5/19/2016 0 Comments Nip SlipThe female body is sexualized to the point in which a woman cannot show her bare body in public without there being political and ethical uproar. Breasts are a target and this is a social problem. For example, cleavage, nipples, and breastfeeding. Nudity hasn’t always been something that was frowned upon. Dating back to hunter-gatherer times, in warm climates, the naked body of men and women was the norm. Ancient Greek warriors fought in the nude. Nudity has been the subject of ceramic and sculpted art dating back to 21, 000- 26,000 years ago, such as the famous fertility goddess statues of naked pregnant women. Before WWII, public nudity of all genders was legal in Japan. It wasn’t until the U.S. occupied Japan that female nudity became a crime. Sexualizing the naked body has lead to the lack of acceptance of nudity. Magazines, porn, movies, and other platforms have turned the naked body into a sexual object. In the United States today, it is legal in all 50 states for men to freely show their bare nipples in public, the same is not true for women. Seventy-five years ago, it was still prohibited for men to show their nipples. It wasn’t until protesters stood up against the status-quo that change began. It is still illegal in 37 states for women to show their nipples publicly. Even in a few states where it is legal, women are still being cuffed and hauled off to jail for exposing their breasts. This includes breastfeeding as well. Women are fighting a battle for freedom that men were granted a long time ago. In 2014, a movie was released on Netflix called “Free the Nipple.” This movie has brought an immense amount of support to a once small campaign for equality. Free the Nipple was thought up when a woman was arrested and incarcerated in New York for being topless in public. Considering that the public display of female breasts has been legal for over 15 years in New York, the woman was released and later received compensation for damages. This was only the beginning of the Free the Nipple campaign. Support of this movement has come from dedicated groups of women that include Miley Cyrus, Liv Tyler, and Lena Dunham. Today, they are bringing awareness to this equality act through art, media, and protests. The female breast is simply an organ that produces milk for offspring. It is, and always will be an existing feature of the human body. Content in the media pertaining to women breastfeeding in public has been a hot topic. Many argue that the feeding of a child should be done in a secluded location. They feel that it is distracting and inappropriate. There are videos being shared of women who are approached and yelled at for publically breastfeeding their children. They are told that it’s disgusting and shamed for doing one of the most natural occurrences in the human world. Others feel that this should not be illegal in any way. For some, bottle formula feeding their child is not an option due to financial status. To others, breast milk is an essential piece to the baby’s health. It is also considered a significant way of bonding with their child and it brings them joy. It isn’t just the streets that women are shamed for showing their breasts. It is all over social media platforms as well. Instagram neglects the posting of any photos or videos that show a bare female nipple. In Instagram’s policies section on their website, they state that they are aware that some might want to use nudity as a form of artistic expression, but they do not allow nudity. Photos of mastectomy scarring, women actively breastfeeding, and paintings or drawings of nudity are allowed. While there is a ban on Instagram for posting a woman’s nipple however, there are no restrictions on men posting topless photos. When a woman posts a photo that includes her nipple, the photo is flagged and taken down, but not a man’s. To take a stance against Instagram, women have started to Photoshop men’s nipples in place of their own. These photos are not flagged and allowed to stay on the site. An example of discriminating the female nipple on social media was on Chelsea Handler’s, a famous comedian and talk show host, Instagram page. She posted a photo of herself posing topless while riding a horse. It was a replica of Vladimir Putin. The photo was quickly flagged and taken down. She along with many others ranted over the unnecessary banning of the photo. Outside of the online double standards, the sexualizing of the female body has resulted in horrific consequences. Cat-calling and slut-shaming are social issues on their own. Women’s bodies are often the blame of sexual assault. Women are constantly told how to behave, including what to wear. We live in a society where we question the attire of a woman before acting on the behavior of a predator. Women are told from a very young age that the way they dress affects how they are treated. For example, school systems regulate the length of shorts, dresses, and shirt sleeves. They tell young women that it is a distraction to show too much skin. Shaming of bare skin is the reason that victim blaming exists. A CNN reporter recently praised a Utah high school for enacting stricter rules regarding the length of homecoming dresses. She stated that how women are viewed by the public is how they will be treated. In a skit performed by the University of Oregon’s Sexual Wellness Awareness Team, they compared the blaming of a victim’s attire to the welcome mat outside one’s home. If their mat says welcome, then it must mean that anyone is welcome to enter, right? Wrong. The clothing, or lack thereof, on a person’s body is not an invitation for invasion. Society will never take the steps that are needed towards equality if we don’t stop sexualizing the human body. Breasts will always exist, but the negative view of society can change with time. Nipples are not weapons. They are part of the body, a part of the body that we cannot boycott, nor should we, based off of sexual desires. Stop using sex as an excuse to act inhumanely. America is a nation that strives for freedom, so let’s free the nipple.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
|