If any of you follow celebrities like I do, you may have heard of Gigi Hadid’s infamous Fashion Week nip slip. But if you really follow Gigi Hadid like I do, you may have also seen her in this super sultry swimsuit that was pictured in Sports Illustrated just about a few days before her Fashion Week incident.
Hadid’s wardrobe malfunction caused a media frenzy all because her nipple escaped from her dress, but this picture of her in the skimpy swimsuit didn’t cause anyone to skip a beat. Why? Well, of course, because this picture doesn’t show her nipples. My immediate thoughts when I heard the Fashion Week news was, “So what?” As someone who has followed Hadid’s career for a while now, I’ve seen countless pictures of her in teeny bikinis, sheer dresses and barely there tops. In the vintage white swimsuit above, almost all of her breasts are showing, so I’ve practically seen her naked already, why should it be groundbreaking that I’ve now seen her nipple? The answer is that it really shouldn’t be groundbreaking, but our society places this oversexualized, taboo stigma on female nipples. When I take the time to consider culture today, I’m bombarded with thousands of messages stigmatizing women’s nipples. Who could forget Rihanna’s Swarovski dress at the 2014 CFDA Fashion Awards? Instead of being shocked that a human being came to a red carpet event practically naked, people were upset because they could see her nipples. And yet, I can’t flip through a single magazine without seeing a picture of some male Calvin Klein’s models nipples.
What makes female nipples require covering and male nipples not? Nipples are an erogenous zone for both men and women, with 8 out of 10 women and over 50% of men saying that nipple play increases arousal (Adam, 2014). Due to the fact that the human fetus begins development as ambiguous in terms of sex, fully adult human beings have remnants of both sexes within them, and this explains why men have nipples (Swaminathan, 2007). In fact, males possess the correct anatomy to breast feed, if given hormones that would allow them to lactate. So, this means that male nipples and female nipples are the same.
As a sort of conclusion, I’m not arguing that all people should walk around shirtless all of the time or “#FreeTheNip”. I’m just pointing out the inconsistencies in Western culture regarding the sexuality of men and the sexuality of women. Food for thought, eh?
References
Adam, C. (2014, February 14). Why Are Women Expected to Keep Their Nipples Covered? Retrieved from Washington City Paper: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/45459/why-are-women-expected…
Swaminathan, N. (2007, September 6). Strange but True: Males Can Lactate. Retrieved from Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-males-can-lac…