This campaign called "Free the Nipple" is trying to desexualize women's breasts by encouraging women to go topless. The argument is that, if women just start going topless in public, that a lot of objectification of women will be solved because people will just be used to seeing breasts.
Right now, the only places you see breasts are in R-rated movies, trashy magazines, and porn. But men have gone shirtless for almost a century now without being called shameless hussies (or whatever). A hundred years ago, it was considered vulgar for men to go shirtless. Taking a look around campus, it's still pretty vulgar, but it's not sexual.
One man interviewed by the campaigners said he wasn't comfortable with women going topless because women are "more sexual than men." Hmmm...
Another male interviewee (not wearing a shirt), when asked if he was worried people would think he was "asking for it," laughed and said no.
These women are owning their bodies for sure. But can the fabric of space and time (and society) handle this?? Food for thought.
Here's the link to their website. Be warned, if you click on this link, you will see woman-nipples.
Hmm, interesting for sure. I wonder if this ties into our conversation about Beyonce; she has been praised for "owning" her body and embracing her sexuality, but we also talked (with bell hooks) about how a feminism based only on the physical body is a reduction of what "womanhood" means (or, if you prefer, all that each individual woman/person entails). Here, perhaps this culturally shocking approach might distract from more important questions than the physical body? Not sure either...
ReplyDeleteOne of the most fantastic parts of this post is your final sentence: "Be warned, if you click on this link, you will see woman-nipples." What (I'm sure) originated as some grade-A Sami snark is actually quite indicative of our discomfort, perhaps even fear of breasts in public. The conversation recalls Gilbert and Gubar, who discuss male fear of female sexuality. I wonder if we could bring in Freud as well (everything is sex, right?).
ReplyDeleteWhat I find fascinating about campaigns like these is prioritization. Why "Free the Nipple" over education inequity, poverty, homelessness, female representation in politics, etc.? Overcoming the sexualization of women and freeing women's bodies of course will lead to larger change than being able to throw a frisbee around campus topless. But, how does one come to decide what they will support, what they will spend time, money, etc. on?
I see the point, but we have to realize that this is largely cultural. A lot of cultures don't care.
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