A Beginner's Guide to the "Free the Nipple" Movement

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Simply put, the objective is to strip away (pun not intended) the taboo of exposed female nipples. A major point is that if guys can walk around topless, why can't women? Keep in mind that being topless in public isn't technically illegal in much of the U.S.

Technically yes. It's only illegal for a woman to be topless in three states (Utah, Indiana, and Tennessee). For those curious about those laws, GoTopless.org has been monitoring and tracking topless and top-free laws state by state and notes the 33 states where it's perfectly legal for men and women to be topless.

However, women are consistently harassed and arrested for "public indecency" even where being topless is allowed by law. It's a case where just because something is legal, doesn't mean it plays out fairly in reality.

Since 1936, no. However, at the start of the 20th century, it was illegal for men to walk around shirtless. This explains why dudes used to wear what looks like WWE wrestling tights to the beach in the early 1900s. Things changed when four guys went topless in 1934 on a beach at Coney Island, and were each fined $1. They protested the fine and won their case. By 1936, it was completely legal for guys to walk around with nothing on top.

It's unclear exactly how this movement began, but much of the movement's public presence today is due in part to the work of filmmaker Lina Esco, who created a film titled, of course, Free the Nipple.

The general plot of the film, as according to the director herself, is about a revolutionary girl and the journalist who follows her during her topless protests. After watching her subject get arrested during one of her protests, the journalist (played by Esco) educates herself on the laws of NYC, and decides to figure out why we allow things like violence and swearing in the media—but not the female anatomy. The film culminates in a scene whereby several women run around in one of the most populated areas in the world, Times Square. Considering Esco started writing the film in 2012, it's been a major talking point in the movement, even before the film actually debuted in 2014.

If you want to go back much further, In Rochester, NY in 1986, seven women tried to do what guys had been doing legally for years—walk around topless. They were arrested in violation of New York state law. They were inevitably acquitted in 1992 by the state's supreme court, making N.Y. a legally topfree state for men and women. The case in Rochester was the legal starting ground for topless equality between men and women.

Several. Scout Willis walked around NYC topfree after being banned by Instagram for posting a topless photo of herself. Rihanna was notoriously banned on Instagram for posting her cover of Lui magazine, which featured her completely naked up top. She also tweeted in support of Scout Willis' “Free In NYC” topless protest.

Rumer Willis has been an outspoken voice of the movement, and is a personal friend of Lina Esco. She even participated in a PSA encouraging women to not be ashamed to breastfeed.

Miley Cyrus has sent out countless topless “Free the Nipple” photos of herself. Other celebrities showing their support include Cara Delevingne, Lena Dunham, and countless others. The latest celebrity (and possibly the most controversial) is Willow Smith.

Well, considering that Willow Smith is 14 years old, some people on Twitter have claimed that the photo above, which she posted on Instagram with the hashtag #freethenipple, walks the line of child pornography. That said, Willow's statement, which is really an image of her with a shirt with exposed breasts on the front, is actually pretty tame.

For starters, she's not technically shirtless, so it's hard to say she's “exposing herself.” Besides, guys her age take pictures of themselves with no shirts on and post them up without any issues all the time. At the end of the day, this issue is at the heart of the "indecency" argument: Is the female nipple pornographic, or just human anatomy?

According to those in the movement, it's this mindset that's part of the problem—showing the female figure alone shouldn't be porn, porn is about the woman's body in a pornographic sexual context.

For example, Esco's “Free The Nipple” Facebook page was shut down after she posted images of breast cancer survivors and breastfeeding women with fully exposed breasts. Other Facebook pages like “Free the Boob” were, according to Esco, perfectly fine putting up pornographic pictures of women—primarily because their nipples were covered. Again, context. Doesn't it seem a little fucked up when you can't show a breastfeeding woman, but you can show porn, purely because an areola is (or isn't) showing?

Watch the movie, get involved on Twitter, be supportive to women that choose to go topless on the beach or park. For guys, the important thing is to change perspective. Growing up, men are taught that women's breasts are sexual objects and should be shielded from sight. It's this thought process that causes society to view the breast as taboo, which makes it harder for women to earn the right to go topless. The sooner we look past the sexualization of women and realize that it's just a part of human anatomy that men and women share (like a finger or an eyeball), it becomes less of a dramatic—or political—issue.

If you think that men and women should be equal, then this issue matters.

At any age, guys can expose their chests to the public and not receive any flak. If a female did this, even if it's technically legal, she would be opening herself up to harassment, shame, and possible issues with the cops. It's a civil rights issue, just like equal pay for men and women, or (better yet) the belief that women are sluts if they sleep with several partners, but guys aren't.

The only difference between a man and woman's breast is the ability to feed a baby. We don't know about you, but that's not really enough reason to forbid women from carrying themselves how they want to carry themselves. Does this mean that women are going to walk around shirtless all the time? Of course not, that's ridiculous. But if a woman wants to have the option to do so, she should be entitled to it.

Miley said it best: "It's not about getting your titties out. It's about equality."

Gregory Babcock is a staff writer at Complex. You can follow him at @GOBabcock.