Free The Nipple Takes Its Protest To The Streets Of NYC

The #FreeTheNipple movement, started to protest Instagram's puritanical stance on nudity, has had its share of celebrity support from Scout Willis to Caitlin Stasey, but now a group of non-celebs are taking the protest to the streets of New York City.

The Huffington Post UK (link below) covered the event, and it was looked like a nipple-tastic good time as close to two dozen women bared their nips in support of the movement. 

Actress-turned filmmaker Lina Esco is the creator of the hashtag as well as the soon-to-be-released film of the same name. She enlisted around 20 men and women in New York’s Washington Square Park to bare their nipples and hand out stickers on Sunday.

Though we're certainly enjoying all this nudity, the movement has a much more serious agenda according to Esco.

"What we are trying to do is not about nipples – ‘free the nipple’ is our Trojan horse, but it's about the bigger issues, the things that affect us daily and in the long run. We are in no way encouraging anyone to walk around naked. It's not about sitting at the cafe with a glass of wine and no shirt on - it's about the fact that a woman cannot sunbathe without her shirt on next to a man that has every right to do so. It's about a woman breast feeding her child in public and most likely being shamed for doing so. It's incredible that Instagram approves of imagery that sells automatic weapons that could potentially murder dozens of people, but they won't allow a non-sexual image of a woman walking in New York City with her shirt off where she has every legal right to do so. We started this with our scripted feature film which tells the story of a young women in New York City protesting topless to bring awareness to the extreme lack of balance in our culture where violence is glorified and the female body is still lewd and offensive.”

I agree with all of these sentiments, but it's a tad disheartening that all of these ladies fit this mold of rail thin with perky tits. What about all the sexy ladies with a few extra pounds, or ones whose boobs have actually been fed on by babies and succumbed to gravity a bit? I'm all for freeing the nipple, but let's free ALL the nipples. Just a suggestion. 

Via The Huffington Post UK