Argentine women stage topless protest against police harassment and double standards

Last edited Thu Feb 9, 2017, 11:00 AM - Edit history (1)

Around a hundred women gathered in a downtown Buenos Aires promenade yesterday, and in a number of other Argentine cities, to protest recent incidents of police harassment of women who sunbathe topless in municipal beaches or who breastfeed their infants in public parks.

What made this protest different, is that the participants took advantage of the sunny southern hemisphere summer weather to go topless.

"When we talk about exhibitionism, we refer to genitals - and tits are not genitals. Men's nipples are just the same as ours; the only difference is that a woman's breast feeds a baby," said one of the protesters that descended on Republic Square.

Breasts without sunshine

The demonstration, referred to as a Tetazo, was organized on social networks in response to an incident of police harassment on January 28 against three nude sunbathers in the popular seaside resort town of Necochea.

The incident, captured on cell phone video, took place after a conservative beachgoer became irate at the sight of the three women, all in their 20s, sunbathing topless. Following a verbal barrage against the women and their friends, the man called local police - who arrived in six patrol cars carrying 20 armed officers.

The women promptly covered up after being ordered to do so by police, with whom the women engaged in a friendly banter over double standards. Police, however, then forced the women and their friends to leave the beach despite having followed orders to cover up.

Police issued citations based on a previously little-publicized municipal initiative known as Operation Breasts Without Sunshine. The mayor of Necochea, Facundo López, belongs to President Mauricio Macri's right-wing "Let's Change" alliance, and a number of Macri surrogates spoke in support of restrictions.

Judge Mario Juliano, who heard the Necochea case on February 1, ruled in favor of the three defendants however, noting that Article 70 of the Provincial Criminal Code (on which the anti-topless initiative was based) was enacted in March 1973 during a military dictatorship and is thus both authoritarian and of dubious legality.

"This should be taken as an opportunity to reform this outdated and authoritarian Criminal Code," Judge Juliano wrote. "The people of Buenos Aires Province deserve a legal framework adequate to the needs of a modern society, one which promotes egalitarian access to public spaces and peaceful coexistence."

Machísmo

Laura Velasco, Chief Adviser on Women's Policy for the leftist Free People of the South caucus in the City Legislature, noted during yesterday's protest that while machísmo - the belief in male dominance - is still prevalent in Argentina, it's not limited to men.

"One of the police officers who exhibited the most hostility in Necochea was a policewoman, as was the policewoman who expelled a woman from a park for breastfeeding her infant in San Isidro (an Buenos Aires suburb) on August 5," she noted.

"Men never think twice about doffing their shirt in city parks during hot summer days," a young protester noted. "Our chests, however, always seem to offend everyone - except of course if somebody's making money off them."

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lanueva.com%2Fsociedad%2F893336%2Forganizaciones-feministas-convocan-esta-tarde-a-un-tetazo-en-el-obelisco.html

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Going tit-for-tat against machismo, Argentine women air their grievances in yesterday's Tetazo.[/center]