The latest trend in the feminist fight to victimize
themselves to gain an advantage over men involves the attempt to desexualize a
woman’s breasts, in the campaign they call “Free the Nipple”. The campaign
describes its goals on its website, which is hard to see over the background of
women taking their shirts off:
Free The Nipple is a film, an
equality movement, and a mission to empower women across the world. We stand
against female oppression and censorship, both in the United States and around
the globe. Today, in the USA it is effectively ILLEGAL for a woman to be
topless, breastfeeding included, in 35 states. In less tolerant places like
Louisiana, an exposed nipple can take a woman to jail for up to three years and
cost $2,500 in fines. Even in New York City, which legalized public toplessness
in 1992, the NYPD continues to arrest women. We’re working to change these
inequalities through film, social media, and a grassroots campaign.
Could it even be a liberal campaign without use of the word
“tolerant”?
Twitter too has been abuzz with the use of “#freethenippple”:
Why is it that a females body has
somehow become taboo?! No it's beautiful and a women can do what she wants with
it!!🌺 #freethenippple
Personally offended that my nipples
are considered more offensive than a mans and I can't tan topless.
#freethenippple
Because I have nipples and so does
everybody else. Stop sexualizing our bodies. #freethenippple
#freethenippple not because i want
to walk around shirtless but because its important that i could if i wanted to
Perhaps Free the Nipple should start with a grammar lesson
for its supporters.
A principle that has been in civilized societies for thousands
of years is suddenly a problem for feminists. It is so oppressive that a
campaign must be launched to do something about.
I never heard Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Cady Stanton
talk about how they need to walk around topless to desensitize society. That
would seem to be quite unbecoming of them. Then again, there are few things
that these women would agree with in today’s feminism.
Why has this never been an issue before? One hundred years
ago, even fifty years ago there were no activists walking around topless with
tape x-ing out their nipples. We must be more enlightened nowadays.
Women’s breasts serve a functional purpose. Men’s do not.
Men don’t really have breasts, just chests. When they do, it is considered a
condition, an abnormality. There are obvious differences between the function
and appearance of a woman’s nipple and chest versus a man’s.
So are those facts a big deal? Not necessarily. Modesty is
important, I believe, and this is where everyone, men and women, are lacking.
Immodesty is everywhere we look. There is no care about it. No innocence.
Children at a young age are introduced to more than they should be.
This particular movement is as much a laughingstock as
feminism as a whole is. They are honestly parading around topless, making films,
and using hashtags on Twitter all so they can have the right to expose
themselves further in public. They aren’t simply going topless, they are
calling specific attention to their breasts. They are trying to desexualize
their bodies by sexualizing their bodies. Any given man walking down the street
of New York City may be at risk of seeing feminists walking down the street
with nothing covering their breasts except possibly an x. The first thought of
that man will not be, “I’ve been waiting for women to finally be equal in their
right to expose themselves; I’m so glad it’s happening.” The first response
will likely be sexual. Fifty years ago it wasn’t even an issue, as no one would
want to boil themselves down to a sexual object. That is exactly what this
campaign accomplishes. When a man or woman walks around in revealing clothing
there will be less of a focus on who they are and more of a focus on what they
look like and what they can do for another person. If you want your bodies to
be desexualized then stop walking around in clothing that sexualizes you. (This
works both ways; it is akin to a man parading in a speedo, announcing that he
should have the full right to do so and calling specific attention to his body
parts, then being angry that he is being sexualized by the women around him.)
You will gain more respect and have more of a focus on your personality if you
would just cover up what should be covered up. Men and women.
Another issue with the movement is the obvious
discrimination. Yes, that’s right. If you happen to run across any photos from
the movement’s demonstrations in New York, you will find that all the women fit
into a certain body type. So much for body positivity. All the women are young,
pretty thin and at least somewhat attractive. So what exactly are they fighting
for? You can go around and show off your breasts – as long as you are young and
pretty. You can’t be too fat. Or too old. Or too ugly. You have to fit in with
us. These words are spoken through the actions of the Free the Nipple campaign
because they have yet to have someone different from themselves and their body
types in the movement.
I am still waiting for the Free the Nipple campaign to roll
into a place where showing their nipples is illegal. Perhaps they have and I’ve
just missed it. But everything I’ve seen was in New York City, where it is already
legal. Yeah, let’s have a demonstration complaining about how showing our
nipples is illegal in a place where it is legal. Swell. People who cared deeply
about their movement were willing to break laws they felt were unjust. The
Underground Railroad harbored escaped slaves. The Civil Rights Movement of the
1950s and 60s took part in sit-ins in all-white establishments. The Pro-Life
Movement blocked the doors of abortion facilities. Where is the risk? If this
is so oppressive, where is the risk of arrest to prove that the laws are unjust?
