Thoughts on Wellington’s ‘Free the nipple’ protest
There’s a ‘free the nipple’ protest in Wellington.
Of course there is, and of course it’s in Wellington…
Wellington ‘free the nipple’ event: Gender equality or open ticket for harassment?
A ‘free the nipple’ event planned for Wellington this weekend has been organised in the name of gender equality, but naysayers claim it will simply put women at risk of predators.
Hundreds of bare-chested women are expected to converge on Oriental Bay on Saturday for ‘Wellington Free the Nipple Beach Day’.
More than 1100 people have registered their interest in the event, with organiser Pollyanna Besley encouraging them to “do something that they may want to do, but be too scared to do alone”.
Now, as a cis white male who benefits from the patriarchy (despite not supporting it), I have to check my privilege and not start mansplaining (as if explaining ones thoughts on an issue is a bad thing) because free the nipple protests seem to me to be identity politics at its most elitist, middle class and alienating.
That said, white cis males have no place telling women how they should define their activism or their feminism, women have been told for centuries how they can behave and how they can define their identity, let’s not repeat those mistakes in an age we like to think of as progressive.
The issue at hand as I see it, is the rights and freedom for women to be as legally topless as men and to not have to put up with unwanted attention while being topless in public.
It’s pretty difficult to not view that mindset as bewilderingly millennial in its self focus, and we shouldn’t be surprised. Millennial’s are the first generation submerged in user pays, self interest has taken on almost supernatural powers. Gone are the concepts of solidarity where the ‘we’ and the ‘us’ were legitimisers, we now have free market Identity Politics where equality is for ME.
I wonder how bewilderingly alienating ‘Free the nipple’ protests are for working women, women of colour, women of class. Their issues are sexual harassment in the work place, their issues are the appallingly high and sexist wage gap, their issues are getting home safe after work, their issues are around their children’s education and health, their issues are about affording the bills this week.
‘Free the nipple’ looks incredibly trite and banal when set against those concerns.
If women wish to show their nipples in public, good for them, and they should do so without unwanted attention, but when compared to real issues that impact real women and men in society, ‘free the nipple’ comes across as about as elitist and alienating as the Wellington Twitteratti.
But then again, I’m a cis male, so what do I know?
If freeing the nipple is really the most pressing social issue in your life right now, you might need to get out more.
It’s alright for skinny girls with tiny boobs who aren’t particularly active, but for me, it’s necessary to cover and support mine for their protection. I don’t cover them for any other reason.
This sort of protest is sooo last century.
If gender equality truly existed then men would be able to give birth.
Just as people born fat will never run as fast as people who are born athletic, some things cannot change much despite our best intentions.
Dave, your comments are ridiculous.
That is a matter of biology. That cannot be changed (yet).
Sexism is an attitude, and just as we abandoned the notion of owning African slaves or denying women the right to vote, so can sexist discrimination be changed.
Really? You need to read up on history, Dave, instead of making glib pronouncements like that.
Human history is an ever-changing landscape of change and advancement.
A thousand years ago, you would’ve been an illiterate serf grubbing around in the mud for your local Over-lord.
Today, you’re a free citizen, able to vote for your Over-lords, and at liberty to write asinine things on the internet.
I’d say that’s human progress, wouldn’t you?
Well Dave if you want to expeerience the joys of childbirth, let me demonstrate by taking a very fat cucumber and bending you over and…….
Men like you repulse me.
Yes on the face of it I understand you thinking this is trivial however it is one part of the huge and important issue of gender politics. Images are everywhere of woman showing practically everything of their boobs often in highly sexual and seductive poses in the name of advertising. But for woman to go topless say at the beach causes an outrage! I don’t think these protesters want to necessarily romp around topless all day and at work etc but want to make a point of equality. I am personally not interested in wandering around top less but would love to feel free to go topless when I’m at the beach. And when I see men strutting around the street floppy man boobs and all I get really pissed off that they have the freedom to do it and if I did it (I’m over 50) I would more than likely get arrested. Just another thing that makes us unequal. So I say good on you girls. Make your point.
Fair point OY VEY – KA PAI
Well said Martyn,
By the way I prefer full bodied women, and if I walk around showing my upper torso why not women?
gee we are all part of the human race aren’t we?
Hmmm, isn’t that the same argument made that women must not be out at night, alone, unescorted by their propertied-menfolk?
Isn’t that the same argument used last century (and still exists in some areas of New Zealand society) that women wearing miniskirts were “at risk from predators”? (And therefore “brought it on themselves if they were harassed or attacked?)
And isn’t that the very argument used in some societies where women are viewed as second or third class citizens, and must cover up, head-to-foot?
Or the reverse-argument used by misguided individuals in some Western societies? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/24/woman-forced-to-remove-burkini-on-nice-beach-while-another-given/
Interesting to note that this ceased to be a matter of concern well over a hundred years ago – in nudist camps.
By the way, I wonder if this really is an elitist protest?
My partner referred me to this issue this afternoon and I asked her if she wanted to attend. She was reluctant to expose her breasts in public, whereas I saw no reason to hesitate. To her, it was an uncomfortable, threatening situation whereas I felt no such discomfort or threat to my personal safety.
A point under-scored by the media report above which stated; ” it will simply put women at risk of predators”.
If that’s not a veiled threat to “know your place woman/person of colour/LGBT” – then I don’t know what is.
This shows that there are still subtle social pressures which give men certain freedoms, based solely on gender, that are denied women.
I think a bigger problem they might have are prying eyes or in this case more likely people with powerful camera’s – you don’t need to be close to wield a 16 megapixel camera in inappropriate ways, something I am sure has not escaped any devious minds out there looking for a photo or four that they shouldn’t take.
So nice to see men deciding what is “safe” for us women and what isn’t. Do I need to have a male family member escort me to my local New World?