Who has ever seen a female nipple before? I’m assuming most people have. For those of you who haven’t, I'll let you in on a secret: it looks like a nipple. But for some reason, there is something about the female nipple that has kept it out of public in America for a long time.

Before 1936, it was illegal for men to go shirtless, even at the beach. The ban was lifted for men after 1936, though female toplessness remained illegal with the punishment anywhere from large fines to jail time. In 1996, New York State was the first state to allow female toplessness, and widespread protest to legalize toplessness began in 2008, with the creation of the “Free the Nipple” campaign. The film highlighted this movement, appropriately titled "Free the Nipple," was shot in 2012 and prohibited from being released in widespread theaters, so the movement itself took off in 2013.

So should women be able allowed to “Free the Nipple”? I say yes. This is a simple debate, but it’s not one about decency or appropriateness. It’s about equality and double standards in society. The Free the Nipple movement is more than just allowing women to expose themselves in public; it is a comment on the greater equality movement occurring in the United States.The illegality of female toplessness is just another cause of the rampant sexism and marginalization of women in America’s society.

Currently, there are five states that explicitly legalize toplessness for females in public: New York, Texas, Hawaii, Maine, and Ohio. On the other hand, most states explicitly label female toplessness as “lewd behavior” and a potential felony, according to a country map published in TIME magazine. However, in other countries, especially in the Caribbean, woman are allowed to walk around shirtless in public. This discrepancy between allowing men go shirtless and women to be prohibited has led to a change in thinking about how women view their bodies. Many are ashamed to have exposed nipples, and believe they have something to hide, as they have to stay at least somewhat covered. Men, on the other hand, are celebrated for whatever body type they have, even the infamous “dad bod.”

If legalizing toplessness can solve all of this inherent issue with society, what is preventing it from being legalized?

The biggest issue that opponents have with legalizing toplessness for females would be the assimilation of the law into society. An article published by Complex argued that as breasts are one of the most sexualized body parts in society, and there are completely different rules and regulations when it comes to men and women and their bodies. Furthermore, some parties argue that women themselves make their breasts sexual object by wearing revealing clothing. The article says, “breasts are not just a sign of femininity in terms of children and breast feeding, they are sign of sexual maturity, as in, a sign that this woman is ready to mate and to have sex. If toplessness is legalized, people argue that female breasts can be a distraction to others and over sexualize society, cause incidents like car accidents. Overall, the major issue opponents have from this issue is that this law would be too hard to work into society at this point, that people would be too unused to the idea that females can walk around topless in public."

However, these arguments against female toplessness are completely invalid. With any law, there is a period of assimilation while the law is put into place, from women voting to Obamacare. Though it may be at first shocking to see female breasts more commonly in one’s day-to-day life, eventually it would become the norm. Lastly, just with male shirtlessness, it is not as if all women are going to walk around with their clothes off. In fact, most women one would be seeing would most likely have their clothes on. Lastly, to say a women nakedness is ‘distracting’ and could cause accidents is to suggest that women were only put on this planet to be sexual objects for men and serve no other purpose than to be admired and looked at, and that men are unable to control their sexual urges so much so that they would crash a car.

As there isn’t a truly valid reason that female toplessness shouldn’t be legal, the solution it clear.

I think America should legalize female toplessness in all 50 states and to release everyone associated with breaking public decency laws in regard to going shirtless in public. I think that women should be able to go shirtless without sigma or being made fun of, and that it should become something as commonplace and normal as a shirtless man. That means immersing the nipple in our culture. I believe this will change the perception females have on their bodies, and promote self-love. Women are constantly feel like they have something to hide when it comes to their bodies, and are ashamed when they aren’t perfect. If they were able to see everyone’s bodies, they may be more likely to appreciate their own bodies. In the same way that gays deserve to marry, women should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies.