"PORTLAND - About two dozen women marched topless from Longfellow Square to Tommy's Park this afternoon in an effort to erase what they see as a double standard on male and female nudity."
Ah, finally, a movement I can support, and from the looks of it, they need all the "support" they can get! Apparently the state in which this unorthodox event took place, Maine, defines nudity as "genitals only". So, what's a girl to do when she can walk around topless? Well, it seems she's going to...um....walk around topless.
"The women, preceded and followed by several hundred boisterous and mostly male onlookers, many of them carrying cameras"
Oh really? No kidding? You don't say? A whole bunch of guys followed a whole bunch of topless women? This sounds more like a bizarre bachelor party or Girls Gone Wild event than a social movement. My favorite part of this story is the organizers' comments after the march:
"Ty McDowell, who organized the march, said she was "enraged" by the turnout of men attracted to the demonstration. The purpose, she said, was for society to have the same reaction to a woman walking around topless as it does to men without shirts on."
Come on Ty, COME ON! Sure, I suppose she can be enraged, but I think her position would have been more effective had she used this as a teachable moment. What if she had said the following INSTEAD:
"The attention we received while marching today illustrates the divide between the social perception of men and women, and how we still have a long way to go before we reach equality. I mean, if there were 20 topless men walking down the street, it would probably have looked like a ghost-town around here. I think we have made some progress though, and I look forward to our next event"
Ty, you can lose your shirt, but lose the aggression too! Have a sense of humor for goodness sakes, and realize that until internet porn is obsolete and Hustler and Playboy go bankrupt, naked chicks will remain totally sweet...
NOTE: I felt it was my duty to maintain the normative male perspective on female nudity for the purposes of this entry. Please don't think less of me, I really am a decent human being.
I understand their point by wanting to have a march to rid ourselves of this "double-standard", but what did they really expect to happen? This type of thing cannot just be eliminated just like that. It is hard to draw a comparison to men, but what if men walked around in assless chaps? I think a few women might follow them around. Breasts are sexualized, but the mere extent to which this arises is not always clear. I am not a man, so I don't really understand the fixiation of breasts, but there are things that I know women find attractive on guys that aren't necessarily the most logical.
It is sort of sad that so many followed them around with cameras, because what are they going to do with the photos? Not that I want to know.... Sexuality is a drive in human nature, and the attraction may be deeper than just trying to objectify women. I know is is sort of a pathetic thing to say, but being sexy is something that can empower women. By letting it all hang out, we are sort of just letting are bodies become an object. Women oggle shirtless men all the time, as long as they look decent. Women will still be looked at, shirtless or not..it just all depends if we want to leave something to the imagination or not.
Also, not to be weird... but what woman really WANTS to walk around shirtless? I mean...there is no support there, and you really couldn't run or do any sports.
Men can sexualize just about any woman. Moral or not, a guy who sees a topless girl walking down the street will probably do at the VERY least, a double take. I agree with Cassy in that breasts have had a sexual connotation attached to them and so seeing a herd of topless women walking around, men will be attracted to it... both sexually and physically. I think unless this double standard is COMPLETELY shattered, and women begin to walk around topless all over the place, we will continue to see this sort of public reaction from men. It is the law that is as old as time - you want what you can't have. Men only see breasts when it can be related to other sexual activity (sex, strippers, porn, sex scenes in movies, etc.) and so when they see a pair, they think "sex".
I agree with John in that it is too bad that she saw it as such an angering thing to have this attention from men... if what you're going for is equality (and perhaps the right to take your shirt off from time to time), don't take offense to how the public reacts unless you're using it to make a further point of inequality.
Men can sexualize just about any woman. Moral or not, a guy who sees a topless girl walking down the street will probably do at the VERY least, a double take. I agree with Cassy in that breasts have had a sexual connotation attached to them and so seeing a herd of topless women walking around, men will be attracted to it... both sexually and physically. I think unless this double standard is COMPLETELY shattered, and women begin to walk around topless all over the place, we will continue to see this sort of public reaction from men. It is the law that is as old as time - you want what you can't have. Men only see breasts when it can be related to other sexual activity (sex, strippers, porn, sex scenes in movies, etc.) and so when they see a pair, they think "sex".
I agree with John in that it is too bad that she saw it as such an angering thing to have this attention from men... if what you're going for is equality (and perhaps the right to take your shirt off from time to time), don't take offense to how the public reacts unless you're using it to make a further point of inequality.