Free the Nipple is a topfreedom campaign created in 2012 during pre-production of a 2014 film of the same name. The campaign highlights the general convention of allowing men to appear topless in public while considering it sexual or indecent for women to do the same and asserts that this difference is an unjust treatment of women. The campaign argues that it should be legally and culturally acceptable for women to bare their nipples in public.
A campaign participant at the World Naked Bike Ride in London, June 2015. Her nipples are covered with adhesive tape crosses and "Free the Nipple" is written on her torso.
Topfreedom is a cultural and political movement seeking changes in laws to allow women to be topless in public places where men are permitted to be barechested, as a form of gender equality. Specifically, the movement seeks the repeal or overturning of laws which restrict a woman's right not to have her chest covered at all times in public.
A group of women protesting for the right to go topless anywhere a man could. Venice Beach, California, 2011 (demonstrator is wearing a pasty)
A group of topless women and shirtless men at a beach in Helsinki, Finland, protesting after a woman had been forced away from a beach in Hyvinkää for topless sunbathing