One Nation, of Unfair Nipple

Once upon a time in a far far away society, there was a ruling that allowed men the right to be topless in public; but not women. That was in 1936. This ruling came about because a grassroots movement of men who began protesting the law and subsequently getting arrested in the process.

So let me get this straight, in 2015 I do not have the right to show my nipple in public simply because I am a woman?

Not only is it illegal for women to go topless, but in a lot of states it is illegal for women to breastfed their children in a public setting. – Hold on-  Lets go back for a second. Breasts are the provider of food and life for infants and women are not allowed to feed their children because of the obvious fact that they are, indeed, a woman? That literally makes no sense. Why don’t women have the same rights as men? Especially when male nipples are useless! They do not do anything and they have the right to be flaunted about in public, while mothers feeding children have to hide in the shadows. That is absurd!

Why as a society are we so afraid of nipples? They’re natural! They come two, or three, a person. A majority of the population has them, so why do we fear the big bad female nipples? Maybe we fear the female nipple because as a society we only see female nipples when it is in a sexual setting. The censorship regulations have made it so that women and their nipples can only be viewed in sexual settings such as pornographic pictures, films and clubs. Why wouldn’t men view nipples as “distracting”or “sexual” things if they have only been introduced to them in sexual settings, it makes sense. But its 2015, it is time to get over it and realize that women are not there only for the sexual pleasure or stimulation of a man. By keeping the female nipple hidden from society, like it is a bad or naughty thing, only furthers the male objectification of the female body.

A campaign called “Free The Nipple” has been taking the social media (Facebook, Twitter) by storm! What started out as a documentary, with a clever and humous name, has a dark seeded undertone about censorship equality. The goal behind the campaign is to show society how silly it is to have to fear, or hide away, the female nipple. In other words, what this movement has accomplished is an opened a dialog. They started a conversation about a women’s right to show her nipples in public.

No longer should a women have to hide in the shadows to feed her baby; in 37 states a woman can still be arrested for feeding in public. No longer will society view the female nipple as a sexual object, but as a part of the female body that provides life. No longer will we live in a place where one gender is allowed to bare their nipples while the others have to hide. Why have women been denied this human right to bare their nipples when men have been given this lunary for decades? No more. There is enough inequality in this world, it is time to stop at the nipple.