A crowd of female UC San Diego students took off their shirts and bras and hung around a grassy quad with their breasts exposed Wednesday in a protest against indecency laws.
The coeds were joined by male students as well in a 30-minute demonstration dubbed “Free The Nipple.” Dozens of students took part. Organizers provided snacks, water, music and body paint.
The main list of grievances presented by this band of half-naked millennials was as follows: “To combat the idea of body shaming, to show that we should be proud of our bodies, and to normalize all nipples in a society where only female nipples are hyper-sexualized and criminalized.”
“Why is it OK that boys can do it but I can’t,” is the oft-repeated mantra of protest co-organizer Anni Ma, who declares her breasts are not “sex organs.”
The rally took place on a campus that neighbors a public beach that allows nudity. It’s also home to the professor who had his students strip naked for their final exam. Perhaps unsurprisingly, campus officials shrugged off the protest.