Naomi Campbell joins the #FreeTheNipple movement with one powerful Instagram post

Naomi Campbell is the latest lady celebrity to share a topless photo on Instagram using the hashtag #FreeTheNipple. As the Huffington Post reports, the photo is a sneak peek at a two-volume book art publisher Taschen is putting out that features nude images shot by fashion photographer Paolo Roversi. Here it is in all its glory:

The#FreeTheNipple hashtag is part of a growing equality movement that aims to destigmatize women’s bodies and combat censorship. The bottom line: Women should have the same rights as men, especially when it comes to our own bodies. For women, toplessness is hyper-sexualized and considered obscene, while men can go shirtless and nobody bats an eye. This double standard is particularly glaring on social media, where topless pictures of women are routinely banned. The #FreeTheNipple movement aims to challenge the stigma surrounding women’s bodies through representation. And in the past year, it’s become a cause championed by several celebrities, from Miley Cyrus to Cara Delevingne.

Last year Cara explained #freethenipple on her Instagram thusly:

Cara makes a ton of great points. After all, we don’t treat men’s chests as something that absolutely must be covered up at all times. Men wear board shorts and that’s IT to the beach and it’s no big. It’s not that the nipple itself is a sexual object, we’re cool about men’s nips/pecs/torsos in general, but we’ve over sexualized the female breast and turned the public display of full-frontal breasts into a taboo, and as you all know, when women are punished for doing what men get away with every day with no consequence we call that (ding ding ding) sexism.

So #freethenipple is out to balance the scales. In late 2014 a movie was released on the subject. Recently, #freethenipple used Photoshop to make the point that nipple censorship promotes gender equality by Photoshopping the acceptable male nipple on to the taboo female nipple in various photographs.

So welcome to the movement, Naomi Campbell. Every time a celebrity hops on board this cause, awareness is raised and the conversation we need to be having is sparked.

As of now, Campbell’s photo hasn’t been taken down on Instagram. Here’s hoping it stays that way.

Related:

The #FreeTheNipple campaign became a movie

Cara Delevingne perfectly explains the #FreeTheNipple campaign