When I shared on Facebook the piece on Scout Willis that PJ mentions, a woman friend of mine commented sarcastically on it, something like: ‘Thanks, Joy—I’ve seen my first nipple on Facebook.’ I took this to mean: ‘Thanks for continuing the violence of sexism, Joy, by encouraging all of the creepers.’ If my assumption is correct, the commentator—much like PJ does in his piece—places the oppressive male gaze in the most important position in the story.
My question is, and I think this falls in line with the ideas behind the #FreeTheNipple movement: Why have we given that oppressive gaze so much power—enough power to take away our own joy in the experience of our bodies? The #FreeTheNipple equality movement wants us to not care, or to care much less, about what the men who hold an oppressive gaze think about our bodies. The movement wants us to take our nipples back from that gaze, from society’s construction of our nipples as only-for-male-consumption, as only-for-their-pleasure. Our nipples, and our breasts more generally, are for our pleasure. They are also sometimes just there, little to no pleasure to be had, just as men’s nipples are often simply there. Sometimes we use them to nourish our children—and sometimes (gasp!) we find pleasure there, too.
PJ writes that “the women demonstrating for this cause do not look to be the sort of women frustrated by a lack of sexual attention.” If the women in the photos are “hot” (conventionally attractive), so what? That doesn’t preclude “non-hot” folks from joining the #FreeTheNipple movement. Indeed, as the movement gets larger, I see more and more “unattractive,” or less conventionally attractive, women baring their breasts. In addition, PJ’s comment—well intentioned as it is—simply reaffirms the hot/not-hot binary that mainstream society holds in place. I might think that the “fat” woman showing her nipples to the world is hot. The point is: we don’t care what you think.
One has to see to it that they get over their issue of buy viagra from india erectile dysfunction whenever it strikes in their life. Both men and women need to have the erection during the sexual encounter cialis pharmacy online djpaulkom.tv and as many times. The condition is not very critical if continues for a few days only while long period (probably three or djpaulkom.tv cialis pill four weeks of vitality loss) can indicate towards serious health issues like heart problems, hypertension, diabetes, kidney problem, penile injury etc. may be answerable for the condition. One situation viagra pfizer achat that involves the need for surgery and the risk to erectile function. PJ goes on to approve of the “flaunt it if you’ve got it” mentality. I agree! However, the point of the #FreeTheNipple movement, to my mind, has little to do with this; rather, it wants to redefine the nipple from the point of view of the woman who owns that nipple. Differently put: stop objectifying our bodies (man = subject, woman = object), nipples included. Simply put: Woman = subject.
Moreover, if men “ogle” the nips, so what? If more women were to walk around topless, men (and other folks who are attracted to women’s nipples) would ogle less because the nipple would become less fetishized precisely because we would be seeing more of it—we would become habituated to seeing it. It would thus lose some of the magic or myth with which our society imbues it. While even some feminists might think this to be an unfortunate loss (fetishes can be fun, after all!), Simone de Beauvoir warned us of the harmful effects of myth-making as early as 1949: the cultural construction of Woman-as-myth harms real women-in-the-flesh, partly because (cis and trans) women could never live up to man-made Woman—nor would most of us want to.
I remember as a child being confused as to why my dad could walk around topless but my mom and sister couldn’t. It frustrated me. This frustration continues to the present day: I resent the fact that he can and does walk around without a shirt sometimes. As PJ points out, I’d rather most men cover it up (Please! Even in parks! My eyes are in parks, too!). But this is a personal preference, and I would never vote to illegalize men’s going topless, just as I would never think it right for women going topless to be illegal. If lack of clothing does not immediately threaten anyone with harm, then why illegalize it?
The oppressive male gaze, potential voyeurism, another’s opinion of the attractiveness of the woman—none of these should matter when it comes to the meaning of this movement or questions of legality. This is the point of #FreeTheNipple: the woman who owns the nipple decides where and when to let that nipple free—and little else matters.
