Free the Nipple (campaign)

"Free the Nipple" redirects here. For the film, see Free the Nipple (film).

Free the Nipple is a topfreedom campaign named after Lina Esco's 2014 film Free the Nipple. The campaign argues for female toplessness to be permissible in all areas that men and boys are allowed to be topless, as well as opposing social media censorship. The movement aims to advance gender equality and to oppose sexual objectification.

History

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A campaign participant at the World Naked Bike Ride in London, June 2015

Despite changes in statutes and regulations legalizing toplessness for women in a number of states, women are still at risk for being charged with public indecency, disturbing the peace, or lewd behavior. One such woman was Phoenix Feeley, arrested and incarcerated for being topless in the state of New York in the year 2005. Because it was proven that the law was misapplied—considering female toplessness had been legal for nearly 15 years in the state of New York—Feeley was released and later received $29,000 in damages.

In 2015, the campaign received attention in Iceland and was supported by MP Björt Ólafsdottir, who posted a topless photo of herself, in solidarity with a teenage activist who had received harassment for doing the same.

Indecent exposure laws

Main article: Topfreedom

According to nudity and public decency laws in America, New York, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Texas are the select handful of states that have explicitly legalized toplessness of both men and women in public places. Conversely, most states in the US note either explicitly or implicitly that any kind of exposure of the female areola is an act of indecent exposure and therefore a criminal offense. Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and Washington are the only states whose laws expressly differentiate breast-feeding mothers from performances of "public lewdness."

Although most states prohibit women from being topless, New Hampshire does not prohibit women from going topless if men are allowed the same privilege, which is why areas like the Hampton, Laconia, and Gilford beaches have become popular places for protest. In fact, on March 9, 2016, the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee of New Hampshire voted 18-0 to kill a bill that would prohibit topless sunbathing on state beaches. Their reason for denying the bill was, "because passing the bill would guarantee the law would be challenged in federal court because it violated the equal protection rights under the constitution." In other words, the bill was denied because of it's illegal attempt at limiting only female bodies.

It is not inherently illegal to be topless in the United Kingdom. In 2009, the Metropolitan Police of London told the BBC 'it was not a crime to appear naked in public' In the UK, it is technically legal to sunbathe naked on any beach, and naked bike rides occur each year in London. However, Stephen Gough has spent several years in prison in Scotland for breaching an order preventing his being naked in public.

Online censorship

American taboos surrounding the female nipple are further enforced by many social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram which prohibit any and all "graphic content" that pictures a woman's areola. Instagram's Community Guideline's demands of its users, "Keep your clothes on." However, this rule seems only to apply to images that contain women's nipples as they are promptly removed by Instagram unless the areola itself is covered. In contrast, photos featuring topless men are generally not subject to this regulation. Chelsea Handler, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and Scout Willis have each received backlash from Instagram for sharing photos of their chests exposed. Willow Smith also had a post removed because it pictured her wearing a shirt with a pair of women's nipples printed on it, though the shirt itself was fairly conservative in cut. When explaining the need to remove nudity, Instagram's CEO Kevin Systrom blamed the rating system of Apple's app store.

Eliminating online censorship of Free the Nipple posts is one of the goals of the movement. Censorship, and especially that of social media sites, exacerbates the problem that social movements, primarily those considered taboo, run into, which is spreading the message. The use of ICT's, or Information Communication Technologies, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, have greatly improved activists ability to spread their message in the last decade, making it easier to create a collective identity. This public hindrance limits a key organizational aspect of social movements that Charles Tilly called WUNC, or Worthiness, Unity, Numbers, Commitment. The need for activists to achieve WUNC is critical for the success of their movement, because without it, support dies quickly. Free the Nipple activists need ICT's in their repertoire because social media shares lead to accelerated pluralism, which can then lead to the spillover effect, which can be seen in the Occupy Wall Street and Arab Spring movements. The spillover into the public sphere is what social movement activists hope for because when activists gather together to protest, it leads to what Jϋrgen Habermas refers to as communicative action, or change.

Film

In 2014, director Lina Esco released her American feature film Free the Nipple. The film is centered around a group of young women who take to the streets of New York City as they protest the many legal and cultural taboos regarding female breasts by way of publicity stunts, graffiti installations, and First Amendment lawyers. Originally shot in 2012, it was nearly impossible to give the film a wide release which therefore prompted Esco to start the movement in December 2013.