Now that I've got your attention...
she is not a porn category or the type you look for on a Friday night she is not needy or weak or easy
- the sun and her flowers, rupi kaur
Note to self: “Primum non nocere: First, do no harm”.
Everyone sort of knows, but no one really knows about Free the Nipple. The movement began in 2012 when Lina Esco released her film ‘Free the Nipple’. The comedic and political film shook many out of their comfortable way of thinking when Esco explained, “I came up with ‘free the nipple’ because it’s engaging and funny – and the fuel we needed to start a serious dialogue about gender equality. You can pay to see women topless in porn videos and strip clubs, but the moment a woman owns her body, it’s shameful. The normalisation of the nipple will take time.”
When men and women body shame one another, we perpetuate a culture of hate that disrespects the human body. In 2017, the nipple trend was popping - literally - with celebrities like Kylie and Kendall Jenner revealing their nipple piercings, and designers creating new styles that accommodate and flatter the bare nipple. Today, small boobs, saggy boobs, asymmetrical boobs, and unique nipples are being celebrated. Underboob and sideboob is trending, and a zeitgeist of femininity is being exuded through bralettes and daintier tops. This year the female nipple is not hiding; it’s unapologetic and is even making appearances on global runways, such as at the British Fashion Week in June this year, for the first time.
Bronwyn Trafford, a third year Rhodes student and model, posted a revealing photo on Instagram with her nipples showing, captioned ‘Darling, don’t be afraid.’ To a following of 2 023, the photo received 521 likes, pretty high ratio. Her responses to the photo on Instagram have been positive, with 27 comments from women expressing their adoration of the photo.
“I expect women to call me derogatory names but the feedback from them has been better than from men. The attention from men is a lot less uplifting. I feel like they want more and more. A male likes a photo like this because it turns him on, not because of its empowering message,” said Trafford. This attention from men proves the over-sexualisation of yet another female body, and that the male gaze is everywhere. The male gaze? You know, that thing that makes it an undeniable fact that men traditionally controlled the camera, behind which women were an object, and this created the long-lasting image of women as an object for everyone else to see through the lense (i.e gaze) of a male. Patriarchy, misogyny, hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity, damn, what am I missing?
Let me break it down for you real quick, Wikipedia style:
1. Patriarchy: systems and institutions of society in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.
2. Misogyny: dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.
3. Hegemonic masculinity: a practice that legitimizes men's dominant position in society and justifies the subordination of women, and other marginalized ways of being a man.
4. Emphasized femininity: the idea that body modification is a phenomenon in Western culture and reinforced through the portrayal of “acceptable” appearances, which are specific to each gender, in commercial media.
Zama Twala, 22-year-old Rhodes graduate, has similarly felt liberated but also sexualised for freeing her nipple, to a certain extent. Twala recently had her nipple pierced describes “it’s a celebration of my womanhood. It’s a modest way to show sexiness – both for myself and during intimacy. It’s not for anyone else to perverse over or feel entitled to.”
Although we're making waves and we have bounced all over the place, it’s still gutsy, when a woman dares to walk down the street without a bra, or decides to get her nipple pierced. But I am here for that! And all the women who are about that. Men, when we tell you to stop looking at us lustfully because we feel uncomfortable - stop. When we tell you that your catcalling is harassment and not a compliment as we walk down the street, midday - understand. When we do the same, in a low-cut top and no bra on at night - listen. Women, let's lift one another up instead of pulling one another down with our careless insults. You don’t have a right to anyone's body because they choose to reveal it.
We are not weak, or easy, or needy. Primum non nocere. Live carefully, listen intently, and try to do no harm.
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