They know the answer that many of us have long figured out.
Their movement is meaningless. Feminism is unnecessary today. There is no wage
gap. There is no rape culture. There is no oppression. A female friend of mine
had this to say on Facebook about the Free the Nipple campaign:
…meanwhile around the world young
girls have their genitals mutilated for chastity, are shot in the head for
going to school, are forced into child marriages, abused, exploited, and
trafficked in the millions but by all means, let’s focus on the important
issues …Btw women in Saudi Arabia are legally banned from driving or entering
libraries… Just saying
I think she nailed it. American feminists have no legitimate
claims to inequality. There might still be more male CEOs, but there are plenty
of solid female CEOs because they decided to work hard and compete with the men
and other women instead of wasting their time running around a city with no
shirt on and claiming they are oppressed. It’s no secret that when someone
pulls himself or herself up by their bootstraps, stops making excuses and works
hard, they can be successful. Feminism in America does not want to have their
demands met because they would have to find something else to whine about. They
already stretch the truth enough as is to act like a victim of patriarchy.
Meanwhile we have women in the highest company positions, women in Congress,
the presidential cabinet, the Supreme Court, and running for president. The
glass ceiling was broken long ago. Stop crying in the corner and start
climbing.
There is a stark and profound comparison when we look at
other countries. Five years ago Time Magazine had a picture of a woman in
Afghanistan that had her nose and ears cut off while trying to escape from her
abusive husband. Girls attempting to go to school have been attacked with acid.
Women in Saudi Arabia cannot go anywhere without a male chaperone, wear
anything that “shows off their beauty”, drive, vote, swim, try on clothes in
stores, or compete in sports.[1]
Women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are systematically raped to
inflict terror on citizens. In Nepal, they are married off young or trafficked
as sex slaves. One in twenty-four women die in childbirth. The number is one in
ten in Mali, where genital mutilation is the norm. They face domestic violence,
rape and the second-highest HIV rate in Guatemala. In Pakistan, any woman
attempting to run for office and anyone helping oppressed women, including
human rights workers, are the targets of honor killings. They are also
gang-raped as punishment for a man’s crime. In anarchic Somalia, women are
subjected to daily rapes and are attacked by armed gangs.[2]
I am sure these women would express their deepest gratitude
that you care about them enough to fight for their right to parade around
topless. Doubtless they think it is the biggest oppression they face as well.
Unspeakable atrocities as America has never known are part
of the daily lives of women in other countries. To the American feminists, the
most important thing right now is being able to show their nipples in public.
That has to be a greater priority than gang-rapes, genital mutilation and sex
trafficking.
There are problems in the U.S. as well. An estimated 100,000
child sex slaves are believed to be in the United States every year with
another 293,000 at risk. Worldwide, there are between 20 and 30 million sex
slaves. By age 50, one in three American women have had an abortion, with many
regretting theirs. They become more likely to develop breast cancer, have
psychiatric problems, and commit suicide. Around 40% felt pressured into their
abortion and wanted to keep their child. Some are forced into one. It enables
both sex trafficking and pornography, which are also oppressive to women.
Undoubtedly, half of the 2900 daily victims of abortion are female. Yet radical
feminism supports abortion and somehow thinks it is legitimate in its
opposition to sex trafficking and pornography.
There are fights to be had. But instead of fighting for what
matters, feminism clings to inaccurate statistics and aims to be as obscene as
possible. Burning bras, walking around topless, becoming lesbians, and using
eight year-olds spewing foul language to get your lies and propaganda across
will not earn you respect or change anything. It will only show you to be the
illegitimate movement you are. It will keep you in the spotlight, keep you in
the conversation. Some people might even buy it. If you are that tenacious, you
could be a valuable asset in a movement that is worth something. But I don’t
think you are. Playing the victim is cowardly. You are afraid to do anything
that might take the lights off of you and place them on victims. Selfish people
do not take part in selfless acts.
You might be able to convince some like you that your
actions actually matter, but I won’t buy it. There are too many oppressions in
our own borders and across the world to waste my time on letting you flaunt
your bodies to somehow prove that you are a victim. Help victims for a change
instead of creating them.
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