teta&teta (http://www.tetaandteta.com/) is a creative coworking with its own “free the nipple brand.” At least, that’s what they say they are. However, after checking out their website, and after speaking for a bit with María Rufilanchas, I believe they are so much more than that. Chatting with María fills you with hope. It’s a radical testimony of someone that knows that things can be done differently. And that’s something to be thankful for.

I met teta&teta for their “nudist white tit-shirt,” and I immediately bought myself one. It’s obvious that nowadays. feminism is a trend. and every single shop is producing clothes with messages such as “GRL PWR” or “Females Are Strong.” In spite of that, I see something that I don’t like behind this trend: most of these shops don’t care about our fight, they care about their benefits. While we buy from them, they still exploit women on their production, and they still create unrealistic role models for us through photoshop, and so on and so on.

María agrees. She proposes we check out the brand’s philosophy before we shop their shirts, pins, sweater.

“We must ask ourselves where is it produced, how is it produced, who is producing it… Investigate if they’re joining on the feminist side because they want to make a positive change for us women, or because they want to make a profit from us women.”

María admits producing ethically (which means locally and sustainably) is not the way to produce if you want to grow rich. Their brand is moved by social interest and the possibility to make a positive impact in the world. They are not moved by money, although they know money moves almost everything.

“In order to produce ethically, you must be willing to reduce your benefits. You will only earn enough to live comfortably, and that’s it,” she states. “We don’t care if our benefits are small because we are not here to get rich. We are here to get strong. We don’t want to gain money, we want to gain a war.”

She admits they are growing, and learning on the way (because at the beginning, they weren’t caring so much about producing ethically), meeting other brands (like La Casita de Wendy) and collaborating with them, slowly watching their production process and getting better at it all.

“Free is the most important word of Free the nipple, because this is not about nipples. This is about freedom”

María believes that their brand works because they’re doing it for something greater than just selling. “Our shirts are not just another product. A T-shirt that has two boobs drawn in it reclaims our fight. A plain, regular t-shirt doesn’t.” To her, the “free the nipple” movement joins the ancient fight against gender inequality. The only thing that changes is that it’s approaching this fight from a new point of view: the censorship of the female body on social media.

Believing in freeing the nipple means freeing yourself from self-consciousness, from thoughts and beliefs that have made us unhappy for centuries. We don’t have to change our bodies, we have to love our bodies. “You start by freeing the nipple and you end up freeing your rolls of fat.”

And… what about men? Can they join in on our fight?

Men who take their boobs out for us are giving us power, and by doing that, they’re reducing their own amount of power.

“Every time we sell a T-shirt (which means someone else joining the fight against gender inequality), we get very happy. Yet, if it’s a guy, we get twice as happy. We are missing men that take their boobs out and show that they’re looking at us from another place. Every day there are more, but still, they’re very few. Lots of them are missing. All of them are missing.

Men who take their boobs out for us are giving us power, and by doing that, they’re reducing their own amount of power. This is almost more important than a woman changing its point of view. After all, learning to dis-empower yourself is much harder than empowering yourself.”

Thank you, teta&teta! We wish you many years of fighting strong against gender inequality!