#FreeTheNipple: Women Are Covering Their Offending Nipples With Male Ones
The short version of social media’s opinion on nipples is: Male nipples, good. Female nipples, bad.
The long version is that Facebook and Instagram currently allow photos of female nipples only if they’re actively breastfeeding or have post-mastectomy scars, but not in any other way, shape or form.
Double standards! some people cried. Duh! said others. It was the regulation of female nipples that started the whole #FreeTheNipple movement in the first place, although that hashtag is now ENTIRELY NSFW, and has been taken over by hardcore porn.
We’re currently seeing an uplift in the #FreeTheNipple movement: women are protesting the double standards by posting photos to Instagram with their offensive female nipples covered up by perfectly allowed male nipples.
A photo posted by My name is Anna Goodman. (@annargoods) on
The male nipple template was actually created by L.A. based artist Micol Hebron last year, who chucked it up on Facebook with a cheery: “Use this acceptable nipple template to cover the offending female nipples with socially acceptable male nipples. You’re welcome.”
Hebron says that the ban is “a way of controlling women’s bodies, and disempowering us. It’s offensive because it turns the body into an object.”
It’s a view shared by many feminists – though of course not all, because the millions of women who identify as feminists are lo and behold, different people with different views.
In the past Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, and most recently Chrissy Tegan have all had photos removed from Instagram for letting their nips fly free, with other famous names like Cara Delevingne, Kendall Jenner, and Willow Smith supporting the movement.
