'If you’ve been following woman’s rights issues on social media then you’re probably aware of the #FreeTheNipple campaign that first started to trend in 2014 when director Lina Esco released her American feature film 'Free the Nipple.'
The film is about a group of young women who take to the streets of New York and Los Angeles, protesting inequality and the right to go topless. However, surprisingly, after she shot the film, Lina Exco found it difficult to find distribution which motivated her to take the campaign to social media where it went viral and was picked up by a number of celebrities.
In the documentary, two protesters are arrested for indecent exposure outside of a campaign appearance for Senator Bernie Sanders. They appeared topless except for pieces of tape over their nipples, and had the words "Free the Nipple", "Equality", and "Feel the Bern" written on their breasts. LAPD officers asked them to cover themselves up. When they refused they were arrested and thrown into jail. They were held for 25 hours without being charged with a crime. After being released, the protestors filed a federal lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department.
Most people remember Miley Cyrus as the first female celebrity to gain world wide fame for the movement but just recently Jennifer Aniston has spoken to several news outlets explaining she was actually the first celebrity to spread the movement in the early nineties.
In her famous television show, Friends, her character, Rachael, is often shown wearing a tight shirt with her nipples sticking through the thin fabric. This has lead some fans to speculate she wanted her nipples on display. Jennifer Aniston, for her part, is not ashamed of her poking nipples and believes it promotes feminism.
The film is about a group of young women who take to the streets of New York and Los Angeles, protesting inequality and the right to go topless. However, surprisingly, after she shot the film, Lina Exco found it difficult to find distribution which motivated her to take the campaign to social media where it went viral and was picked up by a number of celebrities.
In the documentary, two protesters are arrested for indecent exposure outside of a campaign appearance for Senator Bernie Sanders. They appeared topless except for pieces of tape over their nipples, and had the words "Free the Nipple", "Equality", and "Feel the Bern" written on their breasts. LAPD officers asked them to cover themselves up. When they refused they were arrested and thrown into jail. They were held for 25 hours without being charged with a crime. After being released, the protestors filed a federal lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department.
Most people remember Miley Cyrus as the first female celebrity to gain world wide fame for the movement but just recently Jennifer Aniston has spoken to several news outlets explaining she was actually the first celebrity to spread the movement in the early nineties.
In her famous television show, Friends, her character, Rachael, is often shown wearing a tight shirt with her nipples sticking through the thin fabric. This has lead some fans to speculate she wanted her nipples on display. Jennifer Aniston, for her part, is not ashamed of her poking nipples and believes it promotes feminism.
Who can lay claim to the actual start of the movement can be debated, however what is clear is the fight is far from over. Women in the United States are currently in court arguing for their right to bare their breasts. Recently in the United States Court of Appeal for the Tenth Circuit, the supreme court judges ruled by a 2-1 margin in Colorado that female toplessness is not a crime and any law banning bare breasts is unconstitutional. This is a big win for the #FreeTheNipple movement. However, a New Hampshire court also just recently upheld the conviction of three women arrested in 2016 after removing their tops on a beach. In a 3-2 ruling the court decided that the law does not discriminate against women or violate women’s right to free speech.
While Europe has a long history of toplessness stretching back to the 1960s, America still has a long ways to go for the fight for equal rights. While the Sexual Revolution might have started on the streets of California, Europeans took it one further than their American counterparts when photos of Brigitte Bardot and other celebrities posing topless on the French Riviera made news around the world. The sense of liberation only increased when most of Europe rejected the condemnation of the Vatican and the Spanish Church, upholding women's rights to bare their breasts. Hopefully America will stop being so prudish when it comes to women's breasts.
While Europe has a long history of toplessness stretching back to the 1960s, America still has a long ways to go for the fight for equal rights. While the Sexual Revolution might have started on the streets of California, Europeans took it one further than their American counterparts when photos of Brigitte Bardot and other celebrities posing topless on the French Riviera made news around the world. The sense of liberation only increased when most of Europe rejected the condemnation of the Vatican and the Spanish Church, upholding women's rights to bare their breasts. Hopefully America will stop being so prudish when it comes to women's breasts.
RSS Feed