Chappell Roan’s Nipple Ring Dress and the Absurdity of Instagram’s Nudity Censorship

Leave it to Chappell Roan to find a loophole in Instagram’s nudity guidelines. On the Grammys red carpet last night, the singer (who was nominated for song of the year and best pop solo performance) wore a sheer burgundy Mugler dress, a recreation of a piece from the designer’s 1998 spring/summer collection. The garment’s loose fabric, which was also fashioned into a coordinating sheer cape, dangled off either breast from what looked like small silver nipple rings. Somehow, I, along with everyone else, was able to see Roan’s near-naked look from all angles on social media despite Instagram’s notably strict (and inconsistent) censorship of female breasts. So, how did she get around that? By leaving one key detail out of the look: the nipples themselves. As if we needed another example of how absurd and outdated the platform’s guidelines really are.

Like many others who tuned into the red carpet on February 1, I zoomed in on Roan’s look to see what, exactly, her dress was attached to. Instead of finding real piercings on the singer’s actual nipples, as I’d assumed was the case, my curiosity was instead met with a smooth, nipple-less surface thanks to prosthetic artist Sasha Glasser. As she revealed on Instagram, Glasser used realistic peel-and-stick pasties from the prosthetics brand Out of Kit to provide some coverage for Roan (and likely some protection for her real breasts in case someone stepped on her dress). The prosthetics and their lack of nipples seem to be the reason we were able to see the singer’s look all over our feeds: Without them, Instagram and other platforms with similar censorship policies likely would’ve flagged every photo of her as explicit content due to their guidelines on what human body parts are appropriate to showcase.

Meta’s policy currently states that “visible female nipples, except in a breastfeeding or act of protest context” are not permitted on their platforms. Its definition of “female nipples,” by the way, is based on outdated and binary gender markers: first the app’s censors detect the presence of a nipple in an image, then, depending on how much fatty tissue that nipple is attached to, it’ll be deemed as “female” or not, regardless if it belongs to an intersex, non-binary, or trans person. Meta’s policy claims to make exceptions for nudity in medical or health contexts, but—whether accidental or not—the company has consistently flagged images of mastectomies and areola tattoos from breast cancer survivors as explicit content for years.

Although she’s technically covered up, Roan’s Grammys look reminds us of how absurd Meta’s—and social media at large’s—censorship of human bodies really is. Fully naked and realistic breasts without nipples are fine to spread across the internet, meanwhile, breasts with nipples apparently are not. Make it make sense!

While this sentiment has been consistently pointed out since the onset of the viral “Free the Nipple” campaign in the early 2010s, it’s still frustrating that women’s nipples (or the nipples of anyone a computer assumes is a woman) are deemed inherently sexual and offensive. But apparently, all that’s standing in the way of Instagram’s policy is an expertly applied pastie.

More on red carpet beauty:

• The Best Beauty Looks at the 2026 Grammys
• Hailey Bieber Mixed 4 Nail Polishes Just to Match Her Grammys Manicure to Her Lipstick
• Margot Robbie’s Random Hair Ribbons Bring the Whimsy

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