This past Saturday, a group of women and men protested double-standards—by going topless. Maine is one of only a handful of states that allows women to go topless in public. The group marched down the streets of Portland without incident, though there were many onlookers—some with cameras—who merely gawked.
According to an article in the Portland Press Herald: “[Ty] MacDowell [the organizer of the march] said she was surprised by the turnout of those interested less in challenging societal convention than in seeing partially undressed women.
‘I’m amazed,’ she said, and ‘enraged (at) the fact that there’s a wall of men watching.'”
Topless laws for women are on the books in a small number of states (Maine, New York, Hawaii, Texas, and Ohio) and a few cities and other sections of the US. Because men can easily go topless, it’s unfair to not let women do so as well.
It’s something of a conundrum: how do we fight for women’s topfree laws? Furthermore, how do we discourage harassment when women do go topless? I think the surrounding discussion could lead to some breakthroughs, and maybe encourage some laws to be changed in other states.
Image courtesy the Portland Press Herald.