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Lady walks topless through Central Park

Jill

This is awesome.

I’m not gonna lie: when I wrote up that item about Topless Bowery Lady a few weeks ago, I got a bit jealous. To be able to walk around New York City all careless and fancy free like that, breasts unfettered, the cool breeze rushing across your chest…it all seemed so wonderful, yet unattainable. I would never have the gall to do that, I thought. Social conventions being what they are, there’s no way I could possibly carry that off without attracting an incredible amount of unwanted attention, making people mad, scarring children for life, potentially getting harassed by the cops, etc. Why, oh why, can’t I just air my tits out like it ain’t no thang? STUPID AMERICA.

And then I was like, well, why the hell not? What’s the point of having toplessness be legal in New York City if you can’t taste of its sweet nectars? Social mores don’t just change overnight; someone has to go first and make it look like fun, and then, with any luck, the rest will follow, and someday it becomes normal, right? In the name of being the change I want to see (as well as anecdotal sociology), I decided to swallow my fears and hang out topless in Central Park Sunday afternoon.

…and the only people who gave her a hard time were parks employees and cops. And that was Because There Are Children Around.

Not to make this post all Debbie Downer Serious Feminist Stuff when it could really just be like “look, titties, awesome!”, but it serves as a nice anecdotal point when it comes to discussing a woman’s responsibility to do X in order to avoid getting raped. I’ve had dozens of conversations with women and men where I argue that being drunk / wearing tiny clothes / going out to bars / whatever doesn’t get you raped; the come-back, without fail, is something like, “Well sure, no one deserves to be raped, but it’s just stupid to take those kinds of risks, since they make you more vulnerable. I mean, it would be nice if you could just walk through Central Park naked without having anything bad happen to you, but that just isn’t the case.”

…except when it is the case.

60 thoughts on Lady walks topless through Central Park

  2. Men have just been conditioned, plain and simple, to need to be protective of women. You don’t hit girls. You also believe that women who dress provocatively are increasing their odds of being sexually assaulted for a simple reason. You overstate the ability of other men to assault women.

    Men are also conditioned to take a dim view of each other, particularly regarding the worst aspects of their conduct. Men are supposed to be filthy, boorish, borderline criminal, and dangerous. This is why you never take your eye off one who raises your concern. I don’t think there’s nearly as many who fit the profile, but this is what we’re raised to believe.

  3. In all seriousness though, I find it sad that, at least here, toplessness has been legal for.. oh man.. about 15 years, but social convention still prevents women from embracing this right in the same way guys do, except for the rare occasion at the beach.

    The pearl-clutching and “Oh Noes! Bewberrzzzzz!” mentality doesn’t go away just because it’s legal.

    But I do agree, if more people embraced this freedom (keeping in mind that there is a time and a place for everything…) maybe one day the shock will wear off.

  4. Yeah, it’s been legal here in Canada for quite a long time. But it’s not as though it’s particularly common, Andie. I don’t think the social mores have changed much at all (with the exception of events like Pride, etc).

  5. This is testament to the fact that not all men are rapists or street harassers and that the way you dress doesn’t have that huge effect on your chances of sexual assault. She said she was mostly ignored, like she was any one else in Central Park that others didnt know.

    I think the other woman who did this was mostly ignored and maybe had one or two people who suggested she put on a shirt for the children also. Nobody hit on her, harassed her, assaulted her or anything. She was like any other person at the park that day.

  7. Kimberly:
    Yeah, it’s been legal here in Canada for quite a long time. But it’s not as though it’s particularly common, Andie.

    Yeah I kind of followed up on that.

  8. Andie: In all seriousness though, I find it sad that, at least here, toplessness has been legal for.. oh man.. about 15 years, but social convention still prevents women from embracing this right in the same way guys do, except for the rare occasion at the beach.The pearl-clutching and “Oh Noes! Bewberrzzzzz!” mentality doesn’t go away just because it’s legal.But I do agree, if more people embraced this freedom (keeping in mind that there is a time and a place for everything…) maybe one day the shock will wear off.

