A lot of my friends are telling me that I need to “Free the Nipple.” A few of these friends happen to be current members of the “Itty Bitty Titty Committee,” to which I gave up my membership by the time I reached the sixth grade.
If you aren’t familiar with the term, the “Free the Nipple Campaign” was started by filmmaker Lina Esco as a response to the double standards associated with female upper body nudity in the media. In society, men can walk around topless and no one blinks an eye, while if women were to do the same, they end up harassed and possibly even charged with indecent exposure. The same idea is seen in movies, where a film rating can go from PG to R with the glimpse of a breast.
Many women have taken the Free the Nipple campaign to mean that women should no longer where bras at any time or any place. Instead of it being about the equality of men and women when it comes to nudity, some people have disrespected the initiative by dumbing the meaning down to simply “Don’t wear bras, because bras are created by the man, and the man is bad.” The campaign, however, does not advertise that as its main goal. While I do support the movement, I, along with many other women, will not be freeing our nipples any time soon for a two main reasons.
1. Like I mentioned before, some of us have big breasts, and big breasts hurt. If I decided to walk around without a shirt, or without a bra in general, not only would I be physically uncomfortable, I would probably throw my back out or bruise my shoulder, or maybe break my collar bone, you know, nothing serious.
2. I don’t associate equality with nakedness. I understand that, for this specific issue, the goal is to not sexualize the female body, so nakedness might be necessary to make the point, but I shouldn’t have to show my support for the cause by being nude, and I shouldn’t have to feel bad about it either.
If someone is pressuring you to support the cause in a way that you aren’t comfortable with, then don’t do it. This isn’t to knock those who DO feel comfortable being shirtless in public or not wearing bras in order to show their support for the movement. If you fit into this category, then by all means, do you, boo boo. But being a feminist is all about equality of the sexes throughout all aspects of life, and just because one person does not show their feminism in the same way, does not make them any less of a feminist.
