http://time.com/4083012/colorado-free-the-nipple-topless-ban/
Written by Bethany Lee Koval
Don’t ask yourself why “Free the Nipple” should be a movement, ask yourself why it shouldn’t be. Ask, why shouldn’t a woman be allowed to roam bare-chested in areas of noted informality, such as a public beach? Ask, why shouldn’t a mother be able to breastfeed her child in an open area? These restrictions are rarely questioned due to their widespread acceptance. Now is our time to question these rules, find their roots and eradicate them.
Firstly, let’s try to find an objective, scientific reason to prove why these actions are inappropriate for women and appropriate for men to partake in. Upon dissecting the anatomy of the average female and male breasts, we find one difference between the two: specialized lobules. The main branch to focus on here of specialized lobules are milk glands, used for milk production and thus, allowing potential to feed a child. Men do not have milk glands, for there is no physiologic need for the male breast to produce them. Besides that, we have one obvious difference in general appearance of the breast’s physical makeup, and that is the plump nature of the female breast. In other primate species, the breasts are only plump when they are filled with milk, meaning the animal is giving birth and later plans to breastfeed. After puberty, a human female has full breasts, even after menopause.
Scientists have theorized that, by an unconscious evolutionary drive, men are biologically programmed to search for a healthy woman to bear their children and enlarged breasts are a sign of this (fertility). But why should a built-in attraction to a woman’s breasts force her to hide in a grimy bathroom stall to feed her crying child? Why should the addition of milk glands prevent a woman from walking bare-chested on a hot summer’s day?
These differences between men and women’s breasts do not answer the main question: why is one more socially acceptable than the other? When we look into our mainstream television media though, we find the answer. Something as simple as a Bud Light commercial screams the message through and through: a female’s chest is inherently sexy, and the main purpose of the female presence in these commercials is to be sexy. Bikini-clad women strolling in slow motion on hot sand, a fit woman in workout clothes performing yoga – this has nothing to do with the product, but it catches the viewer’s attention. This is how a woman is represented in media, and that is reflected into our real life.
As long as a woman’s breasts are treated as explicit and something that needs to be censored, they will continue to be sexualized and monetized in this manner. It’s almost as if the female body has become a purely sexual figure in our society! Why else would a man be able to walk topless, free of burden on his vacation while a woman stands by, strung up in societal norms and sweat? How can we continue to allow our mothers of the world be shamed for feeding their children in restaurants? With feminism on the rise, this blatant inequality simply can not stand as a normality in our society anymore. We are finally progressing, and this is an important step to take to combat the injustice towards women.