From cast members getting arrested in New York City to promotion pages being banned on social media sites, an up-and-coming film has faced many challenges while finding its way to theaters.
“Free the Nipple” is a movie not only fighting for gender equality for women to have the right to be topless, but it also targets the media’s double standard concerning censorship.
“It’s a political and passionate film. It’s about inspiring women to become stronger role models in a deep sense,” said director Lina Esco.
Shortly after she created a Facebook page promoting her film, Esco’s page was immediately banned from the site when she posted nonsexual images of topless women.
Natural or not, Sarah Brown, a UF public relations sophomore, said she doesn’t think these images should be shown openly on platforms such as Facebook because it is a public forum that anyone can see — including her little sister.
On the other hand, UF international studies senior Jessica Highfill said she understands where conservative people may come from, but the nipple shouldn’t hold such a sexual connotation.
“I think it’s important in the first place to teach your kids that that’s a stigma society has — there’s not anything wrong with it,” Highfill said.
Facebook has given no response to the film as of press time.
The argument that children shouldn’t be exposed to nudity is also a reason why Esco addresses the fact that media commends such absurd acts of violence on all platforms yet considers a woman’s nipple — part of the natural body — wildly obscene.
Bruce Floyd, UF’s social media specialist, said the controversy stems from cultural issues.
“It could be societal pressure or it could be assumptions made by what our culture deems appropriate and inappropriate on a platform, but ultimately it’s up to each of the platforms themselves,” he said.
Despite the intention of the film, the Motion Picture Association of America rated the film as NC-17 for pornography, although it doesn’t feature a single sexual act.
If the rating is not changed, the film will not be played in most theaters.
“It’s a movie about censorship, and we’re getting censored left and right,” Esco said.
She began crowd funding allowing her to market the film independently and find her own distributors.
Along the way, Esco received support from Miley Cyrus and the Huffington Post.
Despite the obstacles Esco faced, Katy Burnett, the president of the Gainesville National Organization of Women, said she respects the passion, but believes there are other important ways to push for equality.
“I think they are just young and maybe in the future they will see that there are so many more urgent matters of inequality than just being topless,” Burnett said.
Esco said she understands some people may view the film as simply promoting being topless, but that’s not the case at all.
“I am not promoting toplessness or asking people to go topless, do whatever you want,” Esco said. “This is just a simple root that started the whole thing.”
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 2/6/2014 under the headline "‘Free the Nipple’ is still under bra arrest, won’t slip into theaters"]
