Image via Complex Original
You've probably heard of #FreeTheNipple by now—the gender equality campaign exploded onto social media in 2012 and still comes up in mainstream conversations today. According to its mission statement, Free The Nipple is focused on the "equality, empowerment, and freedom of all human beings" using modern media.
Most people recognize the movement as the fight to de-stigmatize women's nipples. Women's bodies are routinely hyper-sexualized, devalued, and seen as public property; you can see smaller examples of this in sexist behaviors like assuming it's okay to touch a pregnant woman's stomach, to larger systemic examples like misogynistic ads or studies that prove women's salaries are higher when they're perceived as more attractive.
While public men's nipples are totally chill, women's nipples are very scandalous—and that's because women's nipples are usually attached to breasts, which people sexualize even when they're just doing their actual job of feeding babies. Women who choose to free the nip might be perceived as slutty, attention-seeking, and—most dangerously of all—they might be seen as "asking for it," a.k.a. someone who has forfeited the right to feeling safe in public.
You might think it's common sense to allow women to bare the same amount of skin as men in public without being chastised, shamed, or even arrested—but it's not. Laws about topless women vary from state to state, and Free The Nipple advocates are fighting for women's nationwide right to feel safe in public spaces in every state of dress (and undress).
But even if it were totally legal for women to be topless in the U.S., would we take the risk of possibly being harassed or even assaulted? We asked women in New York City—where freeing the nip is totally legal—how they feel about being topless in public.
Katie, 19, and Megan, 19, England
Complex: What do you think about women being topless in public?
Megan: We’ve seen it in Times Square. I think people automatically look at the topless women in Times Square and go, “Oh my god, what are they doing?” Because you don’t see it often. You see men running around central park with their tops off all the time. So it’s almost normalized, but I think it’s not normalized to see women topless, so it’s a bit more strange.
Katie: We’ve see quite a few men, on a run, topless. And we were like, well, technically if women aren’t allowed to, then why should men be allowed to run around with no shirt on?
Would you be comfortable being topless in public?
M: I’m not sure about public sort of place like this. I don’t think I could. But I mean, we were on a beach and we met two other backpackers who were German and they just started sunbathing topless. They didn’t mind. But I think it’s a different culture, in Europe, it tends to be more normal to see that when you go to beaches. But I think for us it’s a bit different, so I don’t know if I could, but in my backyard I probably could.
K: In England it’s pretty, like, you wouldn’t do it. I suppose it’s the way people would react to it. Women obviously, if there’s a man running down the street, wouldn’t say anything ... Whereas if women did, it would get a lot of people saying things. Like even when we walk down the street with a shirt on and people say stuff.
Maricela, 28, Brooklyn
Have you ever heard of the #FreeTheNipple campaign?
No, not really.
Did you know that it’s legal for women to be topless in New York City?
I did not know that, no…until today.
Would you feel comfortable being topless in public?
In New York City, no. [It's] a cultural thing, a safety thing. You know, you wish that other people could respect you, but you don’t know how the next person is going to react.
Olivia, 25, Rhode Island
Have you heard of the #FreeTheNipple campaign?
Honestly, I just know about my model friends wanting to post their nipples on Instagram and can’t. I see the hashtag FreeTheNipple all the time and that’s about it.
Would you feel comfortable being topless in public?
No. Unless I was on a nude beach away in, like, Mexico with my boyfriend ... I think just personal. Like I said, if it were Fort Tilden or something like that and I was with people that I was comfortable with.
Jen, 32, and Vivian, 43, Vancouver
Have you heard of the #FreeTheNipple Campaign?
Jen: No.
Vivian: No.
Would you feel comfortable being topless in public?
J: I am not comfortable with it. I think it’s just…I think too much staring would go on right now and I wouldn’t be comfortable with that.
V: I would agree ... I think I would still feel uncomfortable going topless, walking around the city… people just staring for the sake of it being something that’s not commonly accepted.
Audra, 30, New York
Have you heard of the #FreeTheNipple campaign?
It’s a campaign for women to have boobies out whenever they want, wherever they want.
Would you feel comfortable being topless in public?
It’s not for me, but it’s for whoever wants to do it. In New York, [it's] definitely a safety thing.
Melissa, 24, Dominican Republic
Have you ever heard of the #FreeTheNipple campaign?
Yeah. I know it’s supposed to be a, not a liberation thing, but to equalize both women and men going topless and all that. Like not sexualizing breasts.
How do you feel about being topless in public?
In New York I think ... I wouldn’t mind. But coming from my country...my country’s really close-minded. Since I grew up there, I don’t really know if I would be able to do it. But I think that if anybody should do it, don’t make a big deal about it ... Instead of teaching people not to go topless, they should be teaching men not to catcall people.