To free or not to free- the nipple
“Free the nipple!”
You’ve all heard this before, whether on social media or in real life. Believe it or not, the free the nipple campaign is largely misunderstood yet raising some crazy controversy. What is the story with free the nipple though? Lets have some history:
It is thought that nipples being hidden from the public’s eye was always a female issue, because we were “different” with more to expose. However, did you know it wasn’t until around 1930 that it was socially acceptable for males to show their nipples? In the late 30’s an official law was put in place so males could legally show their nipples, and in 1940 a man was seen on tv taking his shirt off. So that’s all fine and dandy, but why didn’t women get rights at that time too? It gets complicated. Even though clothing has gotten smaller and smaller, one thing has separated male and female clothing- showing their nipples.
(Jen Aniston has never been shamed for letting her natural body show, so whats the deal?)
Throughout the 1900’s not much changed on this subject, until the 21st century when parties started to arise demanding freedom to show their bodies.
Through the decades, women have protested the right to breastfeed in public, which is a subject slightly unrelated, but it can be turned into a “free the nipple” etc kind of an argument- as that is the main reason why some public places do not allow it. Why exactly isn’t it allowed?
Free the nipple, the official campaign, actually blossomed from a movie. The movie launched in 2014 and didn’t get a lot of attention, but the movement along with it sure did. Here’s the link to the website with the movie if you wish to watch it.
http://freethenipple.com/
The movement originally started due to increased indecent exposure law in several states being passed, and women wanted to voice their opinions. Some of these laws included Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and Washington only allowing women’s nipples in public in acts of breast feeding. Otherwise, many states and more specifically cities just didn’t allow women to show them at all, but allowed men to just fine. Since then, as seen on the map below, many of these laws have changed.
“The green colored states are those where top freedom is in effect.*
The orange colored ones have amibiguous state laws on the matter.
The red colored ones are the ones where the mere showing of the female breast in public is illegal according to state law.”
*note that green still doesn’t mean full legality, rather it means there are laws within the states that are working on legal toplessness
So why is this a movement? Why do we need this in society? Well, I guess it depends on the person you’re discussing this topic with. Some come to believe that women’s breasts are “sexual objects” so they shouldn’t be exposed. Or just the mere fact that we have breasts and men are typically flat-chested is a reason for them to be covered up. Many cultures are not like this, in fact never were. Many nations function with topless women all over, and are completely fine. A reason why America could be like this is because we were once a very religion bound country, with women to be covered up.
However, many of the activists say that enough is enough, why can’t we show our nipples? The bottom line is that the human body serves us a purpose to live, and the nipples are just one part of the body. Why are we so concerned about that one part of the body? And why are we only concerned with it with one gender?
In coming years, I hope to see legislation further improve so that more than just New York, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Texas can have full-legal topless laws. This law wouldn’t allow nudity, rather, it would allow equality to the sexes over what parts of the body can be shown. And that is what feminism is all about, equality among the sexes and religions, etc.
Sources:
http://gotopless.org/index.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_the_Nipple_(campaign)
Here’s Where It’s Legal for Women to Go Topless in the U.S.
http://giphy.com/gifs/hM9U4TBjgA5DW
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One Response to “To free or not to free- the nipple”
This is a really interesting topic, and I somewhat disagree with you.
I think the lack of female nipples in the public sphere has less to do with the oppression of women’s dress and more about the highly sexualized ideals behind women’s breasts.
The nipple is the only part of the breast that serves an ulterior motive. It’s the only part that can’t be sexualized. Therefore, it’s taboo.