Trompe-l’oeil As A Political Statement

While men are free to walk around shirtless, many jurisdictions make the same activity illegal for women. The female nipple is so obscene, a number of places have gone as far as to prohibit the public feeding of infants. No week goes by without some story about a woman being ejected from a locale or, at the very least, being shamed for breast-feeding in public.

For a while organizers have sought to make a change, but no efforts have drawn as much attention as the makers of the TaTa Top, a $28 bikini offered in three different flesh tones that also features nipples.

“Who is this law protecting and what are they protecting them from?” ask Robyn Graves and Michelle Lytle, the makers of the TaTa Top, on their blog. “What message does it send to young women about their bodies? That they should be ashamed and keep them covered?”

The bikini follows a hashtag campaign for gender equality kicked off by filmmaker Lina Esco. Called #FreeTheNipple, the campaign encourages women to go out in public topless in New York (where it is legal for women to do so). Last month, the actress and model Scout Willis took the campaign to new heights when she took a stroll topless, sharing an image of it on social media that was captioned, “Legal in NYC but not on @instagram.”

The TaTa Top is an effective option for women who want to join the protest in jurisdictions where it is still illegal for women to step out topless.

Header image via TaTa Top.