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Students from the Warwick women’s rowing team decided to strip naked for charity — and found themselves held up to a double standard.

“It is a charity calendar – how can it be porn?”
Sophie Bell, Warwick University studentOn top of that, Facebook banned the group’s page citing “inappropriate content” — but the Facebook account for the male rower’s charity calendar hasn’t been deleted and their page is the same as ours. It is borderline sexism.”

Following in the tradition of Warwick’s men’s rowing team, who have been selling naked calendars since 2009, the women’s rowing team shot their first nude calendar in 2013 to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support and they created quite a splash.

Facebook page had received numerous complaints regarding images from the 2013 calendar before the page was temporarily deleted this week. We at STC and many of you can relate as you cannot please everyone and there will always be that someone who will find your images inappropriate. The girls’ bodies are strategically covered and it’s clear they have worked hard, are proud of their accomplishments, and they should be supported for their efforts.

“The photographs we feel are an accurate representation of an athletic female body, something to be celebrated and not shunned, says rower Frankie Salzano. The girls are tastefully covered up and our calendar has been praised for [that],” recent Warwick graduate Hettie Reed told HuffPost UK. “The photos are no different from the holiday snaps of men and women that appear on everyone’s Facebook feeds.”

After receiving hundreds of messages from supporters of the Warwick team, Facebook overturned the ban on the page early Friday morning. A post on the updated page reads:

We at STC think the images are tastefully done with a classic feel and they tell a story instead of just being pretty pictures. What do you think? You never know when you might need some rowing lessons!

 [Warwick rowing club, HuffPost]

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