A federal court this week ruled that women’s boobs are not free speech.
The ruling is important because breasts have become a form of expression and revealing them a bit of a trend. Scout Willis strolled topless around New York City and Kendall Jenner posed topless in Interview magazine. In France, a topless woman made headlines for going on a stabbing rampage of Putin’s wax statue. Rihanna seems downright obsessed with making sure everyone sees her topless, as do a lot of people on Facebook and Instagram with trends like #toplesstour and #freethenipple.
I get it. It’s hot out. Who wants to be wearing extra clothing if they don’t have to?
Besides, it really is ridiculous that men can shed their shirts without any backlash, but women can’t. After all, the chests of men and women are essentially identical, except that females have a little more fat and flesh concentrated in one, er, two areas. So it makes sense for our culture to step back and wonder why it is that we have so sexualized the chests of women, but not men.
But nevertheless, we live in a crude and hyper-sexualized culture where plenty of men will do just about anything to see women take their tops off, including paying them to do just that at strip clubs.
So it seems strange to me that women like Willis, Jenner and Rihanna think that if they take their tops off, they are suddenly in a different category than strippers, and are therefore deserving of more respect than both strippers and girls who keep their tops on.
That is, after all, what this topless trend is supposedly all about – respect. These women seem to think that stripping should be synonymous with female empowerment and that bare breasts should be the symbol of true feminism. They believe every girl who goes topless deserves a long, loud round of respectful applause for how strong and enlightened she must be. The weak, victimized girls who stay clothed in the fabric of male oppression just haven’t yet realized how much their blouses hold them back.
So let me get this straight – I’ll be so much more empowered if I show my breasts to the oppressive male-dominated society that really only wants to see my breasts?
Um, does it get more ironic than this?
The message here appears to be that if a woman wants to be respected for something other than her breasts, she should . . . go out and show her breasts.
Forget ironic, this is downright pathetic. In fact, it is this perfect example of illogical nonsense that gives the feminist movement such a bad rep. What could be more inherently anti-woman than suggesting a woman’s sense of strength and power is revealed once her nipples are? I thought this link between body and self-worth was the exact type of thinking from which these women wanted to break free?
So since these girls seem to have trouble with logic, let me offer a simple suggestion: If a woman wants to be respected simply for her breasts and her body, she should show the world her breasts and her body. If a woman wants to be respected for her mind, her abilities, her strength, and her integrity, then she should show the world her mind, her abilities, her strength, and her integrity.
Was that so hard?
A woman is not empowered by her clothing, or lack thereof. A woman is empowered through her actions, her intelligence, compassion, and character. These things will bring a woman respect, the kind of respect that true “feminists” fought for.
After all, the woman who thinks a piece of fabric distinguishes a strong woman from a weak victim must be the most oppressed woman of all, for she clearly doesn’t know what makes a woman powerful. And that kind of ignorance is far more oppressive than any piece of clothing.
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This Acculturated article was republished with permission.
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