Okay, questions: the same places as a male could?

And, a question, not to you specifically: has anyone who lives in New York ever see women without shirts? And if nit, will that change?

it isn't fair. Making women wear sports bras isn't quite as bad as the burka, but the intent is rather the same.

Even though it covers way more than a bathing suit top. Men can go topless everywhere but on weight equipment.

someone should open up a topless gym. Or a nude gym even, though that might be kinda gross.

and thus should be approved by those who are afraid of the all-powerful boobies.

I think it's beyond stupid.

but then I don't see the point of a lot of things. I'm sure it's all about sexualization as you say- because we all know that covering 'em up works so well to prevent assaults.

I'm not being snarky. Except for keeping warm in Winter, why have clothes?

Well that's why I wear clothes anyway....

seriously

I'd have to carry hand-wipes with me everywhere, like Monk

Certain areas of both genders tend to...leak.

It's why there are breastfeeding-specific laws to allow for exposure of breasts.

Most supposedly breastfeeding-friendly laws and cases in the USA are actually negative. They imply very clearly or even may state that women's breasts are indecent, obscene, disorderly, or in other ways harmful, except for breastfeeding. So The Man deigns to allow women to breastfeed, under conditions that he specifies, which often and deliberately make breastfeeding difficult and consequently harm children and women both.

Women are secondary humans and therefore have to be controlled more. They're dangerous and immoral if they're not controlled by men or are allowed ownership of their own bodies.

That may be an exaggeration, but not much of one, and historically that's where much of this comes from.

As you said; "If it was a common thing, the huge, huge majority wouldn't even see it anymore".
I am being honest here...

But just please let me know in advance before you all are going to do it. Just so I can invest in some car insurance company's.
I suspect they will raising preamiums hand over fist for those first few weeks.

I expect my own car would be in the body shop within a day or two.

they would have been born with no clothes on!

Religious mores are what keep women's breasts covered. Heck, look at all the hooplah over breast feeding! The non-christianized folks in tropical climates - their females go topless and rape or molestation isn't problematical for them. It's religious malarky AND then there's the fact that so MUCH focus is placed on breasts as sexual items (in our culture) - which they're really not,

Why can't other breast cancer survivors swim topless?

And, why can men swim topless but women can't is the next logical step in this.

there are some really hateful comments there.

And Seattle, too.

a top at the beach or in her yard, etc. I have tons of pix of me running around with just shorts on. Now, if we were going somewhere (store, restaurant, downtown, etc.) I was put in a dress or a top and pants, but at home or on the beach, nah.

This was 55 years ago -- that's how bad all this crap has gotten in such a short time.

but I have only seen it once in a Lake Huron town and the lady did not have attractive breasts.

In Toronto on the islands there is a nude beach...everyone goes topless and bottomless.

I have gone topless in my backyard which did not have nearby neighbors.

Car crashes would skyrocket and personal injury would be high due to men running into things. Men can't handle the visual access to the female chest in public.


BTW: I don't think,men should go topless unless swimming. Just a male point of view.

Seriously, it may help ease some of the puritanical repression that pervades America.

I once asked this OP questiom of my fellow male friends, intentionally setting them up.

"Hey, dudes, wouldn't it be cool if women were allowed to go around shirtless/topless like us guys without being in trouble?"

Their response was what you could expect from guys in their 20s.

"Hell yeah, that would be freaking awesome! There are some women I wouldn't mind seeing topless! Har Har Har!"

Then.... the punch.

"Cool! That means your sister and/or mom can go around topless. Imagine that!"

Crickets...

Suddenly they weren't so keen on the idea.

it should probably be amended to "sexualization and property issues"- certain types of men tend to not want "their" women showing it off. "OPP" is usually a different story.

If you have a link about the rest of Texas, please post it here.

At a nude beach in Florida, you could see hundreds of women topless. You know what happens after about 5 minutes, even to a single man? It has no sexual effect anymore. I know it sounds unbelievable but it's true. Nudism is a wonderful lifestyle that in its pure form involves no titillation or sex at all, it's supposed to be family friendly. Most beaches in Europe are topless, when I went to France I casually walked by beautiful women laying topless with not a care in the world. I wish we could be as advanced as they are. We must let go of hangups brought by gnostics (aka puritans) that left Britain because they could not get along religiously with their more sane countrymen back in the 1600's. Now it's 2012, we must evolve and learn to enjoy this short life.

I've been to topless beaches myself, and you really do just ignore it after a while.

Thank you for your pertinent observations. There are 15 years of information about this on the TERA website, which, although hosted in Canada, concerns itself with the USA mostly.

Many commenters say things, even in good faith, that are incorrect, especially about the legal issues. There's even one website that posts legal information about women's topfreedom that's incomplete and misleading and should not be heeded. For various reasons, TERA does not post a guide to lawfulness of topfree women, although we do answer questions about it.

I've done a lot of it, and I distinctly remember that first day. The model was attractive, and the excitement/novelty of her complete nudity lasted for all of about one minute. Then focus on the drawing to be done completely washed it away. We could all get over it very quickly if it were normalized, and I would say that the end of this discrimination is long overdue...

