Scout Willis loves her breasts – but swears she never expected them to cause such a stir when she took a topless stroll through the Lower East Side on Tuesday.
“It would be naïve to say I didn’t think it would cause a controversy, a buzz,” she said. “But never did I expect the outpouring – both of media attention, as well as incredibly positive support.”
The 22-year-old daughter of Bruce Willis and “Striptease” star Demi Moore explained that she underwent breast reduction surgery a few years back and is only now more comfortable with her body, and hasn’t felt “like wearing a bra.”
Willis’ bare-breasted protest of Instagram’s ban on nudity may have set the Internet abuzz – but it didn’t faze New Yorkers.
“People were really blasé about it,” she said.
It started out like any other walk, until Willis made the impromptu decision to toss her shirt aside and pose for a few photos taken by her boyfriend.
When she posted the racy shots to Twitter on Tuesday with the hashtag #FreeTheNipple, the Internet – predictably – went nuts.
Of course, not everyone spoke out in favor of the Hollywood royal’s naked revolt.
“Some people either aren’t aware enough of the facts to know what it is I’m actually fighting for and talking about, and some people really just don’t want to take me seriously, and would rather write me off as someone who’s just attention-seeking,” Willis said.
What initially set her off were two warnings from Instagram in a week for “inappropriate” content. The photos in question showed Willis wearing sheer tops.
“It wasn’t like I was posting blatant nudes,” she said.
A little while later, Instagram deactivated her account entirely after she posted a bomber jacket emblazoned with an image of two topless women.
Since the protest, Instagram has reactivated Willis’ account – but she said she’s done with the social media site.
“Everyone says the policy has to be uniform,” she argued. “Apparently, though it’s OK for women to be degraded and hyper-sexualized, but it’s not OK for them to be proud of their bodies. Some uniform policy bulls**t does not make me OK with that. People are selling heroin on Instagram. People are selling guns. Yet my nipple is the problem.”