Boots under fire for allegedly refusing to print 'free the nipple' march photos

“When we talk about Free The Nipple really we are talking about de-sexualising the female body” [Photo: Free The Nipple Brighton]
“When we talk about Free The Nipple really we are talking about de-sexualising the female body” [Photo: Free The Nipple Brighton]

Last weekend, women and men marched through the streets of Brighton as part of a ‘free the nipple’ campaign.

And this involved – naturally – lots of them going partially or entirely topless.

But when one marcher went to Boots to have a few snaps of the event developed afterwards, she claims that the Tunbridge Wells branch refused to develop some of them because of their ‘explicit’ nature.

“Boots is refusing to develop certain photos of our march, not cool,” a post on Free the Nipple Brighton 2017’s Facebook page said.

All the love! What a day. More pics coming soon… #freethenipplebrighton

A post shared by Free The Nipple (@freethenipplebrighton) on Aug 20, 2017 at 10:00am PDT

“One of our participants took a couple of snaps at the weekend and when she got them developed Boots omitted the ones showing women’s nipples on the grounds of nudity – charging full price regardless.

“Boots UK time to change your policy?”

A Boots spokesperson, however, told The Independent that the chain doesn’t actually have a specific policy in place when it comes to nudity and its photography services.

“Boots UK does not have a policy in place concerning nudity in photos,” they said.

“We would not print any images that contravene any obscenity laws.

BRIGHTON PEOPLE! August 19th! Who's coming? #freethenipplemovement #freethenipple #freethenipplebrighton #stoppolicingourbodies

A post shared by Free The Nipple (@freethenipplebrighton) on Jul 15, 2017 at 6:11am PDT

“Clearly, that wasn’t the case in this instance and we are sorry that the photos weren’t developed in full and for any offence caused to this customer.

“We will investigate further to ensure that all customers receive the service they expect from Boots UK.”

Bee, the march’s organiser, told the paper: “Women have to risk so much to take part in activism – we live in a world where taking off our clothes to simply be the same as men exposes us to shame, ridicule, danger and hate.

“Topless equality might seem like an odd thing to protest about to some, but when we talk about Free The Nipple really we are talking about de-sexualising the female body.”

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