Puritanical chains for everyone, including those that don't believe in "God", are preposterous...

until the school stopped life modeling because of complaints from students. This was in a conservative area, naturally.

We don't have air or a swamp cooler -just an oscillating fan & a spray bottle of cold water to keep cool. I finally said fuck it & took my shirt off. Even in my own home, with just me & the dog, I was very self conscious for quite a while! Now I'm so used to it I hope I don't forget to put my shirt back on when I step out to intercept my UPS man!

Most of it is religious based. And it's just getting worse as the media give the wackos an unlimited microphone to spout their perversion of what's considered immoral (bare breasts, contraception, homosexuality, & the list goes on & on) vs. what is really immoral (drone wars, economic injustice, lack of empathy).

Good post. Enjoying the comments.

I do the same thing, when I'm really hot after running or whatever, and it always feel weird the first minute or two, then it doesn't.

It is really... frustrating, isn't it?

I haven't thought of that memory in years. I was eight too, and flat as a boy. It's not just about boobs then. It's policing women's bodies.

Thanks to Starry Messenger for sending me the info and a link.

I am betting good money that if a woman around topless around most towns here, all hell would break loose, and the cops would be called, and I bet the cops would either try to force the women to put a shirt on OR even cite her. I mean, women still get cites for BREASTFEEDING.

This link is about a year old, but is VERY interesting:

http://gotopless.org/news.php?extend.49

<snip>

"In American, we seem to have come to terms with a more sectioned type of "Burqa" which even our most conservative americans are finding "decent". However, Taliban men would find outrageous the attire that conservative American women find decent and proper.

One can see that it is simply a matter of programming and upbringing. In Western Europe, after 40 years of women going topless on the beach, no one even looks at topless women sunbathing anymore.

Men are no longer any sexual obsession over their breasts because it has become a normal sight. It is difficult for many Americans to imagine this in our society but that is how the human brain works. Repression brings obsession. When the repression is gone, the obsession goes away too.

That is a good thing because repression can also beget violence and the most repressed society are indeed the most violent. So when Maitreya Rael founded GoTopless.org he had women's rights in mind but also the healing of a very troubled humanity.

Free your breasts, free your mind women and men of Asheville... for Humankind.

Nadine Gary, president GoTopless.org"

nude beach for most of the winter. Going topless is normal.



This is my extended family.



Women go topless. Men go topless. It's just no big deal. We teach our children at a young age that bodies are natural, so they do not grow up with any bizarre misconceptions about human bodies and sex.

The reason we are forbidden by law and custom to have our breasts "exposed" (lol!!!) in public is because twisted, unnatural religious cults have influenced and repressed American society ever since Columbus first brought them here from Europe, right along with the common cold and the love of gold.

It's definitely discrimination! I'm glad I live in NY, where I can do it. I've gotten everything from people calling the police, and hecklers halfway down the beach ("Let me suck on your titties!" etc) to women coming up saying they wish they were as brave as I was. There was one time I was at the beach in the water, and a family had floated their way down to me. I was chatting with the mom but getting ready to leave. I was like, "Oh boy, she probably thought it was a strapless swimsuit, and now she's gonna freak out when I get out of the water." But she actually apologized to me because of her young daughter staring! It was kind of refreshing to not have her YELL at me!

The Rochester Topfree Seven anniversary 5 years ago was the first time I went shirtless in public, and I was kinda nervous at first, but honestly-like someone else here mentioned-after a little bit, you really don't notice it at all! Same thing when I went to a nudist place for the first time. It's actually quite comfortable and liberating (and no hecklers at the nudist place!)

One thing I really hate is when a woman goes topless, she's often judged by her body, but few guys (that I've seen, anyway) have this happen to them. Like when Moira Johnston (forgive me if I got the last name wrong) went shirtless in NYC, a lot of comments on those articles were things like, "The only thing offensive is that belly of hers." First off, I'd love to have a body like that again. Secondly, if they are going to say things like that, then they better be sure that the look like Chippendale dancers or something before THEY go shirtless!

We get national news.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/05/transgender-men-go-toples_n_601745.html

So why could I have a pair of DD's worthy of some porn star and be legal everywhere?

It would be so commonplace that no one would notice anymore. As it is I was driving the other day and saw a woman walking wearing the smallest black bikini. She was with a guy, walking a dog. I admit to a double take to see if what I saw, I had really seen. I missed my opportunity to make a safety right. We all could get used to it but it might be distracting until we all did.

If I saw a random female, walking around downtown sans top, my first impulse would be to consider some mental impairment. I would be concerned for her safety from a predator and from legal consequences.

Am I wrong for my personal modesty? I personally would not want to be publicly exposed because the girls are no longer particularly perky or cute. I wouldn't want to be exposed to critical comments about how appropriate it is to show something that is stretched and sagging from breast feeding three babies?

You do what you want. I just can't. I hate the dressing room at the gym. I hate the wet swim suit and showering in a public facility. I don't even really like that one of my best friends is obese and uninhibited nudist. I wish I didn't care what other people think or if I'm offending anyone. I'll be the friend in a swim suit when everyone one else skinny dips.

Hope you don't ban me from the group for being different. I love you for being free and not ashamed. I'll try harder.