    Couldnt it be that most women dont want to go without a bra? I mean there are women, like myself who rocks a 34H, not wearing a bra just means my back and shoulders will hurt like hell. Then there is the obvious boob sweat, a lot of shirtless men are flatchested and dont have to worry about sweat accumulating beneath a flap of exposed skin.

    But you make a great point, yopu’d have to wonder how many women would want to go out full on topless. (Also not just social norms with breast exposure but how she feles about her belly and if *that* will be judged as well.)

  9. Interesting experiment, I guess. Is this due to jaded New Yorkers, or was all the silly hysteria about the Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” just manufactured by the media?

    I have never really understood the “think about the children” argument (at least regarding smaller children). Surely they are the ones least aware of social conventions and will care much less than adults?

    @Jill: I do not think the tie in with the dress/rape risk argument works at all. This was in the middle of the day with huge numbers of people around. Hardly high risk behavior.

    1. @Jill: I do not think the tie in with the dress/rape risk argument works at all. This was in the middle of the day with huge numbers of people around. Hardly high risk behavior.

      …and most rapes happen in one’s home, or in the home of someone the victim knows. Yet women are routinely told that walking through a park at night, or going out to a bar, is “high-risk” behavior. Walking through a park topless certainly qualifies as the kind of faux-high-risk behavior that rape apologists constantly point to.

  11. Azalea: Couldnt it be that most women dont want to go without a bra? I mean there are women, like myself who rocks a 34H, not wearing a bra just means my back and shoulders will hurt like hell. Then there is the obvious boob sweat, a lot of shirtless men are flatchested and dont have to worry about sweat accumulating beneath a flap of exposed skin.

    But you make a great point, yopu’d have to wonder how many women would want to go out full on topless. (Also not just social norms with breast exposure but how she feles about her belly and if *that* will be judged as well.)

    You make a good point, and I suppose I should have qualified that with “It’s a shame more women who would like to go topless don’t embrace this freedom”

    It’s one thing if it’s desire to avoid physical discomfort or boobsweat, I’m on board with that reasoning.

  12. Is it possible to be a Good Feminist(TM) and think that fighting the cultural prohibition on public female toplessness is just plain stupid?

  13. matlun:
    I have never really understood the “think about the children” argument (at least regarding smaller children). Surely they are the ones least aware of social conventions and will care much less than adults?

    Yes, but clearly bewbers=the sex=evil and so we must shield children from the the evil of ladies dirtypillows so they don’t grow up to be horrible lustful depraved creatures.

    See: Katy Perry Sesame Street Brouhaha

  15. Is it possible to be a Good Feminist(TM) and think that fighting the cultural prohibition on public female toplessness is just plain stupid

    I think the rule book says tha the Good Feminist(tm) card can only be revoked if you try to stop them. Or ridicule them based only on your personal disinterest in the issue.

    At least, I hope so, since I think it’s an extremely low priority on the feminist goals scale. But, if that’s the battle another feminist wants to fight, I’m in her corner. With my clothes on. 😉

  16. matlun: I have never really understood the “think about the children” argument (at least regarding smaller children). Surely they are the ones least aware of social conventions and will care much less than adults?

    Same here. Most little kids in my family looooovvveee being naked. They think it’s the best way to be.

    Also, there are tons of naked people in Central Park all the time. They just happen to be trapped in canvas or stone in the Met.

  17. Eugh, the comment section is full of gross body policing though. Blech. It’s much nicer when people don’t tell you what they’re thinking.

    I’d love to spend more time topless, but I don’t think I have the energy to fight off the negativity. I would do it in solidarity, but not casually on my own. 🙁

  20. I live in Maine where it is legal to be topless unless a town has an ordinance. In April 2010 I participated in the Topless March that made national attention and it was one of the more interesting experiences of my life. Since then I have made it a point to exercise my right as often as I see fit.

