If you missed Tommy Lee's full-frontal display on social media earlier this week, no worries—he's now sharing a painting of the photo instead. Meanwhile, some are wondering why Lee's original nude pic was able to stay up online for as long as it did in the first place, spurring a debate over censorship and double standards, reports USA Today. The commotion started early Thursday, when the 59-year-old Motley Crue drummer uploaded to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter a photo of himself sitting on the edge of a tub in the buff and showing ... well, everything, except his eyes. The accompanying caption simply said, "Ooooopppsss." Lee's wife, Brittany Furlan, was among the thousands who commented on the photo, writing, "OH MY GOD."
The image wasn't taken down for more than four hours—it's not clear whether Lee removed it himself or Instagram and Facebook did. That sparked a discussion online as to why photos on the platforms showing even a smidgen of nudity on women seem to be immediately scrubbed, per Newsweek. "So Tommy Lee can post a picture of his penis on @instagram that's still up three hours later but a picture of my curvy booty in a thong bikini gets taken down? Cool, cool," journalist Lola Mendez tweeted.
Instagram's community guidelines ban nudity, including "photos, videos, and some digitally created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully nude buttocks." Female nipples are also a no-no, though there are exceptions (e.g., breastfeeding or protest pics). There's also another line in IG's guidelines: "Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is OK too." Newsweek notes that Lee took advantage of that "loophole" Thursday night, posting the same image as he originally did, but this time in the form of a painting. It's not clear who created the artwork. There's no caption on this one, though his wife commented once more, writing, "HELP."
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Lee has also since been posting on social media cheeky references to the naked image, including a picture of a Buddha statue with a large banana and a photo of an elephant staring at a naked man (which viewers can only see from behind), with the caption: "How do you breathe through that little thing?" Meta, parent company of both Instagram and Facebook, hasn't yet commented on the matter. As of Friday morning, Lee's original nude pic remains up on Twitter. (More Tommy Lee stories.)
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