The “free the nipple” movement is a feminist movement that has become a very controversial topic on social media in the last year. Feminism and related movements have gradually become more prominent in popular culture. Even superstars like Kendall Jenner and Rihanna have hopped on the Free the Nipple bandwagon. And here's why this is an amazing thing: laws barring female breasts are unconstitutional, and its high tide that the public knows.

I thought it best before I begin to give a brief summary of the Free the Nipple movement. named after Lina Esco's 2014 film documentary, Free the Nipple is a cultural and political campaign that aims to decriminalize female toplessness as well as encourage female toplessness to be culturally acceptable wherever it is also appropriate for men and boys to be topless. “Toplessness” in the context of this article can be defined as public exposure of the areola and nipple. This campaign, by targeting a key double standard within the law, seeks to further gender equality through the legal system and social change. There is a movement similar in philosophy and aim called the Topfreedom movement, which in this context could be used interchangeably.

I started my research with Washington State. I was curious about Washington specifically because this is where I am from. The state law for public indecency is succinctly this:

“RCW 9A.88.010 Indecent exposure.

(1) A person is guilty of indecent exposure if he or she intentionally makes any open and obscene exposure of his or her person or the person of another knowing that such conduct is likely to cause reasonable affront or alarm. The act of breastfeeding or expressing breast milk is not indecent exposure.

(2)(a) Except as provided in (b) and (c) of this subsection, indecent exposure is a misdemeanor.

(b) Indecent exposure is a gross misdemeanor on the first offense if the person exposes himself or herself to a person under the age of fourteen years.

(c) Indecent exposure is a class C felony if the person has previously been convicted under this section or of a sex offense as defined in RCW9.94A.030.”

To me, the Washington State law is pretty vague. As it says above, the intention of causing alarm or affront is the main test that is applied to cases involving indecent exposure. Women of the Free the Nipple movement certainly don’t want to cause “reasonable front or alarm” when desiring to be topless. As explained above, they want the opposite. Women simply want their nipples to be free of explicit sexual connotation like men’s nipples already are. And yet, it seems that the law implies that breasts are indecent, given that they have to specify that public breastfeeding is not indecent exposure. So, in the eyes of the law, unless a breast is “expressing breastmilk” it is seen exactly the same as genitalia. However (and thankfully) this is common legislature to exempt breastfeeding from laws regarding indecent exposure. Fun fact: Idaho is the only state that does not exempt breastfeeding moms from public indecency laws.

Most states do not specifically state that the female breast is illegal, a lot of what can be charged as a crime is based mainly on the intent of the alleged perpetrator. However, there are a few states that have passed legislature explicitly stating the indecency of female nipples. For example, Utah has women's breasts under the same category as sexual assault and other serious crimes: “* 76-9-702. Lewdness — Sexual battery — Public urination.

(1) A person is guilty of lewdness if the person under circumstances not amounting to rape, object rape, forcible sodomy, forcible sexual abuse, aggravated sexual assault, or an attempt to commit any of these offenses, performs any of the following acts in a public place or under circumstances which the person should know will likely cause affront or alarm to, on, or in the presence of another who is 14 years of age or older:

(b) exposes his or her genitals, the female breast below the top of the areola, the buttocks, the anus, or the pubic area.”

This law can only be described as discriminatory. According to how the law is worded, a woman could legally show her entire upper body except “below the top of the areola”. I think that the sheer specificity of this law is hilarious. There is a popular trend in the Topfreedom and Free the Nipple campaigns where women attempt to point out the ridiculousness of this by simply taping pictures of male nipples directly over their own illegal and apparently vulgar female ones. In Utah, doing so would would technically be legal.

There should be more laws in the United States protecting women from being charged with sexually based offenses as well as amending current laws in order to remove discriminatory language and statutes. Without the cooperation of the courts it renders any attempts at furthering gender equality pointless. Differentiation between male and female nipples within the law only continues to perpetuate female objectification and is therefore contradictory to any laws in the United States that protect women from discrimination.