{"id":446,"date":"2015-08-31T14:46:48","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T14:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/?p=446"},"modified":"2015-08-31T14:46:48","modified_gmt":"2015-08-31T14:46:48","slug":"social-construction-of-the-body-the-nipple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/2015\/08\/31\/social-construction-of-the-body-the-nipple\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Construction Of The Body: The Nipple"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>This post is written by Todd Beer and was <a href=\"http:\/\/sociologytoolbox.com\/social-construction-of-the-body\/\">originally published<\/a> on his excellent website <a href=\"http:\/\/sociologytoolbox.com\/social-construction-of-the-body\/\">SociologyToolbox.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Examples of the social construction of the body are prevalent in the media\u2019s objectification of the female body in particular. See the famous documentary <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediaed.org\/cgi-bin\/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&amp;key=241\">Killing US Softly 4<\/a> for numerous patterns in the media. The biological body has purposes driven by genetics and \u201chuman nature\u201d, but the meanings we as a society apply to the body are not fixed, \u201cnatural\u201d, or static. They are socially constructed.<\/p>\n<p>The nipple is a great example. Biologically, both men and women have nipples, albeit with slightly different levels of functionality. However, socially the symbolic meaning of men\u2019s and women\u2019s nipples is dramatically different in most societies. Women\u2019s nipples are sexualized, objectified, censored, and stop <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/culture\/news\/nipple-ripples-10-years-of-fallout-from-janet-jacksons-halftime-show-20140130\">Super Bowl halftime shows<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/culture\/news\/nipple-ripples&#8211;10-years-of-fallout-from-janet-jacksons-halftime-show&#8211;20140130)\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/files\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-05-12-at-12.52.08-PM-500x295.png\" alt=\"Janet Jackson Performs at Super Bowl \" width=\"500\" height=\"295\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/files\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-05-12-at-12.52.08-PM-500x295.png 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/files\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-05-12-at-12.52.08-PM-1024x604.png 1024w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/files\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-05-12-at-12.52.08-PM.png 1143w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Men\u2019s nipples get to be on display\u2026 when we\u2019re running, doing yard work, in yoga class, in primetime television, and in advertising.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The media website, <a href=\"http:\/\/mic.com\/\">Mic<\/a> recently did a feature on a campaign called <a href=\"http:\/\/freethenipple.com\/\">\u201cFree the Nipple\u201d<\/a>. In the campaign\u2019s own words,<\/p>\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<li><em>\u201cInspired by true events, Free The Nipple follows a group of young women who take to the streets of New York City topless, to protest the archaic censorship laws in the United States. Activist Liv and With set out to start a movement and change the system through publicity stunts and graffiti installations while armed with First Amendment lawyers. The film explores the contradictions in our media-dominated society, where acts of violence and killing are glorified, while images of a woman\u2019s body are censored by the FCC and the MPAA. What is more obscene: Violence or a Nipple?\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mic.com\/articles\/117960\/meet-the-activist-who-wants-women-everywhere-to-free-the-nipple\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/files\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-05-12-at-12.51.48-PM-500x587.png\" alt=\"Free the Nipple on Instagram\" width=\"500\" height=\"587\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/files\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-05-12-at-12.51.48-PM-500x587.png 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/files\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-05-12-at-12.51.48-PM.png 578w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mic wrote, \u201c\u2018Women\u2019s breasts are not the problem,\u2019 Soraya Chemaly, one of the activists who lobbied Facebook to end the censorship of women\u2019s breastfeeding photos, told Mic. \u2018Sexual objectification is the problem. There\u2019s a difference between sexualization and sexuality. Breasts don\u2019t hurt children, breasts feed children, and it\u2019s the sexualization of women\u2019s bodies that\u2019s actually hurting children the most.&#8217;\u201d See Mic\u2019s brief video story of the campaign <a href=\"http:\/\/mic.com\/articles\/117960\/meet-the-activist-who-wants-women-everywhere-to-free-the-nipple\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This is a great example of structure and agency interacting. While individuals can challenge social structure, they will also be subject to the sanctions of society while they try to change it.<\/p>\n<p>The nipple is also tied to breastfeeding. Breastfeeding in public or at work has also been a challenge to our society\u2019s \u201cproblem\u201d with the female nipple. (For more about the sociology of breastfeeding listen to this <a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/officehours\/2009\/12\/13\/the-sociology-of-breastfeeding\/\">\u201cOffice Hours\u201d edition with Julie Artis<\/a> or read this edition of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sociologyinfocus.com\/2013\/09\/23\/psst-your-culture-is-showing-breastfeeding-edition\/\">SociologyInFocus<\/a>). Forty-Nine states have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncsl.org\/research\/health\/breastfeeding-state-laws.aspx\">laws<\/a> allowing women to breastfeed in any public space. However, to protest the lack of acceptance of breastfeeding by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2014\/07\/09\/breastfeeding-group-plans-walmart-nurse-in_n_5570535.html?utm_hp_ref=nurse-in\">some businesses<\/a>, women have staged <a href=\"http:\/\/losangeles.cbslocal.com\/2014\/08\/20\/breastfeeding-moms-stage-nurse-in-at-anthropologie-in-beverly-hills\/\">\u201cnurse-ins\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/files\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-05-12-at-3.02.03-PM.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/files\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-05-12-at-3.02.03-PM-500x285.png\" alt=\"Nurse-In Protest in Beverly Hills\" width=\"500\" height=\"285\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/files\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-05-12-at-3.02.03-PM-500x285.png 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/files\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-05-12-at-3.02.03-PM.png 634w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Due to pressure, Facebook has recently <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2014\/6\/13\/5806796\/breastfeeding-photos-are-now-safe-for-facebook\">changed its rules<\/a> that previously banned photographs of women breastfeeding.<\/p>\n<p>The social construction of the body may be hard for some students to understand because so much of the body seems to be tied to biology. How we treat nipples depending on who\u2019s body they are attached to demonstrates the power of society.<\/p>\n<p>Teach well, it matters.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Note: Todd added quite a number of addendums to this original post and you can see them all over on his site <a href=\"http:\/\/sociologytoolbox.com\/social-construction-of-the-body\/\">SociologyToolbox.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post is written by Todd Beer and was originally published on his excellent website SociologyToolbox.com Examples of the social construction of the body are prevalent in the media\u2019s objectification of the female body in particular. See the famous documentary Killing US Softly 4 for numerous patterns in the media. The biological body has purposes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1982,"featured_media":448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30650],"tags":[403,30723,30719,3175,120,30725,16436],"class_list":["post-446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-resources-for-teachers","tag-deviance","tag-gender","tag-nipples","tag-norms","tag-sex","tag-sexuality","tag-the-body"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/files\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-05-12-at-12.52.08-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1982"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":453,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions\/453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}