The Bare Facts

Reading an article published in the USA regarding some women who dispensed with their bathing suit tops and were consequently arrested and charged I became interested. The outcome was that yes, they were offending according to the law, but yes, it wasn't fair when males are permitted to disrobe in the same way. I couldn't help but respond to the article since it is a moot point they were making. The author cited a situation in Canada that was similar.  The case was heard and the women were or woman was, not charged since the court decided that it is a matter of gender freedom and fairness to go topless. What the outcome is, will be observed I suppose sometime in the future, what with our human penchant for change, but to what degree and purpose, remains in question. Thinking about the whole bareness issue is rather mind boggling because we are people with moralizations that are very complex and are with strict boundaries as far as gender is concerned. Furthermore, no one wants to address the matter, because it appears to dig up  moral passions that other things such as deeper crimes like murder and mayhem, are far more impacting on society as seen by the media. Or so some believe until an issue like topless, crops up. It is then you find the religious groups in an uproar and those with personal prejudices and others who just want to jump in on the matter to add their feelings about it. Once owning an RV park with a beach, I found it my duty to inform a German woman who  sunbathed topless, that in our town, they had laws about such, and that another summer resident, had threatened to call the police. I told the woman that I was here to give her a warning about what could happen. She was a visitor on holiday from Europe and was thoroughly surprised at this.  Where she came from, it was common practice on beaches. She agreed , however, to comply with local laws. There was no further trouble on the beach. But when I think about this issue, it brings up all sorts of reasons to mind about why and why not and why do we think the way we do, about the issue of nudity on beaches varies so much from one place to another. The earlier USA article in question, regarding the incident, was because a woman informed the police that the sight of another woman's breasts was highly offensive to her young children. That opinion rather amazed me, since they may have been breast fed as babies, and had frequent access to their mother's natural feeding abilities. Also, I have heard the opinion, that if nudity on the beaches were common, there would abound such crimes as rape and stalking and attacks on females. Other women abhorred the idea of topless beach activity because their men would find it distracting and disturbing, and not in the right ways. I found it all intriguing, and at the same time hilarious. It amazed me how much emotional energy could be expended by such a natural and not too infrequently visual, that we see commonly in movie theaters, home television sets and other media. While full exposure isn't common, it isn't too hard to locate if that's what apparently is the sinful action raising such concern. We don't seem to mind using our imaginations about the very same thing. We watch music videos, movies and such as the Academy Awards with all the gowns that show as much of the body as is possible without full exposure, albeit in the most expensive designer gowns and bodies in the world, all primed and primped up for our pleasure on the screen. Millions if not billions goggle it up. We all know exactly what is barely millimeters under that chiffon and lace, don't we?