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It’s a day like most. Some celebrity is breaking the internet, yet again. All of them are competing to bare their bodies more than the women before them, under the well-known label of “empowerment”.

But is empowerment really just limited to the extent to which a woman bares her body? Every single one of us is born differently. We grow up in different environments, encompassed by several different types of people, ideas, and mindsets. So, shouldn’t empowerment be different for all? Something that makes me feel powerful may make my best friend, neighbor, or hell, even my own sister, feel like absolute shit about themselves.

One woman’s paradise may be another’s hell, and there is nothing wrong with that. If I want to cover my head and body to feel empowered, let me do that in peace. Don’t come at me, pitying me for being “oppressed”. Don’t tell me I’d look way better if I didn’t cover up because of… hold up, let’s reverse that, shall we? Imagine if someone told a supporter of #freethenipple to cover up (Not saying it’s right to do so), the media would blow up. The entire world would pit up against that person because how dare someone say that, right?

Well then, why can’t we react the same way everytime a hijabi has her hijab (headscarf) pulled off? Or when a woman in an abaya (long gown used by Muslim women to cover up) gets told to “cool down a little” because it’s summertime? These media-driven empowerment campaigns are mostly just giving rise to double standards in society.

Women who choose to show their bodies are being portrayed as powerful, rebellious, and are known to live their lives to the fullest, but what about those of us who find comfort in concealing? Shouldn’t we have the right to feel empowered, too? If modesty is what I want to rock for the rest of my life, let me.

Please don’t buy the trash our media is trying to sell us on a daily basis. I mean, if freeing the nipple can work, why can’t one choose to conceal it, not? We need to let each other breathe and grow.