There are a lot of reasons to free the nipple, including to deal a hard blow to patriarchal values, rise above gendered double standards, and enjoy the plentiful health benefits of life without the physical restrictions bras subject us to, just to name a few. In a Tuesday blog post titled “Free the Nipple,” model Kendall Jenner revealed her motives for going braless: she just doesn’t care.
“I really don’t see what the big deal is with going braless! I think it’s cool and I really just don’t care!” Jenner wrote. “I’m not embarrassed by my body.” She continued, “It’s sexy, it’s comfortable, and I’m cool with my breasts. That’s it!” In addition, Jenner noted that going braless and wearing translucent shirts offered her “a fun way to show off my different nipple rings,” because what’s the point of sick jewelry if you can’t show it off?
I have little doubt some variation of shaming, whether it’s slut-shaming or body-shaming, will follow, but honestly, good on Jenner. Free the Nipple is a powerful movement addressing sexist societal double standards and our culture’s disgusting tendency to restrict and sexualize the female body. As Lina Esco, who produced the 2014 film Free the Nipple, told Mottoearlier this year, “It’s absurd that it’s 2016 and we still need to censor one of the most natural organs of a woman’s body. Being topless does not equal nudity. Why is it that you can sell women’s breasts but we can’t wear them?”
However, women who choose to free their nipples don’t have to do so for any specific political motivation. Like Jenner, they can do so just because it’s what they’re comfortable doing, or because, frankly, they don’t give a fuck what people think. In a society that routinely shames women for just about everything, that’s just great.
While Jenner’s post was primarily a nod to the Free the Nipple movement, Jenner additionally promoted body positivity by encouraging women to do what they feel most comfortable doing with their bodies, feel no shame or embarrassment, and disregard others’ opinions of them.
To Jenner, freeing the nipple doesn’t appear to mean walking topless in the streets, which is just fine if she’s not comfortable doing that. According to her blog post, she’s mostly just interested in ditching bras because most of them are uncomfortable as all hell. Given the Kardashian-Jenner clan’s profound influence on culture and society, here’s to hoping other young women are inspired by Jenner to follow their bliss, because God knows there’s no shortage of health benefits in doing so.
Original by: @kylietcheung
