‘I’m fuming that Instagram banned my bootylicious bodybuilding pics – it’s oppression’
A former secondary school maths teacher says her rights are being violated because she is being punished for posting bikini pictures on social media.
Louise Roberts has called it the “modern oppression of women” and said her livelihood is being put at risk.
The bodybuilder and racy model said Instagram is forcing her to remove “tame content” from her page by recommending she deletes certain posts.
READ MORE: ‘I went from the foodbank to earning £500k on OnlyFans – the gym saved my life’
Speaking with Daily Star, she said: “It is actually a huge issue among most women on Instagram at the moment and we’re being held ransom.
(Image: Louise Roberts)
“Females are being over sexualised, it feels like a regression of equality and oppression of women in 2023. It feels like you’re being penalised for being too feminine and showing curves.
“My page is over 21 but I still can’t post anything showing any kind of ass cheek. I’m a bodybuilder and I’m not allowed to show my body or show my curves or glute definition.
“I’ve had to delete multiple posts where I am literally just standing facing away from the camera in a bikini. This is across the board for all women and we are actually regressing.
“This is 2023 but it feels like we’re going back to the age of side saddling on a horse. It is 100% oppression of women in modern society.
“I do feel this is a major issue. Literally all women that I know on the platform are suffering from this control. They have us over a barrel.”
(Image: Louise Roberts)
Louise, 40, from Essex, ditched the classroom when the first lockdown hit and has been a fitness model ever since.
She also started selling content on OnlyFans and her net growth soon reached half a million pounds – having relied on a foodbank just weeks before she signed up to it.
But she now fears she could be deplatformed if Instagram continues to “censor” her account.
And despite using her Insta to attract followers to her OnlyFans, she also uses it to inspire women who are in a dark place like she was after turning 30.
She said: “I started my fitness journey in my mid 30s and have around 50,000 women who follow my Instagram.
(Image: Louise Roberts)
“I went through a midlife crisis where I didn’t love my body, I felt invisible and I lacked confidence. But I am 40 now and I feel like I have a powerful image to inspire other women who maybe felt how I felt in my 30s.
“When I mention my age and how I started later in life, I get a lot of women saying how much I inspire them and have encouraged them to start working out and I know how powerful that can be for your mental health.
“For me to show off my physique I need to show my body and I need to wear bikinis.”
Louise has 335,000 followers on Instagram and she is convinced that there is inequality to how male and female bodybuilders are treated.
Explaining what she meant, she said: “Bodybuilding men can pose in tiny little briefs, showing their strides, their glutes and their hip flexes.
(Image: Louise Roberts)
(Image: Louise Roberts)
“I do the same and it is flagged for sexual activity, that is the issue here. I just have to play Russian roulette with my posts and hope for the best.
“I can’t stand in a bikini with my rear showing. Why are glutes so sexualised? Why are female bodybuilders so sexualised when we are just trying to show our physiques in the same way as men are?
“Male bodybuilders show a great deal more.”
Louise believes if Instagram becomes any stricter she could permanently lose her page after temporarily having it removed last year. .
(Image: Louise Roberts)
Instagram has various content recommendations for users and one states: “Content that may be sexually explicit or suggestive, such as pictures of people in see-through clothing. (We remove content that contains adult nudity or sexual activity.)”
A statement in response to this story from Meta read: “While we allow this content on our platforms, we aim to give people transparency and control over the type of content they’re recommended on Instagram.
“We published our recommendations guidelines and launched Account Status, which tells people whether their content can be recommended and what steps they can take.
“Our apps are used by teens and adults, so our Sensitive Content Control lets adults see more sensitive content in their recommendations if they want.”
READ NEXT: