Protesting Artist Goes Topless Exposing Her B00bs In New York[PHOTOS]

Women are currently persecuted for baring their breasts in public in New York. On a global level, women who bare their chests often face more severe disciplinary measures. Whether or not you’ve ever personally felt the urge to shop for groceries sans shirt, the very existence of the prohibition — which, of course, does not apply to men — illuminates how women’s bodies are regarded as being inherently obscene. This is a problem.

A New York artist who goes by the pseudonym Narcissister is taking over the city streets with a performance aimed to promote self-acceptance and unadulterated freedom for women and their breasts everywhere.

Narcissister is an anonymous performance artist who transforms obsessive self-love into a form of political activism. Masked in a slightly terrifying Barbie doll mask, she’s shocked the judges on America’s Got Talent and invented the “reverse striptease” — which, in case you’re unfamiliar, consists of pulling clothes out of your private parts. All in the name of feminist freedom.

Our favorite vanity vigilante has created a video installation showcasing photos of different women each wearing the iconic Narcissister mask and no shirt, performing mundane daily activities from going shopping to dropping off their kids. In every image, the body is treated as what it is — not an eroticized commodity, but the vehicle through which over half the population exists in the world.

The piece, seeking to cast a critical eye on the policing and objectification of women’s bodies, recently exhibited at Petrella’s Imports, a newsstand on NYC’s Bowery and Canal that has been turned into an art space.

“There’s this idea that women’s bodies are fundamentally sexual and consequently, inappropriate to be seen in the public arena,” Narcissister explained to Metro. “[This project] is about women enjoying a broader experience with their bodies and in their bodies the way that men do … I want to question whether this law or other laws are built on stereotyping and discrimination have been unconsciously built into law.”