Free the Nipple

Free the Nipple is a campaign and cultural movement seeking to change the laws in favor of gender equality regarding being topless in public. Free the Nipple fights for female toplessness to be allowed in all areas in which men and boys are allowed to be topless as well. More so, Free the Nipple fights again social media censorship. This campaign raises awareness in gender equality and combats sexual objectification of women.

Free the Nipple

History

This movement first began when women were getting charged and backlash for public indecency and inappropriate behavior despite changes in regulations legalizing toplessness for women in a number of states. Over 75 years ago, it was illegal in all 50 states in the United States for men to be shirtless on a beach. A small group decided to fight against this law, police and courts. After some arrests and protests, men were finally able to gain their right to be ‘topless’ in public in 1936. However, there are still 37 states in the United States that still arrest women for this same right and in some states, arrest women for breastfeeding in public. More specifically, any kind of exposure of the female areola is considered indecent exposure, therefore technically a criminal offense.In less tolerant states such as Louisiana, public indecency can land a woman in jail for up to three years and $2,500 in fines for a first-time offense (§106. Obscenity, Section 1). Even states that actually have legalized public toplessness, such as New York in 1992, the police still continue to arrest women. Some states that have explicitly legalized toplessness of both men and women include Hawaii, Maine, Ohio and Texas.

Film

The name of the campaign, Free the Nipple is actually derived from Lina Esco’s 2014 film “Free the Nipple”. Free the Nipple is about a group of passionate women that launched a revolution to “Free the Nipple” and decriminalize female toplessness. Based on true events, this movement of topless women, as well as First Amendment lawyers, graffiti installations, and public stunts, invade New York City to protest against censorship issues and raising awareness to gender equality. This film not only stands as a movie but an equality movement and a mission to empower women all across the world. Free the Nipple is an American comedy-drama independent film that is directed by Lino Esco and written by Hunter Richards. The cast members include Casey LaBow, Lola Kirke, Monique Coleman, Zach Grenier and Griffin Newman. During the production of this film, Esco faced a range of issues. One being that the police threatened to shut down the production even though female toplessness was legalized in New York. The police made these threats because of the possibility of the production being misinterpreted as pornography. This led Esco to shoot the latter part of the movie without permits and making every scene a real life event with actual public topless protests.

Online Censorship

Many social media platforms such a Facebook and Instagram prohibit any graphic content that shows a woman’s areola. This, however, does not apply to men and their topless photos. Many photos that have been shared on these platforms that contain a woman’s areola have been reported and taken down. Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom comments on this matter by stating that the photo app’s strict censoring is due to Apple’s own guidelines. Regarding age rating - Instagram is listed as 12+. An app is only allowed to show nudity if its rating is 17+. But Twitter is considered a 4+ age rating while it holds many accounts that do show nudity. Instagram’s controversial guidelines are sometimes unclear because some male such as actor Matt McGorry posted a photo of himself with female nipples photoshopped onto his own which is a clear violation yet he faced no consequence.

Public Support

Free the Nipple campaign has received support from many sources as it sparked a national dialogue. Influences and celebrities such as Miley Cyrus and Lena Dunham have shown a lot of public support to this campaign thus brought a lot of international press to this matter and created a viral #FreetheNipple on social media. Miley Cyrus continues to support the cause by posting topless photos to Instagram which are always removed. Feminist writer and activist Soraya Chemaly also raised awareness by starting a campaign that resulted in more than 60,000 tweets and 5,000 emails to Facebook opposing the way female breasts are treated. Additionally, celebrity Chrissy Teigen posted a photo of herself with her nipple exposed to try to prove the point of Instagram's double standards. According to Instagram's Community Guidelines, images showing "intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully nude buttocks" are not allowed. However, as Instagram removed Teigen's photo, celebrities John Legend and Justin Bieber posted photos with their buttocks exposed around the same period of time but did not get their photos removed. Teigen tried multiple times again to re-upload her photo but was not successful at it. As Instagram states that paintings and sculptures of female nipples are accepted, Teigen, therefore, edited her photo to resemble a painting, which led to the removal of her post. People also organize and protest in their daily lives. In April 2015, a group of women successfully lobbied for Los Angeles’ Venice Beach for women to be allowed to sunbathe topless. Another public cause that received national attention was Alysha Mohamed and her two sisters, Tameera and Nadia who reside in Kitchener-Waterloo. They were stopped by a police officer during an evening bike ride because their shirts were off. The police officer was giving them a hard time even though they had a legal right to be topless. The sisters then organized a pro-topless rally at Waterloo Town Square to educate the public. As well, being topless is legal in New York too, but thousands of women and men came out to a GoTopless Pride Parade. This sparked outrage amongst New York mayor, Bill de Blasio and police commissioner, Bill Bratton, but to many others, having a women's chest exposed is not something to be shocked at. The ultimate goal out of this parade was for gender equality.

Criticism

Free the Nipple has received criticism from a variety of feminist groups on the basis that it is flawed in lacking intersectionality and inclusivity. The hypersexualization of women of colour and the privileging of young, white, middle-class, cisgender, able-bodied, conventionally pretty women (who make up a majority of the movement's public supporters) make it so the campaign does not include a diversity of women. Choosing to not include a wide variety of representation potentially sends a message that only some women should free the nipple, not all.

Others question whether the campaign focuses on the wrong issues and risks further objectifying women. The campaign has been criticized for exemplifying White Feminism and focusing on issues only women from higher classes face.