This has been ruled because there is no difference when it comes to male and female breasts. This ruling is something that will anger some and empower others.
In this modern day and age, it has been a battle, to say the least when it comes to whether a person should be granted the right to be nude in public or not. Of course, this questions morals and ethics and is considered ‘dirty’ and profane by most. When you look at places like Europe there are select places a person could go and be in the nude without being judged and in other places like say Africa a person would (mostly women) be punished for going anywhere in their birthday suit.
Some places here in the United States have their own laws regarding being nude and even on how people should cover themselves in public. As I am sure you have noticed there has been a rise from activists in recent times pushing for these laws to be done away with. The issue of sex and the body here in the United States is one that will not die off so easily. Have you ever heard of the activist group Free the Nipple? They have staged many protests throughout different places, gathering topless and such. They believe as many others do that female breasts should not be sexualized.
This specific case was brought about because of a law that the Municipality of Fort Collins in the state of Colorado passed back in 2015. It was a law stating that unless a woman was breastfeeding or under the age of nine she was not allowed to be topless in public. This was discrimination at it’s finest. Their reasoning was that it would be seen as a distraction and disrupt order among the community. How pathetic is that?
This law was challenged in court not long after in 2016 by the group mentioned above Free the Nipple. They demanded an injunction on the law and stated how discriminatory and restrictive the law was against women in the city. The only way to make this law fair was to ban both men and women from showing their breasts or eliminating the law altogether. The city officials countered this by trying to say that male and female breasts were different and should be treated differently.
Of course, when everything was said and done and all the facts of the case had been presented before the court District Judge R. Brooke Jackson granted an injunction on the ordinance No. 134 on the grounds that the law is discriminatory against women and that it also sexualizes female breasts. This is a huge win for those who follow the Free the Nipple movement. The court stated that the main difference between male and female breasts is merely the ability to breastfeed. This is not significant enough to gain different treatment from the government.
Jackson wrote:
“I find that the ordinance discriminates against women based on the generalized 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 sexualized act. Thus, it perpetuates a stereotype ingrained in our society that female breasts are primarily objects of sexual desire whereas male breasts are not,”
While this is not quite over yet, Jackson believes that this ordinance violated the Equal Protection Clause and that Fort Collins has discriminated against women. It appears the city is going to be reluctant when it comes to giving up on this case so we will have to wait and see just what happens in the times to come. What do you think about all of this? Do you think the nipple should be freed?
