The Free the Nipple movement has gained popularity in the last few years with the rise of social media. In fact, social media has rocketed the Free the Nipple movement with #freethenipple and controversial bans over women's "inappropriate content." My personal favorite has been the trend of photoshopping male nipples onto a woman so it won't be censored and vice versa.
The root of the movement is for female equality. Women have been arrested for "public lewdness" by going out topless in areas where no one would look twice at a shirtless man. The campaign believes that punishing or stigmatizing a woman for a nonreproductive part of her body is reinforcing that women's bodies are inherently sexual. Breasts are secondarily sexual body parts, like the lips or neck is. Female breasts serve one biological function only: to feed babies. But that's a different movement and a different article.
While I wholeheartedly agree with the Free the Nipple principles, I'm not walking around topless anytime soon. That could be my personal privacy or just my social conditioning, but I think the Free the Nipple movement is overlooking a crucial strategic battleground: bras.
By beginning with this clothing stepping-stone, the campaign would seem less extreme because I personally don't know any woman that currently wants to bear it all on a daily basis. We just aren't there yet.
Nothing against the bra- they can be comfortable and offer much-needed support, but it would be a more realistic social adjustment to stop stigmatizing the ladies that want to free-boob it.
Whether it be 100 percent of the time or just a once-in-a-while fluke, the FTN movement ought to support and bring attention to idea that bras can be optional and the nipple can be at least partially freed for the time-being.
There are benefits to wearing and to not wearing a bra, so a woman should be the one that chooses whether or not-- not fear of people gawking. Yes, bras offer support, especially for the larger-busted, but they can also ruin an outfit with funky straps. They add warmth, but can also be uncomfortable and expensive. Whichever a lady wants to have, she should be able to have.
It would be less of a leap for a nonbeliever to grow accustomed to not pointing out to a friend that a woman isn't wearing her cups and to realize her undergarment choices affect nobody else on the planet. If someone can see a man's nipple poking at his shirt and keep their mouth shut, then woman can be allowed the same liberties.
This avenue might not bring the Free the Nipple movement directly where they want to be, but I believe it is a channel of outreach that could positively further their cause.
