Freeing Ourselves… Nipples Too?: Day 5
Day 5 of no porn. It feels good. It’s not much, but it is a start in the right direction. Even now, having only been away from porn for 5 days, I can laugh at just how absurd it is. Porn is like the Wonderbread factory, it pumps out tasty, low quality white bread that fucks up your insides. There is an argument that can be made about consuming higher quality porn, but personally I do not see there being too much of a difference given that porn is not like steak in that people do not take the time to savor it.
I had a conversation with a female friend of mine the other week about the free nipple movement. I told her that I fully support freeing the nipple because to do otherwise would not allow women to fully exercise their bodily autonomy. I noted, however, that a woman’s choice to have her nipples out in public is a negative right (not saying that the right itself is a bad thing), which is to say it is a right that a woman has and must be respected by others not getting in the way of her exercising that right. When it comes to freeing the nipple then, nobody has to endorse the movement but they do have to recognize the woman’s right to her bodily autonomy and not interfere with her exercising that autonomy.
It is a slightly tangential conversation, but it is also highly related. Consider that men have historically been the ones to oppress women. Now consider that men watch porn in private, and porn which sexualizes the nipple to an unimaginable degree. It is no wonder then that so many men are against freeing the nipple. Men are undeniably afraid to confront their own sexual desires in the public domain and dismantle them so as not to continue the oppression of women. This oppression happens not only to women, but also the black community, the elderly, the disabled, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Getting over one’s fears is the only way to end the oppression that runs so rampant in society today.
Personally, I do want to work on it. Avoiding porn is but one way to do this. Day 5.
