I was doing my weekly run through of Fort Collins press releases and I came across something I found intriguing. It was a press release that entailed the details from a court ruling on the city’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit regarding the public nudity ordinance in relations to women’s toplessness in Fort Collins.

I wasn’t particularly frazzled by the release, but it sparked an interest in me about public nudity laws in general, so I decided to do some digging into the decision and past incidences surrounding the ordinance . Again, nothing one wouldn’t expect, women are allowed to be topless in public only for breast feeding purposes or other exceptions. Pretty standard for a family oriented city.

I was more shocked when it came to analyzing the survey results from a poll issued last year about the topic.

The survey comments that were to “maintain current policy but make exceptions for breastfeeding mothers” were shocking. I was surprised by the amount of answers that completely disregarded women’s rights at all and made the topic a personal issue. Shouldn’t it be a analysis of women’s rights?

This is what shook me. I have never been an advocate for or against free the nipple because I personally would never go topless in public, but that is the point entirely. I choose not to because I want to. If women feel confident walking topless in public, we should let them.

Besides the complete disregard for women’s choices, what is the big deal with nipples anyways? Men have nipples, women have nipples, we all know that. The only difference is that women’s nipples actually have a role in society that is very important to the lives of every human on earth.

There are people dying of hunger, disease and corruption, yet we put the energy and time into categorizing which nipples are illegal. Okay America.

Breasts should be honored for their role in society, but instead we socialize our children to sexualize the same thing that gives them life. The only reason women are not allowed to show what they got in public is because of the social construct that breasts are sex objects. Yes, breasts can be used during sex in multiple ways, but that is a personal interpretation. Scientifically, breasts have no sexual use.

Breasts are for the sole purpose of nurturing a human child. My breasts are not here to please a man, they are not here to improve my image, and they do not make me any more sexually attractive than anyone else. There may be a difference in opinion, but biology says otherwise. Breasts as a sexual object is a pure social construct.

Although it would be hard to get used to women walking around in public chest out, I believe it is an important step our society needs to take to stop sexualizing women in general. If we teach our children that breasts are okay, we will have less issues with sexism. Acceptance is a step towards equality of the sexes, and everyone should approve of that.

I hope to see steps in the right direction for women’s bodies in the future. The use of the female breast is to feed a child. Period. That is it. Lets treat it like that instead of a determination of modesty or appearance. If women don’t want to go around topless in public, awesome, that’s her choice. If a women wants to walk around topless in public, also cool, that is her choice.

I am for women’s equality and I am all for free the nipple!