Miley Is Helping 'Free the Nipple'

It is not a secret that Miley Cyrus is a fan of nudity. In fact, the announcement that Cyrus contributed to Sundance film* Free the Nipple via a cover of Melanie Safka’s “Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma” seems to be a longtime coming. Of course she would do this — and it's great that she did.

According to Variety, Free the Nipple — the trailer for which you can watch below — is directed by Lina Esco with the screenplay by Hunter Richards and follows activists challenging the censorship laws that ban nipples. Cyrus reportedly recorded the song in August "in two takes." It's a logical follow-up to her pervious support of the cause: Last year around Christmas Cyrus posted a photo of herself with her shirt lifted alongside a caption thanking New York for becoming one of the states to "free the nipple" by making it legal for boobs-bearing people to go topless in public.

"Why [are] my nipples more obscene than a murder?" the trailer for the film asks, also stating that "our sexuality has been taken away from us, it is essentially being sold back to us." Cyrus' professional being could arguably be a part of that "sold back to us" argument, which is why it's cool that she's advocating for a wider demographic than just the pop stars of the world to bear their breasts. There are a lot of very valid criticisms aimed at Cyrus, but I have a lot of appreciation for the effort to destigmatize a part of the body that the vast majority of humans have but that only half the population is banned from showing.

*This movie was originally described as a documentary here. That was an error: It is a scripted film based on a true story.