumblr of yore, when the memes were bountiful and the nipples free — in every sense of the word.
UPDATE: Nov. 8, 2022, 10:35 a.m. AEDT This article has been updated with comment from Tumblr.
