Free the Nipple!

Big news from London Fashion Week! According to bustle.com, the famous fashion show’s “biggest runway movement continues to be freeing the nipple.”

On the face of it, the Free The Nipple “movement” is the fashion industry's collective effort to liberate female papilla from the slavery of binding garments and the shame and double standard of concealment.

There’s a lot more to it than that. But make no mistake, there’s...

Nothing New Here

Nipple freedom is the logical extension of a movement that began as far back as 1873. That's when feminist Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward urged women to...

Burn up the corsets! Make a bonfire of the cruel steels that have lorded it over your thorax and abdomens for so many years and heave a sigh of relief, for your emancipation I assure you, from this moment has begun.

Ninety-five years later, some 200 women gathered at the Atlantic City boardwalk to continue Ms. Ward's legacy.

Protesting the sexist stereotypes perpetuated by The Miss America pageant, the activists filled a "Freedom Trash Can" with bras, hairspray, makeup, girdles, corsets, false eyelashes, mops and other items symbolizing subjugation, exploitation and enslavement.

Although the police prevented organizers from setting the Freedom Trash Can on fire, reporter Lindsay Van Graham famously equated feminists burning bras with Vietnam War protesters burning draft cards.

The Women's Liberation Movement accepted Van Graham's metaphor as a badge of pride. Public bra burning became a thing.

Political Agitation or Marketing Misegos?

In this they were aided and abetted by the male-dominated mass media, more-than-happy to perpetuate the "bra-burning feminist" trope.

Note: undergarments were just a small part of the Freedom Trash Can's contents. Also note: today's runway supremos have no problem preparing their models with hairspray, makeup and false eyelashes; not to mention turning a blind eye to eating disorders.

And yet the fashion industry has the chutzpah to sell its embrace of #freethenipple as doing its bit for women’s rights. Advocating, they say, for gender equality.

This may have a little something to do with the male-dominated fashion industry's desire to exploit Free the Nipple for approval, attention (not to say titillation) and, thus, sales.

No surprise, then, that the Free the Nipple runway “movement” is fading like last year’s collection. bustle says exposed mamilla have lost their [marketable] shock value. "Nips aren’t the star," bustle proclaims. "They’re just... there."

Freed nips are there on runways in New York, Milan and London, but nowhere to be seen on American streets. In my extensive travels across the Southeast and Northeast, I’ve seen nary a nip. Nor do they appear on social media (present company excepted).

Is that because of the way men see freed nipples?

A Brief History of Leotards

To answer that question, consider the large number of women who come closethanthis to the freed nipple ideal. Women who wear skin-tight leggings, sports bras, sneakers and nothing else.

How did that happen? Once again, history is our guide.

Once upon a time, women wore "dance leggings" to dance and yoga pants to yoga. When they were done, they donned loose-fitting coverups or changed into traditional clothes.

In 1982, the Original Jane Fonda Workout tape rewrote the script.

The first and most famous of Fonda’s workout videos became the best-selling home video of all time, finding its way into some 17m homes.

In the process, “Hanoi Jane” mainstreamed leotards and leg warmers. BUT they were stuck indoors.

What A Feeling!

Flashdance opened the sartorial floodgates.

The 1983 hit movie’s heroine was hooked on leggings, leg warmers, leotards and an off-the-shoulder sweatshirt (disguising the fact that the movie’s dancer was a body double).

Flashdance was, debatably, a feminist movie. On one hand, Alex is a strong, independent woman: a welder by day who relies heavily on her camaraderie with other women. On the other hand, Alex's success is tied to banging her boss.

Regardless, Flashdance made tens of millions of American women even more Fonda fitness apparel.

When 90’s rappers adopted sports gear, everyday athleisure wear hip-hopped out of women’s' living rooms, onto the street.

OK Boomer

As I'm sure you're aware, the athleisure sales boom didn’t die with Boomers. A large part of the style's ongoing success is due to the combination of fitness culture and new textile technology (e.g., Lululemon's Luon, Luxtreme, Nulu and Everlux).

Flashdance forward to today’s Austin. Women donning Lululemon's "next-to-nothing feel" workout wear are everywhere, wearing next to nothing.

A Feminist Statement?

Monica AI provides the current line of thinking on this trend.

Everyone has the right to wear what makes them feel confident and comfortable, regardless of societal opinions. It's important to promote body positivity and respect individual choices in fashion.

In other words, strong, confident, independent, liberated women wear revealing clothes because they're strong, confident, independent, liberated women.

Even if that's true, this particular fashion trend – the obvious precursor to nipple freedom – is both more and less than it seems.

On one hand, sure. Just because most men see women wearing small amounts of skin-tight clothing as sexual objects doesn't mean that a woman wears it enable that view.

On the other hand, wearing clothes perceived by men in a sexual context is hardly likely to change their views about a given women or, say, the patriarchy.

The end result of this obvious dichotomy: friction, and not the good kind.

Men exposed to female exposure in a public setting are subject to strict rules regarding social contact. Don't stare! Don't in any way reveal that you're judging the women's morality or, especially, her sexual availability. In fact, don't approach.

Unless you're a suitable suitor. Someone whom the barely-clad woman deems attractive. A man who can keep his eyes up above her neckline and pretend he didn't initiate contact because of an animal desire to bump uglies.

How does a man know if he's suitable? He doesn't. Not until he approaches. Which he shouldn't do.

Regardless of how they dress in public, women now vet men via an online dating app before they make any real world contact.

Monica AI reveals the cold truth of this cold-shoulder.

Studies suggest that around 20-30% of men might approach women for dates in public settings (italics mine).

Even more troubling...

Research indicates that a notable percentage of men have paused or stopped dating, particularly in recent years. Estimates suggest that around 30-40% of men report being single and not actively dating.

What's Clothes Got To Do It?

I'm in no way saying that women's clothing is anywhere near the most important variable in the current state of the relations between the sexes. Or, for that matter, how society is structured.

But, as the Miss America protesters asserted, clothing choices do have a significant impact. They reflect and project our attitude towards ourselves, or role in society and how we view others, as individuals and as men and women.

Which brings us back to...

Free the Nipple!

It's easy enough to see how a woman exposing her nipples in public could be liberating, in a body positive kinda way.

I applaud and support any woman who frees the nipple for that reason. By the same token, if attracting attractive males or "outing" misogynistic men is the point, again, fair play.

But there's no denying public nipple exposure is confrontational: a dare to men not to see an exposed woman in a sexual way, despite or because of their evolutionary instincts.

As for freeing nipples on the runway, I suspect it's nothing more than the male-dominated industry's ploy to make women buying expensive clothes more comfortable about opening their wallet. Not as cynical as "heroine chic," but close.

Click here to read more of Farago's writing on Substack