Officer Bennett From OITNB Has Cleverly Joined #FreeTheNipple; Seems Like A Really Great Guy
"At the heart of it, it’s simply about gender equality and equal rights."
The argument about when women should be able to show their nipples and to whom has been whirring on for a long time now, without any real results. Celebrities like Chelsea Handler and Miley Cyrus continue to make headlines for thrusting their boobs in Instagram’s face, the site continues to take them down, and the whole thing’s been going on for so many years there’s already a film about it. It features mild nudity.
More recently, people have started to find subtle ways to mock and subvert the platform’s community guidelines without all-out breaking them. Lena Dunham has posted a picture of herself wearing flesh-coloured nipple covers; Willow Smith has worn a shirt emblazoned with bare breasts; and a whole new campaign has started up this week.
Asking women to crudely photoshop men’s nipples over their own, the idea for #PhotoshopTheNipple was conceived by Californian artist Micol Herbon and made viral when the lead singer of La Sera shared it on her band’s Facebook page.
The response was so overwhelming she was soon reduced to this:
@iamkatygoodman pic.twitter.com/vWbET8qodJ
— Stefano Blanca (@stefanoblanca) July 7, 2015
Now, another celebrity has jumped on board, offering a refreshing take on the whole thing. Tactfully covered by banned pictures of Miley Cyrus and Chrissy Teigen, Matt McGorry from Orange Is The New Black has made a big pledge for the campaign, offering up his own already-freed, asexual nips in the process.
“The banning of women’s nipples may sound normal or even inconsequential as you think, ‘well, women’s nipples are more sexual than men’s nipples’,” he says. “But that’s not some scientific fact. It’s because of how our society so heavily sexualises women. And it should be up to the individual woman to decide if she wants to show them, just like men have the choice.”
“[This is just] one piece of the puzzle of creating deep change in the way our society objectifies women and creates these different standards for men and women (and other genders). At the heart of it, it’s simply about gender equality and equal rights.”
It’s possibly the most rational and respectable feminist argument that has ever included the words “boobies” and “niplets”. And, working from that same theme, he then took to Twitter to elaborate on the idea through a series of posts which end with the phrase “boner machines”.
(part 1)Have you ever been in a long-term relationship? Remember how you were effected by seeing your partners genitals for the first time?
— Matt McGorry (@MattMcGorry) July 8, 2015
(part 2) Do you still feel that way years into the relationship? Humans adapt to stimuli. Including titties. If women's nipples were more
— Matt McGorry (@MattMcGorry) July 8, 2015
(part 3) commonly seen, men would adapt to seeing them and wouldn't be 24/7 boner machines. #FreeTheNipple
— Matt McGorry (@MattMcGorry) July 8, 2015
As with all those involved in Jenji Kohan’s beautiful OITNB universe, McGorry has a history of advocacy for gender equality. Last year he posted a definition of feminism online, and with great humility admitted he had only really just learned what it was. Since then he’s written an essay about equal pay, openly discussed the idea of male feminism, and become a vocal advocate of Emma Watson’s HeForShe campaign.
Basically, he’s an IRL version of Feminist Ryan Gosling…
I like my women like I like my coffee: w/ infinite variations of size, color, & $ value, bc none of these determines its right to be loved
— Matt McGorry (@MattMcGorry) May 18, 2015
And people are loving it:
–
Because you were about to Google it anyway, here’s that OITNB clip of him dancing shirtless to Gwen Stefani’s ‘Hollaback Girl’. Thank me later.