The Naked Rowing Team Is Back!

What do you do if your rowing team's awesome charity calendar is booted from Facebook for being "inappropriate? You come back and create a new calendar with just as much nudity, because screw that censorship. At least, that's what you do if you're the University of Warwick Women's Rowing Team. Because these ladies are awesome, and so is their calendar.

It's no secret that Facebook's application of its community guidelines is pretty inconsistent. They've been notoriously unwilling to take down content that glorifies and advocates for violence against women, but have responded immediately to things like a breast cancer survivor showing off her tattooed chest and women breast feeding their babies (though the latter is finally changing). And last year, they decided to apply these arbitrary enforcement policies to the Warwick Rowing Team's nude calendar — just the women's calendar, though; the men's was allowed to stay.

The team hasn't let that deter them, though. Though they say it'll be more difficult to promote the calendar without Facebook, they say they already have 200 pre-orders. You can check out the gorgeous pics here. Woohoo!

Despite what Facebook thinks, I say there is nothing objectionable about this calendar. Yes, the women are naked, but they are also strategically covered in all the shots — and even if they weren't, it's clearly their choice how to display their bodies. But even more importantly, it's awesome to see sexy photos of athletic women doing athletic things.

The photos show the rowing team doing actual rowing, carrying rowing gear, swimming, hanging out on docks, and generally being actual humans who participate in a sport. They aren't posed in order to appeal to male fantasies; they aren't objectified or dehumanized; they aren't airbrushed or altered to cater to un realistic beauty standards. They are real young women who are shown doing something active and physical that they are passionate about. And seeing that depicted as something sexy is really cool.

Plus the photos are gorgeous.

So while Facebook seems to think that images expressing heinous political opinions are less objectionable than images showing the simple existence of female bodies, I'm going to go ahead and say that this calendar is awesome. Plus, the sales not only support the rowing team, but 20 percent of the proceeds also go to charity, so it's a win-win.

The calendar is currently available for pre-order on their website here.

Hopefully, Facebook will once again allow these young women to promote their calendar on the social media site since that would almost certainly help drive up sales. But clearly these ladies and their calendar do not need Facebook approval in order to be awesome.

Images: Warwick Rowing