The Nipple Gap: Why You Won’t See Real Women in Rihanna’s Dress Any Time Soon

When we’re not assessing Rihanna’s ironic ownership of Instagram, our thoughts turn to what these fearless nipply looks of late mean for the rest of us. Rihanna can break rules, but her nips are in another stratosphere than everyone else’s. Scout Willis beautifully articulated her own recent decision to leverage her status to get people talking about double body standards. One-upping Willis’ naked chest was no small feat, but the next day Rihanna did, forwarding the cause at the CFDA Awards in a sheer crystal Adam Selman gown. She raised the stakes by showing pretty much everything except for what her strategic furry loin leaf hid. This is a woman who isn’t just having a bit of fun with fashion, even though that’s what she was honored for. She’s showing the world that Instagram will never successfully deny the world of the viewing pleasure of her chest. But are having fancy free nipples are a celebrity privilege? Online, commenters are quick to gawk and drool over Rihanna’s dress. The majority of people rally behind Scout Willis’ cause. But wanting to create change doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get what you want. Do I envy their ballsy approach to undressing? Probably, especially when people feel they have a right to dictate my how high the neck of my shirts and dresses are when I’m in my 20s. It must be liberating. But celebrities are also uniquely fortunate to have the freedom to make a fashion statement, even if it’s one of dissension. For Rihanna, it’s power nippling, but for real women it might be a shorcut to the asylum. A girl can’t go to any class or school function without getting kicked out for inspiring impure thoughts. Fine, they’re younger and can expect demands to play by the unfair rules. A better illustrative example is the activist Moira Johnston who walked around East Village. News outlets leapt into the fray with a storm of hate-flecked wording that amounted to very flashy degradation. She was… apparently protesting? Or she was… wandering around? Men and women in the sewer of the comments sections told her to put on her shirt, that her breasts were saggy. They laughed at pictures of the men who gawked at her. People terrorized by female sexuality are going to go HAM on some bare nipples regardless, and celebrities are not safe from body-shaming. But without fame, the message is obfuscated. Not famous? You’ll be received not as confident, but as “uppity” as it were, or desperate, or a kooky woman who forgot her top. Rihanna’s a performer who has in-jokes with Anna Wintour. Me traipsing around like I’m a painter’s muse, though extremely noble, might provoke an intervention among friends. Maybe Go Topless Day will work. Or even better, Rihanna will inspire women to be proud of their bodies, patriarchy and haters be damned. Women will walk out around town hand in hand all vajazzled and jug-jazzled, and receive looks of understanding and hi-fives from everyone in their war path. But for a normal woman to walk out in a dress like this now, she’ll either need a bodyguard or a more successful #freethenipple movement.

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