Oh how lucky we are ladies, because as of recently when it comes to covering our girls, we’ve got options. Channeling our bra-burning sisters of the past (let’s embrace the stereotype, shall we?), we have thrown the overly padded, wire-poking bras of our high school days out the window in favor of much more freeing options. After trying out the newest trend of the bralette, the idea of putting on even our most comfortable Victoria’s Secret number seems insane. But the liberation from those contraptions of elastic and wire doesn’t stop there. Women have opted to replace their bras with bandeaus, sticky boobs, Band-Aids, duck tape, and even nothing at all. With all of the great strides that feminism has made in the past few decades, is this anti-bra trend a true Free the Nipple rebellion, or just another sexified moment in fashion?
Recent fashion trends have created a need for options other than the typical bra. Even strapless bras no longer cut it to discretely cover up our girls. Backless tops and dresses have made it hard and almost taboo to have any kind of exposed straps. Wearing this new trend leaves women resorting to covering their nips with sticky boobs, or when those are even too much, using Band-Aids or tape. Even wearing something more substantial like a bralette or bandeau is used more as a lacy accessory rather than a necessary covering option. No longer confining our girls to their bra-shaped prisons feels liberating, fun, and a little bit rebellious. Maybe our radical feminist sisters of the past had the right idea when they threw their bras into the fire.
Yet, as we light our metaphorical bonfires and embrace this newfound freedom from our bras, we must ask ourselves, are we actually making strides to #FreetheNipple, or is this trend merely a further sexualization of our breasts? The effect of wearing a push-up bra in a low cut top is no longer the end-all-be-all of looking sexy. Now it seems that barely-there coverage, no cleavage necessary, is the new sexy. Seeming like we are wearing nothing under our silky, back-exposing shirts feels sultry and suggestive. Covering up the bare minimum, but exposing the rest suggests that the female nipple is still very sexualized and therefore inappropriate to expose in public. In fact, in most states it is actually illegal for a woman to be completely topless in public. We may have freed ourselves from the bra, but it seems that we have yet to escape the sexualization of our breasts.
Although we still have a ways to go, this anti-bra movement does have the potential to be a real liberation for women. It is amazing to feel uninhibited to go braless in public, for our bodies but also for our minds. We are free to be comfortable with our bodies by not having to wear anything that controls, shapes, or restricts our natural selves. If we want this movement to keep going, to be something bigger than just the fashion trend of the moment, we need to keep working towards normalizing and desexualizing the female nipple. Our bodies are our bodies, and everyone should feel unrestricted from the confines of sexualization. So go ahead and burn those bras ladies, this one’s for the girls.
Read more about the Free the Nipple Movement here:http://freethenipple.com