Social media sites, Instagram and Twitter, were recently abuzz with a new trending hashtag: freethenipple. This hashtag originated from the documentary movie of the same name: Free the Nipple, directed by Lina Esco. The movie describes a group of women who are protesting the stigma associated with exposed breasts in the streets of New York City which legally allows women to be topless. However, the social stigma and negative societal perception of women who engage in topless behavior prevents women from expressing this right. In the film, the women choose to bring awareness to this stigma through topless walks, “graffiti installations, publicity stunts, and First Amendment lawyers”; this is loosely based on the events of the 1990’s with the Topless Seven case, in which seven women protested the restrictive law that classified breast exposure as indecent and offensive. In order to promote her film while also making the public aware of the stigma, Esco established the Free the Nipple Movement.
The Free the Nipple movement confronts society’s double standard in which men are able to appear topless without backlash while women cannot expose their breasts unless their nipples and areolas are completely covered. This censorship is due to breasts’ sexual association in the public eye; breasts are viewed as inherently sexual despite their biological purpose to feed infants. This cultural taboo represents the hypersexualization and objectification of women. Most importantly, the movement was created by women for women who wish to empower their bodies and get out from under the automatic label of being sex objects. It is women demanding their bodies back by making them more fully visible in the public eye. Ultimately, the movement is important because it promotes gender equality through empowering women.
Critics of the movement argue that Free the Nipple is not important or relevant to gender equality as there many other movements that deserve more attention. Alyssa Milano, an outspoken supporter of public breastfeeding, specifically believes that Free the Nipple is trivial. In her article, “I Worry ‘Free the Nipple’ Works Against Equality” for Time Magazine, she argues that “We’re facing issues like wage inequality and paid maternity leave. I don’t see how being allowed to show your nipples is going to fix any of that”. Milano sees the movement one-dimensionally. She implies that Free the Nipple is trivial because it is simply a marketing ploy that is very publicly supported due to celebrity endorsements and its association with the film. Women simply use the hashtag, freethenipple, because it is trending and believe that in using the hashtag they are doing their part to promote gender equality. She believes that this idea is in fact incorrect because there are more important issues directly relevant to the gender equality movement and are more deserving of the public’s attention and support. Instead Milano advocates public breastfeeding:
“Normalizing breastfeeding will be a lot more effective in advancing women’s issues and desexualizing breasts. Yes, they’re pretty. And yes, they have a purpose in women’s sexuality. But their main purpose is to feed another human. And I think that’s way more special—and more relevant to humanity—than being allowed to go topless in Times Square.”
In making this statement, she reiterates the idea that the Free the Nipple movement is trivial, and by no means is as groundbreaking as movements championing wage equality and public breastfeeding. Critics share Milano’s belief that the Free the Nipple movement’s agenda is insignificant as it does not truly promote gender equality.
However, Milano fails to realize that the Free the Nipple movement is related to public breastfeeding and actually does promote gender equality. It can be argued that freeing the nipple aids the cause of public breastfeeding. In making public breast exposure acceptable, public breastfeeding, as a side-effect, will also become more commonplace because women will feel more comfortable in exposing their breasts and feeding their children in public spaces. Furthermore, in freeing the nipple, women work towards removing the sexual association breasts carry which aligns with Milano’s goal of normalizing breastfeeding. Both movements wish to remove the sexualization of breasts and in the process, de-objectify women. Therefore, Milano’s assertions that Free the Nipple is trivial are false because she fails to realize that the movement aligns with her own cause’s goals. In reality, Free the Nipple works towards gender equality by changing society’s attitude toward female breasts, specifically uncovered nipples and areolas.
Free the Nipple is an inclusive movement that promotes gender equality in a manner that pushes women to reclaim their bodies and their sexualities. Women are allowed to control how society perceives their bodies and their breasts in the public sphere. They are able to move away from automatically being labeled as sex objects which is the truly empowering aspect of the campaign. For so long, women’s sexualities were used as a way to oppress them. In freeing the nipple, women can control their sexualities and move away from automatically being objectified and finally love their breasts. Furthermore, the movement aims to change society’s attitudes towards breasts which are “rooted in misogyny and the objectification of women“. Through changing the perception of breasts and removing their sexual associations, the movement hopes to empower women to control the manner in which they are viewed in the public sphere.
The beauty of the movement lies in the fact that all women can participate and show their support for Free the Nipple. For those who aren’t completely comfortable with exposing their nipples in public, they can wear shirts that feature pictures of exposed breasts. Many celebrities endorse the movement and show their support by posting photos featuring exposed nipples or participating in topless walks.
What once began as a marketing strategy, grew into a full blown movement that fights for the empowerment of women in society by removing breasts’ sexual association. Although we cannot expect to see immediate effects from freeing the nipple, it is important to realize that the movement empowers women and was created by women for women.
taboo169 
I really enjoyed your post! Obviously, this deals with a widespread movement that, as a result, has a wealth of articles written in support of and against it. I liked how you limited your scope in the middle of the blog post to an intimate engagement with one specific critic. The arguing work you did here was very convincing — it is almost counterintuitive that she, as a breastfeeding advocate, would be so anti-#freethenipple. This nuance distinction between the two movements only enhanced your motive, because you were then able to comment upon the how #freethenipple could, indeed, bolster the momentum for the pubic breastfeeding campaign. I also enjoeyd how you consistently came back to the “by women, for women” language (reminiscent of “by the people, for the people,” which gave it nice rhetorical authority)/
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Raje– you go girl! I loved this article. You argued your point so well against Milano’s assertion that free the nipple was trivial, because in actually it is actually helping her cause! Your motive behind supporting the free the nipple movement was really strong in defending that it will desexualize and de-objectify women’s bodies. I fully support this movement! #freethenipple
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I think you do a great job at debunking Milano’s claims. I find it hard to believe the Milano actually believes that the Free The Nipple Movement doesn’t promote gender equality. Last time I checked, women were not allowed to be topless at public beaches while men could, so that definitely is gender inequality that the Free The Nipple Movement would help amend. I also liked how you connected making public breastfeeding more commonplace with the F.T.N Movement because they really do work in tandem to accomplish a similar goal in regards to how women are still oppressed in certain aspects of society; once the female nipple is demystified so will public breastfeeding hopefully and vice versa.
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