Much ado about Nipples

Get your nips out for the lads feminism.

I'm not talking radical Andrea Dworkin - "violation is a synonym for intercourse", scream at a man for holding the door open for you style. I'm talking healthy, contemporary feminism that everyone can fight for, men and women alike.

The F word (feminism, not food) is one that makes me cringe due to its negative connotations. But technically yes, I am a feminist. According to the dictionary, feminism is "the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes." I think by this definition, most of us by now have realised that men and women need to be equal and we all are therefore "feminists" (huzzah!).

The issue that I'm blogging about today is one that you've probably heard of. It's quite prevalent in Western feminism today - the Free the Nipple campaign. The point of the campaign is relatively simple on paper - to make it socially acceptable for women to go completely topless in public if they choose to and to get websites such as Facebook to relax their censorship rules and make them the same as the rules regarding male nipples. But in practice, it is so much more difficult!

Social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram remove pictures of topless women as they "violate their community standards". It says on the Facebook Community Standards page, "We remove photographs of people displaying genitals or focusing in on fully exposed buttocks. We also restrict some images of female breasts if they include the nipple."

This condition specifically singles women's nipples out as something so inappropriate that it is not fit for the public to see. Why? Anatomically, men and women's chests are the same, all that is different is that generally, women have more breast tissue. So if you disagree and feel that women shouldn't be allowed to expose their breasts, then ask yourself why. Why is something that is anatomically the same treated differently between males and females? That my friends, is pretty much the definition of double standards.

A reason why you may disagree with the Free the Nipple campaign may be that you think that children shouldn't see such things, they're too young and people would get too aroused etc.. Let me dispel that for you - you believe this because you have grown up in an era where women are hyper-sexualised. If the only place that we see female nipples is porn or during sex, then of course women's nipples will continue to be associated with sex, despite sex being their secondary purpose. Meaning that "Freeing the Nipple" will remain a taboo. Not only this, but as that is the only place we see them, women are expected to have perfectly symmetrical, perfect sized, perfectly coloured, perfect perfect nipples, which is hardly ever the case. This leads to body confidence issues, despite them being totally unnecessary; although we are all different, there is nothing to be ashamed of.

As a world, we are able to picture, exploit and buy women's bodies. In magazines, on videos and in the flesh. But as women ourselves, we are unable to expose ourselves or live with the freedom to make our own decisions regarding our bodies. Thus they are not our own, they belong to those who can objectify and sell them. But we are not products - we are more powerful than those who can sell us. Only when women have stopped being hyper-sexualised will they gain their full and deserved respect; allowing women to have the choice on whether or not to go topless (like men already have) will be a massive step towards this and equality.

Freeing the nipple will, with time, take away the skewed view of women's nipples as sexual objects and they will finally be normalised, as normal as a man's nipple.

I won't lie, if tomorrow we woke up and it was socially acceptable to bare all if we wanted to, it wouldn't be the first thing on my to do list. I don't particularly want people to see my nipples (I have grown up in an era where women are hyper-sexualised, remember?) but it's the element of choice which is an issue. Men are allowed to have the privilege of choice as to whether they would like to go topless, women are not. I would argue that few women's first priority would be to walk around the streets wearing no top or bra, but few men do. It's not the act itself, it's the principle.

I've read so many different opinions on this, including a man calling the activists "sluts" for wanting to "Free the Nipple," - no this is not a bunch of sluts itching for the chance to show a nipple, this is 21st Century feminism.

Having read this, you may still think that women should cover up and have more self respect and decency - but then you are only fueling the fallacy that men and women are equal and have equal rights. If you really think about the logical reasons as to why women are not allowed this privilege, I doubt you can - because really, there aren't any.

To finish off I just want to say how our troubles that we can't show a little nip may seem like a drop in the ocean compared to Malala Yousafzai, the young girl who was shot in the head by Taliban fighters for voicing her views upon girls in education - but all struggles are relative. So while we pray for (and join!) Malala's fight, we will also fight our own - one nip at a time.

Sources
http://mashable.com/2015/03/16/facebook-new-community-standards/#LpMpSm9KB5km
http://freethenipple.com/