Despite more than a decade of campaigning, hashtagging, and dedicated naked dressing, the world still isn’t ready to free the nipple. According to a new survey conducted by YouGov, most women (55 per cent) say it’s unacceptable for female celebrities to wear transparent or translucent outfits that leave their nipples visible. As for us non-celebrities, well, 77 per cent said it was not okay for us to wear sheer tops in public either, a figure that rose to 89 per cent for women aged 60 and above.
The only accepting demographic of sheer dressing was, if you can believe it, men, who were largely in favour of it with almost half (48 per cent) saying it is acceptable for female celebrities to showcase their nipples on the red carpet. I wonder why.
Pervy men posing as feminists aside, I was surprised by these findings. This is 2025, a time when women should feel emboldened to dress freely without shame or fear of judgement. It’s an era when sheer clothing is no longer an outlier trend reserved for runways and sartorial show ponies but has become a bona fide form of clothing available across the high street. And yet, more than half of women think this way of dressing isn’t okay?
Celebrities have spoken out about the issue with increasing fervour in recent years. Consider Florence Pugh, who faced opprobrium for wearing a fuchsia sheer Valentino gown that exposed her nipples back in 2022. “So many of you wanted to aggressively let me know how disappointed you were by my ‘tiny tits’, or how I should be embarrassed by being so ‘flat chested,’” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “I’ve lived in my body for a long time. I’m fully aware of my breast size and am not scared of it.” The 29-year-old added: “Grow up. Respect people. Respect bodies. Respect all women. Respect humans. Life will get a whole lot easier, I promise. And all because of two cute little nipples….”
Thankfully, the criticism hasn’t discouraged Pugh from wearing what she likes; at last year’s Vanity Fair Oscars party, the actress wore a sheer cream gown by Jean Paul Gaultier. This time around, prudes knew better than to say anything, at least to the extent they did last time around.
However, judgement of nipple-baring has persisted elsewhere. Take last month’s Brit Awards. Musician and Brat superstar, Charli XCX took to the stage to accept one of her five (!) awards in a black sheer gown by Dilara Fındıkoğlu. “I heard that ITV were complaining about my nipples,” she said as she collected one of her gongs. “I feel like we’re in the era of free the nipple though, right?”
Free the nipple is a campaign that has been running since 2012, when filmmaker Lina Esco made a documentary showing herself running through the streets of New York while topless. Clips of the documentary were removed on Facebook after being accused of violating the website’s nudity guidelines. Cue a global movement supported by celebrities around the world, with everyone from Rihanna and Miley Cyrus to Chrissy Teigen and Lena Dunham getting involved. Since then, there have been events, marches, and all sorts of attempts to get social media giants to accept images of female breasts on their platforms.
And yet, here we are. To this day, Meta does not allow images of “uncovered female nipples” on its platforms, although its policy states exceptions are made for breastfeeding, mastectomy, medical, health or “act of protest contexts”, whatever that means. And while baring one’s breasts in public is one thing, the fact that even the slightest sight of a nipple underneath a see-through top is enough to spark outrage shows just how far we have to go if we’re to ever reach any kind of societal progression in this area.
But you have to ask: what exactly is the problem here? Is the world truly that frightened of a woman’s body? That even the slightest allusion to nudity sparks such horror? Or is it that our bodies have been so sexualised that we’ve lost the right to dress how we please in fear of provoking discomfort in straight men? Moreover, why are women the ones opposing this? Haven’t we spent enough time talking about internalised misogyny to realise that oppressing one another is holding us all back and doing the patriarchy’s work for it? Why haven’t we moved past this?
I don’t know the answer. But I do know that for me, seeing a woman dress how she likes will only ever be a net positive. Wearing a sheer outfit takes guts. And if someone has the confidence to do that in a society entrenched in conditioning that has taught women to loathe their bodies, or dress to appease the male gaze instead of themselves, well, I think that’s just fabulous.
That’s the thing people get wrong about sheer clothing. It’s not about wearing something for men. It’s about taking ownership of our bodies and presenting them on our own terms free from the shackles of sexualisation and shame. Either that, or maybe it’s just because we really like our nipples. Either way, it’s cool with me. And it’s something to be celebrated.
