Free the Nipple campaign is trying to prove that men and women should be treated with equality, but parading your nipples around for the entire world to see is not a rational way to create equality.

If more women started walking around topless to try and Free the Nipple, it would only increase inequality. From a feminist perspective, if men are already not treating women as equals, walking around half nude will only increase their interest in bodies not minds or ideas.

The campaign started with a film, “Free the Nipple,” directed by Lina Esco, and has since evolved into a hashtag and a website.

“My best friend was censored since she was five months old. She was kicked out of a church because her mom was breast-feeding her. I grew up Catholic. I grew up repressed and kind of shy of my body. Being around her, I wanted to shoot pictures of her and shoot videos of her because I was so inspired by how free she was. Then she started telling me if she went topless outside she would get arrested,” Esco said on Fox News.

Esco researched the history of women’s rights, going back to Susan B. Anthony in the late 1800s, a leader in the women’s suffrage movement. 

“[The Free the Nipple campaign is] supposed to create some sort of, ‘What is this?’ And I think, you know, once you learn more about what we’re doing, it’s not what you think it is. We’re not here promoting people going topless,” Esco said on Fox News.

When the women who are involved with the campaign are topless, they wear masks to hide their identity. This is so it does not become a personal issue but so their breasts are the main focus.

It is a movement that shows just because women’s breasts are bigger than men’s does not mean theirs should be covered up. But even if it is supposed to be seen as women coming together for justice, I feel embarrassed by the fact women are actually getting half-naked for the world to see.

Esco says they are not promoting women to be topless, but that is what they are doing — it’s in the name. 

Sending nudes to a significant other has always been a no-no because it could accidentally end up on the Internet, but flashing breasts with the intent that they end up online has now been seen as a step towards equality?

Being treated with equality can be achieved by being a professional, responsible adult, not by exploiting your personal being to the press.

According to freethenipple.com, it was illegal over 74 years ago for males to be shirtless at any beach in any of the 50 states; today, 37 of the 50 states in United States would arrest women if they walked around topless, including while breast-feeding.

One thing I agree with about the idea behind Free the Nipple is about breast-feeding. I do not like how women are half-naked trying to prove this point, but I think women should decide where they are comfortable with breast-feeding. Sometimes moms do not have a choice — if their child is hungry, they have to feed where they are at.

It does make people feel uncomfortable to see a woman’s breast in public though. I am a woman, and it disturbs me when I see a mom breast-feeding in any kind of environment.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Puerto Rico requires malls, airports and public service government centers to have areas designed for breast-feeding and diaper changing that are not bathrooms.

This concept, if it would spread, would address the breast-feeding issue for feminists because that means there are diaper-changing areas for both sexes to go into. Unlike the majority of bathrooms where the diaper-changing station is almost always in the women’s bathroom.

Just because women have to cover their breasts does not mean they are losing their equality. There are nude beaches around the world, and if you want to be topless, go there, but equality should not be linked with nakedness.

I am a feminist, but I think this is taking the notion of equality too far. If women want to be respected, how is being half-naked showing the world to take you seriously?

I understand the concept that men and women should be seen as equals, so, by being topless, it should not make a difference for a woman. It is a concept, but it should not be a reality.

To me, women who are voluntarily walking in public topless is as if men were to walk around with their genitalia out to assert their dominance.

Equality is something I want, but nipples are not a for equal rights.