Recently, feminism has become as popular and controversial a subject as it was when women suffrage was being fought for. But suddenly, feminism has become less focused on political and social equality and more so on physical equality. We've seen clothing shrink to miniscule size and new style fads such as nipple band-aids and thong bikinis. I can't tell you how hard it is to find bathing suit bottoms that have more fabric than my underwear. Call me old fashioned, but,personally speaking, I don't even like it when my bra strap is showing. I appreciate the invention of sticky boobs and strapless bras. Yes, that example is a little extreme, but I truly don't understand some women's new obsession with "freeing the nipple." Is a woman being able to walk around topless really relevant to female rights whatsoever? No. All this movement does is continue to objectify women's bodies, and continue to show women as physical things rather than human beings. If you want to show men who's boss, show them with your smarts, not your tits.

We see celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Rihanna flashing their "free the nipple" campaigns by posting topless photos of themselves or wearing nipple tassels with some ignorant caption claiming that this is a step forward for women. No. All this does is urge young women to believe stripping down is the way to feel empowered and superior to their oppressors when in reality, their oppressors are downloading these photos and sharing them to their "bros" on taco night. The whole concept was to end the sexualization of females but it is doing the exact opposite. By doing this you are literally handing men the right to degrade you and demean you based on your body. Ironically, these same women are the ones asking why chivalry is dead and why they can't find their Prince Charming. Whether you want to believe it or not, women and male nipples are not the same. Women's nipples are vital to human life. We feed our babies and nourish them through their infancy with the milk from our breasts. If you can stand there and say that male and female nipples are the same and deserve the same social construct then you don't know enough about the human body in the first place.

There are more important ways to execute feminism than asking to walk around topless the way men do. Women are still being paid less than men, and seen as inferior in the workplace, along with some sports and also governmental status. And why is this? Because men see us as sexual beings and not headstrong, hardworking boss-ladies. In every country there are taboos. In America we just happen to not accept female exposure of breasts, the same way we don't accept the exposure of genitalia. There are countries where women are shot and murdered in cold blood by men for speaking out of turn. There are women who can't receive an education because it is not their place in society. But women here are only feminists on their own terms, in their own country, who are more concerned with wanting to walk around in the nude.

I'm not trying to degrade women who want to show their nipples in public. I just don't believe this is the smartest way to achieve equality. In fact it makes us even less equal. I don't want my parents to see my nipples, nor would I want my future employers to see them. Men's and women's nipples will never be given the same social acceptance and that's something we need to live with. As a matter of fact, with this dad-bod trend in the midst, what women should be doing is protesting men walking around shirtless. But regardless, it would be irrelevant to gender equality. There are so many issues and in the long run it won't matter if a woman can share her nipples when she's still being paid $0.78 to every $1 earned by a man.