There is nothing new about women wanting to get something off their chests, namely their tops. But I must admit, the notions of topless pride and topless equality are new ones on me.
Both terms appear in a report by Minneapolis Fox affiliate KMSP on that city’s Topless Pride Parade, which took place last month. According to the article:
[C]ity ordinances regarding public toplessness are vague, as are the state laws on the subject. What constitutes public indecency is often left to the arresting officer’s personal judgment.
The article quotes Nadine Gary, president of the women’s rights organization GoTopless, who said “Most of these cities use indecency laws to criminalize women’s bare chests in public while those same laws haven’t applied to men for 80 years.”
Gary said her organization is currently challenging the city of Chicago in court for violating gender equality on GoTopless Day 2014. Topless rights advocate Sonoko Tagami, 41, received a summons and was threatened with arrest on August 24, 2014 for indecent exposure during an organized rally. Minnesota, in contrast, has legislative support for topless equality.
I can appreciate the desire of women to narrow the gender gap, although Gary’s goal — described here as “obtaining our constitutional right to go topless in public wherever men have that right” — betrays an ignorance of the Constitution.
More importantly, the desire of women to go bare-chested in public is at cross-purposes with one of the societal taboos that feminists who worked so hard to eradicate: the objectification of the female body by men. Unless these women don’t mind being ogled, they should think twice about this crusade.
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