Esmay Wagemans 'Second Skin' project #freethenipple

#Freethenipple is a campaign that started earlier this year, with several celebrities including Miley Cyrus and Chrissy Tiegen backing it. It's all due to the fact that women's nipples are censored on Instagram but male ones are not. Artist Esmay Wagemans has found a way around the Instagram guidelines with her most recent project, 'Second Skin' which uses latex suits that show the naked body without breaking the rules.

Esmay started this because she was sick of the 'hypocrisy' shown by Instagram for taking down women's photo's but not men's, which raises serious questions: Why is it that female nipples are seen to be sexual? When it's the policies that are made that are doing so.

In an interview with Dazed, Esmay said, 'I wanted to create a "problem-solving" product which wouldn't break the Instagram guidelines, but would still give the opportunity to show the naked body.'


The only reason why women's bodies are continuously linked with sexual ideas and objectification is because we keep linking it to it. Boobs were not sexual objects until society deemed them to be.

The thing that is most ridiculous to me is what is deemed unacceptable on Instagram and what isn't. Videos of people being shot in the head, being abused, sexual harassment has all found its way to the social media site and has been allowed to stay on there despite the negative connotations it has. But boobs and nipples are somehow worse? Despite the fact that it's something that we have absolutely no control over and born with? Had it been the other way round and men were the ones born with boobs would it be so unacceptable then?



This project Esmay is producing is something all women can relate to all over the world. Follow her Instagram @Esmaywagemans to see more of her work.