A few weeks ago Scout Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, took to the streets of NYC in protest of Instagram’s terms of use that do not allow pictures of topless women to be shared on their app. Now this may seem harmless except Scout was topless and recently kicked off the social network for instances of abuse (Harrington). “I am not trying to argue for mandatory toplessness, or even bralessness. What I am arguing for is a woman’s right to choose how she represents her body — and to make that choice based on personal desire and not a fear of how people will react to her or how society will judge her,” Willis wrote (Willis). Many argued that she is just “an attention-seeking, over-privileged, ignorant, white girl” (Powell). But does she have a point?
Source: SMH.com
It was illegal at one time for men to appear bare chested in public, however that changed in 1936 when the ban was lifted and the perception of male nipples slowly changed from obscene to normal. Women made headway in the judicial system as well, when New York’s Supreme Court decriminalized the display of female nipples on public in 1992 (Powell). Technically, women can walk the streets of New York City topless without being arrested, however that has not stopped cops from charging women who have expressed this right. Today, women are focused on equality and closing the perception gap between the male and female breasts by desexualizing the image that female breasts embody.
In the film, “Free The Nipple”, director Lina Esco goes to the streets of New York followed by topless women fighting to change the censorship laws in America. “Everyday the media plays glorified images of violence, yet discourages nudity” (Esco). Activist Liv and With set out to start a movement and change the system through publicity stunts and graffiti installations while armed with First Amendment lawyers. The issues this film is addressing are equal rights for men and women, a more balanced system of censorship, and legal rights for all women to breastfeed in public. With supporters such as Miley Cyrus, Liv Tyler, Rihanna, and Lena Dunham, this movement is sure to get media attention and it has.
The female nipple has always been sexualized and censored in the media. Whether it be for inappropriate usage or advised for sexual content, is it right to give the same freedom to women as men? Do you think that the female nipple should be held at the same standard at the male nipple in the media? Silly question but I tend to think there is a big difference between the two. Not only functionality purposes but societal meaning as well. We may have been socially conditioned or it may be societal taboo, however, the sexual connotation surrounding the female nipple has been present for a long time and I do not see the start of a campaign and the backing of a few celebrities as a resolution to this issue. There are gender differences that need to be acknowledged and the visual discretion within the media should continue.
Free The Nipple. Picture. Retrieved from http://www.ynaija.com/free-the-nipple-campaign-topless-women-stage-protest-against-internet-censorship-viewer-discretion/
“Free the Nipple.” Film. http://freethenipple.com/#
Harrington, Suzanne. “Free the nipple: Time to make going topless as unremarkable for women as it is for men.” Irish Examiner. 16 June 2014. Web. 17 June 2014
Powell, Rose. “Scout Willis continues Free the Nipple campaign.” The Sydney Morning Herald. 3 June 2104. Web. 17 June 2014. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/ls-celebrity-news/scout-willis-continues-free-the-nipple-campaign-20140603-zrvng.html
Scout Willis. Picture. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/ls-celebrity-news/scout-willis-continues-free-the-nipple-campaign-20140603-zrvng.html
Willis, Scout. “I Am Scout Willis And This Is The Only Thing I Have To Say About Walking Topless Down The Streets Of New York Last Week.” XO Jane. 2 June 2014. Web. 17 June 2014. Retrieved from http://www.xojane.com/issues/scout-willis-topless-instagram-protest
Girl Talk! 
Well this was an interesting read. I wasn’t expecting this subject. I personally wouldn’t do it, but I agree it should be fair if men can, women should be able to. I remember here in Rochester, several years ago, many women gathered at a local park for a topless event. It was quite an event. I do see the differences in the sexual nature of the female breasts compared to the male breast. I have never heard of a women going bonkers over a man’s chest like men do for women. I really like your blog, this is so foreign to me.
Coming from a guy, I am sure its cliché to say I agree with Free the Nipple, but really, I just feel it makes sense. As you have said, men go topless, and its accepted. But why is okay for men to go topless but not women? After all there are plenty of men that have larger chests than women do, and essentially you couldn’t tell the difference if the nipple was male or female in a close up shot. It isn’t just the bare nipple either, but when women don’t wear bras, people seem to get offended by it as well. Heck, even cleavage is considered sexually inappropriate for some TV shows. I don’t understand it myself, I find it one of the many reasons humans prove they are still primitive.
There are those who might say “if women went around topless all the time it would distract people”. That may be so, but it’s no more distracting than if a man were to do it. According to numerous magazines, the male chest is almost always among the top 3 favorite features on a man’s body. Both men and women are equally distracted by the flesh, the only reason a females bare breasts are more attention grabbing today, is simply because it is taboo and it’s not often seen in public. Just like if exposing your feet, or your neck was taboo, it would turn heads if people did it simply because its forbidden and outlandish. I have been to nude beaches before, and when men and women are equally bare, you really cannot see any difference in the stares, because its equal. Of course I don’t feel it should be mandatory in anyway, that would be corrupt and offensive. But if were to lose its taboo, if people were to do it as often as men, after a while nobody would care anymore and they would find something else to distract their attention, and make the new “taboo”. Why people see the female breasts offensive while the male chest isn’t, is beyond my comprehension. It’s as if people simply thought that way because they were told to think that way, without any real explanation as to WHY we should think this way.
Pretty interesting post i must say.
I was just reading about this particular issue and specifically what Scout Willis did. It interested me to say the least. I think it all has to come down to perception of what a chest means to the majority of people. The majority of people and men see the female chest as a object of sexual desire. Women are often judged by their chest size and how proportionate their measurements are; terms like “flat chested” come to mind. Obviously that behavior had to start somewhere and generally it became the normality. Even other women see the chest of their own gender as a sexual object because they shame some mothers for breastfeeding in public and worry about who might see.
I absolutely love reading celebrity gossip, so the day Scout Willis decided to walk around NYC topless in support “free the nipple” I read about it on the internet. Prior to reading about this I had not known about this campaign. I have to admit I am kind of dumbfounded why the right to expose their bare nipples is something women are fighting for?! Really?! All of the inequality that goes on in the world? All the different ways women are oppressed, stereotyped, looked down upon, viewed as the weaker sex, and the list goes on and on and on… there are women out there that want to fight for the right parade around the street topless? With their nipples out for everyone to see?
Lina Esco (the director of the free the nipple movie) even states in her blog post for the Huffington Post (2014) “the moment you unearth statistics and follow the money it’s very clear women have not been even remotely close to equal with men from the day this country began” she goes on to list the wage gap as an example of how women are treated unfairly based on their sex. Now this is a real issue! This is what Congress, The President, feminists, and We The People, need to be focusing on, not a woman’s right to walk around bare chested!
Just because men can walk around with their nipples exposed isn’t a good enough reason, in my eyes, to “free the nipple”. This isn’t a tit for tat, and I don’t think it is a male/female inequality issue. I think the real issues are what’s upsetting these women and instead of focusing on those issues they are creating frivolous campaigns for attention and/or to finally win at something (i.e. the right to free the nipple).
I agree with all of the other posters that this is largely about an issue of perception but while breasts and nipples weren’t made for sex they are undoubtedly 100% associated with it. It will be a very long time, if ever, when breasts and nipples aren’t seen as sexual in nature. And since they are I don’t want to see another woman’s nipples nor would I want my children looking at other women’s nipples.
Works Cited:
Esco, Lina. “From Susan B. Anthony to Gender In-Equality (NSFW VIDEO).” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 10 June 2014. Web. 15 July 2014. .