The Free the Nipple movement looms large across social media. Their bawdy Instagram account and their combative Twitter feed, both proudly present, or at least try to present, the female nipple. The movement has benefitted from the support of many big names, like Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and Rita Ora and all but one of the April 2015 Vogue cover girls using their own Instagram accounts to support the movement, with Suki posting a picture of her infamous ‘tata top’ and Cara a topless picture accompanied with the simple hashtag #freethenipple. Even their co-star Georgia May Jagger walked in Karl Lagerfeld’s Spring ’15 catwalk protest, when models used placards and megaphones to transform feminism into a fashion accessory.
The movement argues that female nipples are sexualised in a way that their male equivalents are not and, on a wider level, that women are shamed for their bodies and bodily functions. Instagram, whilst acting as a platform for the movement, is also a hindrance to it, illustrating perfectly why the movement is necessary. Artists such as Rupi Kaur and Petra Collins have previously found their work deleted by the website and branded as inappropriate for exhibiting period stains and female pubic hair. While highly sexual photos of women with their nipples visible are appropriate, photos of women breastfeeding are deemed vulgar by the website. Clearly, we have a problem. The movement seeks to give women the same freedom over their bodies as men and illustrate that women’s bodies don’t have to be commercially consumable to be acceptable.
Nipples are back. And what’s more, thanks to the help of models and designers, they’re also in vogue, à la mode – whatever else you want to call it. The days of Friends, where Rachel and Monica walk around with their nipples proudly visible through their crop tops, are no longer a distant memory. The recent Autumn Winter 15 shows featured topless models in Paris at the Jacquemus show, leather breast-shaped bags at Lemaire and ‘orgy dresses’ at Christopher Kane’s show in London. Indeed, model Lida Fox was reported by style.com as saying that now was the ‘perfect time’ for her so-called ‘mono boob dress’ at the Saint Laurent show, because of the increasing influence and acceptance of the feminist movement in mass media and culture.
However, the movement is simultaneously undeniably problematic. The nipple may not be becoming ‘free’, it is just being packaged and sold in a different way. The breasts that we see exposed in the name of the Free the Nipple movement are all too often perky, small and white. Though the recent exposure of the Feminist society at the Commercial College of Iceland showed us breasts all of shapes and sizes, they, again, were all decidedly white. Indeed, we must now consider that not all women have breasts and vaginas as the concept of gender becomes looser and looser and people begin to explore all the facets of their gender.
But is the exposure of white nipples really so revolutionary for women across the world? Perhaps not. As aesthetically pleasing and jealousy inducing as Cara’s nipples are, we need more than that. We need to see the nipples of ordinary women. Yes, the fashion industry is giving feminism the exposure it deserves, but I’m afraid that instead of liberating women, it’s just beginning to constrain them in a different way. Though freedom of women is becoming greater with this movement, it is freedom only for the girls and women whose nipples fit into the criterion the fashion industry is laying down – pert and tiny. Rosa Luxemburg said, though perhaps in a slightly different context, “Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters.” If those women with nipples that apparently aren’t sexy and fashionable don’t have the freedom to bare all, then not much progress has been made.
I may seem pessimistic. Feminism is receiving the most attention it has for decades, and women everywhere are proclaiming their belief and faith in the movement. Exposure of the Free the Nipple movement from an industry as controversial as the fashion industry can only raise its profile even more. But we must be mindful. By excluding women who aren’t white and skinny from the movement, it’s credibility and efficacy is reduced. The Icelandic women who hit back are to be admired. I wish all women felt brave enough to do that. It has to be all women; not just those of us who are white. Celebrity support is unassailably a massive advantage, but they should not become the face of a movement that should be aimed at helping women regardless of size or race.
