For those of you who don't know, the Free the Nipple campaign is another example of women boisterously fighting for equality - in this case, with the assertion that women should be allowed to go topless the way men can. A lot of folks don't know it's actually legal in many places, including Canada for women to go topless... but this doesn't mean women don't catch a lot of flak when they do it. Take this story of three Ontario sisters who got stopped by a police officer for riding their bikes topless on a hot summer day, for example. There is obviously still a taboo when it comes to women showing parts of their bodies that men may freely show. So obviously this is a problem.
The reason it's still seen as inappropriate for women to show their breasts in public is rooted in the sexualization of women's bodies. It's as simple as that. The gentleman I was discussing this with continuously contended "Men are always going to ogle women's breasts! It's biology!" To which I continuously replied "It might be partially biology, but it's mostly socialization." If western men weren't socialized to see women hyper-sexually, women's breasts wouldn't hold this apparent "power" (LAWL). There are countless societies throughout the world in which every member spends their days fully or partially nude, and - unsullied by western patriarchal concepts and convenient power structures - IT ISN'T A THING. We see things largely the way we are taught to see things, and even though men are biologically geared toward procreating, if we didn't raise them in a society where women's bodies were, at best, objects of intense desire and at worst, dirty and shameful, we wouldn't have this issue in the first place.
Not to mention the fact that focusing a person's value on a body part (or two, in this case) completely devalues that person as a whole. Instead of seeing women as fully realized human beings with strength, intelligence, drive and talent (you know, the same things men are valued for), telling women they hold singular power in their bodies simply because men are fucking animals who can't control themselves reduces women to nothing more than their bodies (and is also totally offensive to men, who are absolutely capable of better, obviously).
Look, of course women's bodies are powerful - they have the capacity to build and sustain life, for chrissakes. But that isn't the power this uninformed dudebro was referencing; his idea of the power in women's bodies had nothing to do with the amazing and uniquely female things our bodies can accomplish and everything to do with their value under the male gaze... because clearly the female body's raison d'être is men's enjoyment! This type of inherent misogynist thinking is also evidenced in the way many men react to women breastfeeding in public - as soon as a woman's body is being displayed for reasons other than men's pleasure, it is deemed unacceptable. (Conversely, women who consciously choose to entertain or exploit the male gaze are derided as desperate sluts for seeking male attention... we can't fucking win.) I am aware that there are women who have a similarly negative reaction to seeing other women breastfeed; these reactions also stem directly from the patriarchal structures that have determined our societal attitudes.
And to those who STILL insist that men simply can't help themselves (because biology!), I call bullshit: We are advanced enough mentally and psychologically to move past our biological urges. We have figured out the mathematical constant Pi, we can continuously monitor the Earth from space, and we are moving ever closer to more fully understanding the human brain and body, but we can't move past being uncontrollably titillated by boobies? I don't believe. Feminism holds men to a higher standard, and I hold men to a higher standard, and the suggestion that men are inherently incapable of seeing women's bodies as anything but sexual objects to conquer is damaging to both men and women. (Don't even get me started on the way we talk about the bodies of gender fluid, non-binary and trans folks.)
I challenge you: the next time you see a topless woman in public, take note of your internal reaction and take the time to question where your reaction has come from.
Our bodies aren't shameful, they aren't purely for heteronormative pleasure, and they deserve to be left alone the way men's are left alone. Women's bodies are strong, beautiful and amazing - why shouldn't we be free to celebrate them?! Better yet - let's stop talking about people's bodies altogether.
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