Some time ago we noticed that our website was being picked up on social media by several feminist action groups. We didn’t pay too much attention to that at the moment because we like to think that everything we write is women friendly. But somewhere in the back of our heads this realization got stuck and from time to time we wondered, how does feminism benefit from nudism? Naked protests have always been a good way to attract media attention and certainly if it included a fair amount of female nipples. We don’t have to joke about it, it is what it is. More than once naked feminists have appeared in the media fighting for women’s rights and the following is a great example why they are completely right to do so.
#FreeTheNipple
One of the most known feminist movements these days is #FreeTheNipple. The general idea is simple, men are free to walk the streets bare chested and women are not. And that’s not fair. Why should a women’s chest be sexualized and a men’s chest not? If you think about it, it really doesn’t make any sense.
But of course the movement is not just about the fight for women to be allowed to show their breasts in public, it’s about equal rights in general.
We are both big fans of feminism and female rights, but we are no activists. Mainly because personally we haven’t really come across unequal treatment in our personal lives. You could call it laziness or selfishness but in our environment unfair treatment of women seems to be limited, which is of course very good.
But back to Free The Nipple. As we already mentioned in our previous article about Nudism 2.0, nudity is often used as a way to gain attention to certain protests. We don’t always appreciate this, if the reason of the protest has nothing to do with the nudist lifestyle or the human body, it’s just a way to gain attention. Yes, if we wanted the local supermarket to have better opening hours we would probably reach the local media if we would be protesting naked. At least we would get more attention than if we’d wear our regular clothes. But that doesn’t benefit nudism, on the other hand, it would probably do harm to nudism.
For Free The Nipple this is different, although acceptation of naked female chests is only the tag line, their actions will certainly benefit both feminism and nudism.
Equality
Equality can be considered one of the top 3 core values in the nudist lifestyle, if not number one. By removing our clothes we also remove many superficial borders. Suddenly people don’t see anymore whether we’re wearing 3 euro clothes or 3000 euro clothes. Clothes can tell a lot about a person, a lot of superficial things that is. By the clothes you can often see whether someone is rich or poor, what kind of business they’re in and what kind of people they like to meet. And funny enough, most of that appearance is pure fake. How many women are walking around with fake Burberry purses? And how many women have bought a fake Prada purse to conquer with that Burberry?
For nudists, this superficial border melts like snow in the sun. Yes, you could have a towel from some expensive brand, but really, don’t spend the money because nobody will be impressed.
And the equality goes much further than that. Because we, nudists, are not sexualising the naked body, we also don’t make the difference between men and women. A nudist place is probably one of the only social places where we don’t have to think about what to wear, where we don’t have to show people who we are, or even more, where we don’t try to make people believe who we want them to believe we are. It’s getting complicated doesn’t it?
The point is that we’re not trying to impress anyone. We are who we are, long or short, rich or poor, black or white, man or woman. We’re all equal.
Can we help?
Basically, the nudists and the feminists are fighting the same fight. Even though we’re not exactly the same people, we are trying to gain acceptance and equality for a certain group. All we want is to be treated equally, men and women, nudists and textiles.
We welcome all feminists to get into nudism so they can enjoy a lifestyle free of harassment and unfairness, a lifestyle where everyone is the same, a lifestyle without a sexual undertone towards women.
We can fight together for our rights, for human rights and for a better, more equal world.
Even though we all look different, we’re all the same.
Picture credit: The photos in this post are coming from Google and Twitter. If you find one of yourself and you don’t want it to be on our blog, let us know and we’ll remove it.
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Nick and Lins,
I’m sounding like a broken record (dating myself with that reference) — nice post. I’ve always found activism as an interesting aspect of nudism. But I rarely see the true connection between the two since often times, nudity simply as a tool to draw attention to the cause, not necessarily as the cause itself. In fact, I often view such displays with trepidation because while it may be helpful to their cause, it may not be, and usually isn’t, helpful to naturism. But for movements like “Free the Nipple” are a little different, since nudity is an aspect of the cause itself.
I agree, when you really think about it, it’s amazing that Female Toplessness is an issue in any way. Any argument as to why toplessness is a problem borders on the absurd. I mean….it’s a nipple. We all have them. Does anyone really feel offended at the sight of a female breast. Really?! It’s nuts.
On my family’s first trip to a beach in Spain, my wife was thrilled at the opportunity to shed her top. She didn’t hesitate for a second and my kids weren’t phased in the slightest. She didn’t just hunker down on our towels and slip out of her top while laying face down to avoid a tan line. She took it off, packed it away, played in the waves, walked he beach, talked to other families on the beach…. She felt empowered and free. You could actually see the confidence and happiness on her face.
One thing I would notice on our many beach trips during that holiday — once one woman shed her top, others would frequently follow. I recall one Spainish mother of two tweener boys taking up residence shortly after we had arrived. I noticed the woman giving my wife, who was topless and playing paddleball with my sons, a lot of attention. Then, somewhat suddenly, the stood up, removed her top and literally threw it down, with her son’s and husband looking at her with expressions showing a mix of shock and bewilderment. Clearly this wasn’t the norm for them. An argument in very quickly spoken Spanish followed with the husband marching off for a walk to cool off. But she remained topless for the rest of the day. At one point she looked over at my wife, smiled and nodded, as an acknowledgement of their solidarity.
Anyway, a nice post. Apologies for clogging up your comment board.
Cheers!
Naturistthoughts
[email protected]
Indeed, nudity is often used as a way to draw attention, but we do believe that in the end it will help normalizing nudity. Especially when it’s used for good causes of course…
We love your story about the Spanish beach, it really shows that some people just need a little push in the back and that afterwards they feel totally confident about it.
Just common sense. I think most women have been taught values differently than men. Many wrongly assume exposing their breasts to be sinful, sexual, and socially wrong. As a person who has been in social situations where women have been topless, I can attest, that while pleasant, it is not sexual unless someone makes it so. It soon becomes both comfortable and maybe a little boring.
I remember the first time I went to a clothing optional beach on the Costa del Sol and was quite interested in watching the naked women walking along the beach…for about 15 minutes. After that, I was deciding where I was going to eat lunch.
It isn’t topless women that should be restricted by laws on beaches or at pool sides (or any other place!), it is the kind of loud mouthed objectors or the suddenly outraged onlookers who feel they have a duty to safeguard their children ! What exactly are they worried about if a school child suddenly sees breasts? What danger is a naked person (male or female) to others ? Please stop worrying and getting panic stricken, there are many much more serious threats out there in the world, you will not be fatally hurt by nudity of any kind.
Something we read in the paper the other day: A woman had filed a complaint against another woman at a (textile) family resort because the other woman was sunbathing topless. People asked her why she filed the complaint, “is it maybe because you don’t want your children to see naked breasts?”
She replied: “no, I don’t want my husband to see naked breasts”.
Stuff to think about…