Free the nipple is now legal in one US town thanks to court injunction
Women in Fort Collins, Colorado can now free the nipple anytime they please, thanks to one Court District Judge.
The judge has brought a halt to a law which bans the presentation of womens' nipples in public spaces, as he feels the law, written in 2015, is unconstitutional.
The law bans women aged over 10 from showing any part of the breast below the top of the nipple, with the exception of breast feeding mothers.
a bill passed in fort collins allowing women to free the nipple! now I can be topless everywhere I go lol
— bee (@brylesliee) February 24, 2017
A judge has found that this law specifically discriminates against women, and so is unconstitutional.
"I find that the ordinance discriminates against women based on the generalised notion that, regardless of a woman’s intent, the exposure of her breasts in public (or even in her private home if viewable by the public) is necessarily a sexualised act," said U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson, according to The Huffington Post.
"Thus, it perpetuates a stereotype engrained in our society that female breasts are primarily objects of sexual desire whereas male breasts are not.”
#FreetheNipple is here to liberate not only our bodies, but our collective experience. #repost via kellyysargeant Instagram pic.twitter.com/V6EhyPWKGy
— FREE THE NIPPLE (@freethenipple) February 8, 2017
The judge also pointed out that ironically, by policing women into hiding their nipples, nipples become a spectacle.
“The naked female breast is seen as disorderly or dangerous because society, from Renaissance paintings to Victoria’s Secret commercials, has conflated female breasts with genitalia and stereotyped them as such," he said.
"The irony is that by forcing women to cover up their bodies, society has made naked women’s breasts something to see.”
The free the nipple movement has come on leaps and bounds thanks to the support of high profile celebrities like Kendall Jenner, Miley Cyrus and Rihanna.
This latest instance in Fort Collins is another huge step for the decriminalisation, desexualisation and acceptance of the female form.
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