At the time, the revolution was filter-less. And no, not in the sense of not airbrushing. Furious women were on the street topless, banner high in their hands, holding a complete cultural exorcism for all their patriarchal demons. The devil? That annoying, hypocritical glitch in The Matrix where man-bosoms can be bare, while women’s nipples can be censored like classified information.

The project was groundbreaking, daring, and totally, deliciously insane-it aimed to destroy the patriarchy, torch the shame on pornography and bring the female body on a par with a slice of pepperoni pizza.

Now fast forward to present day and holy re-branding, Batman!

Browse the hashtag #FreeTheNipple now and get what? A montage of slightly-out-of-focus selfies, a link-in-bio show off of tanned skin and detox tea and the “empowerment” posts looks suspiciously like a catalog from a high-end erotic Boutique. Not only did the revolution sell itself out but the people running it found a better branding agency than what the former revolutionaries have.

In this exclusive, we rip the red lace to shreds to investigate what it was that completely hijacked the movement, transforming it from a raw, communal, political fight to the world’s ultimate, solitary performance, delivered back to us for profit, attention, and hard cold cash. As it turns out, intention matters, but aesthetic matters more when it can bring you money in the 'Gram.

https://medium.com/write-a-catalyst/we-fought-to-free-the-nipple-and-all-we-got-was-a-better-kind-of-thirst-trap-7ce671384abb

So, what is your take on this: Was the social network what sold the protest out so much it became unrecognizable, or is there still an undercurrent of a righteous, enraged feminist at the very depths of the like count?