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September 21, 2017

Springfield, Missouri Federal Judge Rules for Nipple Equality

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—Women can do it in New York state, in Hawaii, in Maine, in New Hampshire, and even in Ohio and Texas—and soon also Springfield, Missouri, though still not in Los Angeles, arguably the world capital of adult content production. What's "it"? Why, being topless in public, of course! And by "topless," we don't mean any of that shit about "above the areola" and "below the inframammary fold"; we mean nipple! Certainly, one of the most obvious manifestations of sexism is the fact that on any beach almost anywhere in the civilized world, men can go topless—that is, show their nipples—while in myriad places, women are forbidden from doing the same. That doesn't sit too well with the men and women who are members of Free The Nipple, the national campaign created in 2012 after Lina Esco started filming the 2014 documentary Free the Nipple. And it was Free The Nipple's Springfield branch, as well as two of its members, Jessica Lawson and Amber Hutchison, all backed by the ACLU, who filed a lawsuit against the city in 2015, asking that the city ordinance which prohibits the "exhibition" of bare female breasts in public be declared unconstitutional. And now, nearly two years later, U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips has issued an order, supported by both the plaintiffs and the defendant City of Springfield, striking down the anti-nudity ordinance passed by the city council in the Fall of 2015—but sadly, the fight isn't over. The 2015 ordinance was inspired by a protest that took place in the city's Park Central Square on August 26 of that year, where topless women and men marched with bandages over their nipples to protest the women's unequal treatment. According to the lawsuit, city officials were worried that "women's breasts undermined Springfield's mission to become a more tourist-friendly city." And while the ordinance exempted women who were breast-feeding as well as topless dancers at adult nightclubs, it did criminalize the exposure of female breasts "below a point immediately above the top of the areola" because areolas were believed to cause sexual arousal "or which is likely to cause affront or alarm"—a phrase which city officials interpreted to allow banning of pretty much any display that offended them. But apparently, the city got quite an amount of feedback regarding the constitutionality of the ordinance, and repealed it in March of 2016, reinstating a previous ordinance which still banned the nudity but without the "affront or alarm" clause. The plaintiffs then filed an amended petition to challenge even that ordinance. Judge Phillips' order, issued last Friday, Sept. 17, prohibits the city from ever reinstating the 2015 ordinance and awards $750 each to Jessica Lawson and Amber Hutchison on account of the discrimination they faced. The lawsuit against the replacement ordinance is still ongoing.

 
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