#FreetheNipple walk organized by local student

Feeling inspired by her gender studies class at St. Francis high school, 18-year-old Nan Elpers joked with a friend that she should organize a topless march to raise awareness of the Free The Nipple equality movement. When she looked deeper into the group’s fight against female oppression and censorship, she realized it wasn’t a joking matter and decided to take action.

“I set up a Facebook invite asking 20 friends to join me in a walk this Saturday to raise awareness for the group’s main concerns, which are equal rights, a more balanced system of censorship and the legal right for all women to breastfeed in public,” Elpers said. “But I forgot to set the invite to private and within a few hours nearly 600 women were on the guest list. My mom said, ‘Oh Nan — you’ve become an accidental social activist!’"

Friends and strangers have been thanking the Highlands resident for bringing these issues and the movement to the city’s consciousness after marches have been hosted in 60 other cities around the world. Three hundred topless women took over Manhattan on Aug. 23. “The more I find out about gender inequality, the more I want to know. It’s interesting as an 18-year-old American woman to realize you’re still oppressed," she said.

“Women's bodies are hypersexualized because we cover them; we do not keep them a secret because they are inherently sexual,” says Elpers. “Any part of your body can be sensual — the hands, the feet, in a moment that is fitting, at the right time. But breasts are just part of the human body, too, and women should not feel judged or censored or ashamed because they have them.”

Fighting for equal rights, the Free The Nipple movement was born in 2013 and attracted immediate praise from celebrities including Liv Tyler, Lena Dunham, Chelsea Handler and Miley Cyrus, and the #FreeTheNipple hashtag became a social media phenomenon. Today, the campaign has 208,000 supporters on Instagram and more than 171,000 followers on Twitter.

Following in the footsteps of other gatherings that have been hosted everywhere from Scotland to Texas, Elpers hopes this one — the first of its kind to be held in Kentucky — will inspire people in this state to think more deeply about the inequalities that are deeply embedded in our collective social psyche about body image.

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It wasn’t too long ago that men had to fight this battle, too. It was illegal throughout the U.S. for men to be shirtless on a beach until 1936, when — after a campaign of protests that led to many arrests — males won the right to be topless in public places. Today, nearly 80 years later, societal double standards still exist.

Women can be arrested for daring to expose a breast — often even if they are breastfeeding their child — and charged with public indecency or lewd behavior at any time around the U.S., and it is illegal for a female to expose her chest in the states of Indiana, Tennessee and Utah. A clear map of what you can or cannot do in each state is available at http://gotopless.org/topless-laws.

“It used to be frowned upon for the men to bare their chests in public, but they changed social perception,” behavior analyst Amy Byck said. “Breasts are not a sexual organ, and if a woman wants to walk in public topless, so what — whoop-de-doo. It would take a long time for me to be comfortable doing that, but fair is fair.

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"And the idea that women should be made to feel ashamed to breastfeed when all medical research is 100 percent behind the benefits of breastfeeding is outrageous. If someone had ever told me I couldn’t feed my baby, they would have got an earful. These perceptions turn the breast into a sexual thing when its function is to feed the next generation.”

Clinical psychotherapist Brian Beckham disagrees with Byck’s view that men and women should be allowed to undress the same in public.

“One cannot desexualize that which is sexual by thought and nature. This is another sad example of misguided efforts and self-aggrandizement by those seeking attention,” he said. “This movement steals something from the feminine mystique. The issue with the word equality is the presumption we are all the same. While no one sex is better than the other, we are different and our bodies are different.”

How have Elpers' friends and family reacted to her new role as a semi-nude activist? “When I told the boys in my gender class at school, a few of them turned beet red. One came to me after class and said, ‘I want to support you, but if I come I might stare. Should I stay away?’ He was being honest and genuine, which I appreciated. My boyfriend and my father are joining us on the march. My boyfriend’s only concern was that as a man he was already free to do this so wasn’t sure how to show his protest. My dad was gung-ho but couldn’t believe it was legal to do this in Kentucky.”



What do Elpers and her fellow protesters want to achieve with this public display? “My hope is that the women who walk and the women who see us walk will start to love their bodies without a value scale. Once we desensitize people to the bare breast, victim blaming and slut shaming — ‘she was showing some skin, she was asking for it’ — should be shown up as the faulty excuses they are. And the double standards held for women and their bodily expression, and the American obsession with plastic surgery and push-up bras, will evaporate," Elpers said.

The walk will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, meeting at Willow Park in The Highlands.

“All are welcome to come and support. Wear what feels comfortable, be it a shirt, pasties or the top half of your birthday suit,” says Elpers — with a warning. "Three silent LGBT protesters were arrested at the Country Ham Breakfast last Thursday at the State Fair without first receiving a request to disperse. While I believe we are doing this march to support healthy and important equality standards, there is a risk of being arrested, despite (Kentucky) women being able to legally go about topless," Elpers wrote in a Facebook post.

"If you are over 18, please know this is a possibility; parents of minors should also, please, be made aware of the decision to walk. I hope to see you all there, this is a great thing we're doing.”

Sarah Ivens can be reached at (502) 582-4502 or sivens@courier-journal.com.

IF YOU GO:

What: #FreetheNipple equality march

Where: Willow Park, 1402 Willow Ave.

When: Saturday, Sept. 5, 11 a.m.

More information: The Free the Nipple movement is fighting for equal rights, a more balanced system of censorship and the legal right for all women to breastfeed in public.