Nipples are fascinating, fashionable, not frightening

As someone who shares her sex-driven articles with the entire Marist campus, I generally possess a very high level of comfort with discussing issues of sexuality, and use various sexual terms accordingly. However, there is one particular term that still gets my goat, one that I always feel silly bringing up: nipple. They may be the silliest looking human organs of all time; even the word itself sounds silly, like Skittles or poodles. It seems inevitable for the subject of nipples to yield a chorus of giggles (yet another silly word that sounds like nipples).

I think that many people shy away from acknowledging nipples for the same reason as I do, because of they may have starkly conflicting feelings about nipples (women's nipples, in particular). One minute we're drooling over Jennifer Aniston's pair, as seen on the forever-frigid set of Friends, and the next we're rioting and cursing our televisions over Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bow half-time showl. It's all quite a challenge to keep up with. Curious as to how other people my age feel about this seemingly taboo issue, I ventured out to ask the opinions of Marist students. On whether or not conversing with a girl whose nipples are visibly erect would make him uncomfortable, sophomore Steve Danziger said, "It depends on the level of attraction you have for the girl, and the context of the conversation."

"If you're not attracted to her, or if it's in the context of a job interview or something, that's when it becomes uncomfortable. But it's good if I'm attracted to her, because then I'm that much closer to knowing what she'd look like naked." said Danziger.

The ladies I interrogated felt similarly. Sophomores Carolyn Augustyn, Brianna Kelly, and Katie Meena all agreed with Danziger, in that the level of familiarity that they have with the girl plays a big part in how they'd feel about seeing her nipples through her shirt. I asked them just how uncomfortable it would be with an unfamiliar girl.

"I might wonder why she's not wearing a bra, and I'd avoid staring at them, but it wouldn't really make me uncomfortable," said Kelly.

Augustyn said she would also be uncomfortable.

"I don't need to see that business," she said.---

Meena would look for reasons to justify the nipple sighting, saying that "I'd take into consideration the temperature of the room.it's understandable if it's really cold."

Regardless of how much time we actually spend looking at visible nipples, it seems we can't help but pay an egregious amount of attention to them. It's no wonder we do, with all of the accessories and devices available to us, like tassels, pasties, and brooches; all of these are designed to draw attention to and accentuate the site of a nipple. These accessories aren't even restricted to the adult entertainment industry; we've seen plenty of pasties (recall Lil Kim's get-up at the 1999 VMAs) and nipple brooches (recall Janet Jackson once again) in Hollywood.

At the same time, we enter panic mode when we encounter nipples in everyday life, exclaiming phrases like "that chick is nippling right now" or "ENA" (Erect Nipple Alert), as if a nipple sighting is a legitimate cause for fleeing to a bomb shelter. We have very specific standards for nipple display: it's sexy to draw attention to the site of the nipple (with pasties or tassels, or maybe showing a hint of nip through your shirt), but when we see a naked nipple, or even too much nipple through clothing, we tend to quickly lose our cool. Some nipple must be left to the imagination; it's always been about teasing.

Until now. We're seeing visible nipples make unabashed appearances on fashionable women. Last year, New York Fashion magazine released an article that semi-jokingly asked, "Are Nipples 2009's Must-Have Fashion Accessory?" They cited teat-bearing photos of Megan Fox, Christina Ricci, and Victoria Beckham. Since last summer, endless photos can be found online of the former Spice Girl, a pinoeer of nipple fashion, displaying her nipples prominently through sheer clothing.

Now, we're seeing women trading breast implants for nipple prostheses, a procedure to make one's nipples more defined and shapely. If you're not gung-ho about plastic surgery, you could always visit a site like Bosomfriends.co.uk, an online store that sells rubbery, attachable, prosthetic nipples, which they assure will help you to achieve "that Victoria Beckham look." In the past year, nipples have become no stranger to the envelope-pushing world of fashion. However, will they be able to make the jump into the mainstream, or do they pose too much uncomfort for us to accept them?

In case I've made anyone interested in nipple liberation, I learned recently that it is legal (but still frowned upon) for women to go topless in the state of New York. The only things holding us back from proudly bearing our nipples in true Posh Spice style are our culturally-constructed insecurities.