    I have been harassed by cops at 2am while eating a burger after the bar. The officer informed me, “you are making people feel uncomfortable”. I was in a shit hole town at the time where besides the cop and the burger guy there were maybe four people moving, and two of them were with me.

    I have been verbally assaulted, threatened with physical violence, and just last week as I laid on my stomach on the beach (since when is that even topless?) a woman was going to take a picture of me to try and shame me into putting my shirt on. My son was bullied by the children on the street who told him his mother belonged in jail before they physically assaulted him. (I keep pasties on in the neighborhood specifically to deter problems for my kids, but apparently that is still topless)

    However, I have virtually no tan lines, I feel more comfortable in my own skin, and I have experienced empowerment in a way that I never felt before I stood topless arguing with a cop and did not get arrested.

    I have also been told that I am a pervert for showing my tits to peoples’ children and should be a registered sex offender. Yet, last summer I saw two old men walking topless down the beach with fifty pounds of tits between them and not one person blinked an eye. I point this out to people when they confront me and I get the standard, “That is different. They are men”. Idiocy at its finest.

    Going topless in public is invigorating as well as terrifying because of exactly what you are talking about Jill, people may not think I deserve rape or assaults with a shirt on…but they are rooting for it when my shirt is off!

  21. Odysseus: Is it possible to be a Good Feminist(TM) and think that fighting the cultural prohibition on public female toplessness is just plain stupid?

    I can’t answer that question, but I can say you stating that this fight is “plain stupid” is plain offensive to me. When the cops used the argument that “there are children around” to get her to cover up, they are basically saying that women’s bodies are inherently wrong and too “bad” for children to be exposed to. With all the body hatred going around I don’t think fighting misogyny is a stupid fight at all.

  23. Gawd, I would love to be topless in public. I was on holiday a few months ago and swimming in the sea at a public beach I would have loved to just wear shorts. There were dudes there with boobs way, way bigger than my B cups – so if the problem isn’t that ‘womens’ breasts are bigger than mens” (and I often see people argue this), it is the fact that the breasts are on a woman.

    The weather in the UK is unbearably hot right now and I hate having to wear a bra, even. Why doesn’t my boss have to wear a bra? He’s got boobs and I can see his nipples through his shirts. Apparently that’s not a problem. If you want to wear one, because for example you need one to support your breasts, that’s different. But why is the *outline of my body under my clothes* obscene, even?!

  24. Rachel: I can’t answer that question, but I can say you stating that this fight is “plain stupid” is plain offensive to me. When the cops used the argument that “there are children around” to get her to cover up, they are basically saying that women’s bodies are inherently wrong and too “bad” for children to be exposed to. With all the body hatred going around I don’t think fighting misogyny is a stupid fight at all.

    I agree. If it was meant that the right to be topless in public is not a top priority, I agree, but I do also realize that this is a reflection of body policing and body hate, which *is* an important feminist issue.

  25. Comrade Kevin:
    Men have just been conditioned, plain and simple, to need to be protective of women.You don’t hit girls.You also believe that women who dress provocatively are increasing their odds of being sexually assaulted for a simple reason.You overstate the ability of other men to assault women.

    Men are also conditioned to take a dim view of each other, particularly regarding the worst aspects of their conduct.Men are supposed to be filthy, boorish, borderline criminal, and dangerous.This is why you never take your eye off one who raises your concern.I don’t think there’s nearly as many who fit the profile, but this is what we’re raised to believe.

    Yes. It’s all about you menz.

    Also your first paragraph is just plain gross. The reason that women who dress provocatively are accused of increasing the odds of getting raped has nothing to do with male distrust of other males and has everything to do with men controlling women– treating women and our bodies like objects that must be covered, “protected” (again, gross!), desexualized or sexualized at will. Women who dress “provocatively” (obnoxiously revealing lol) are bucking a system of male oppression and they are shamed and victimized for doing so. It has nothing to do with men not trusting other men and everything to do with men not trusting women to make their own sexual decisions.

  26. @ Jenae

    It can probably be both. Men and women are both taught all kinds of system-justifying myths in order to perpetuate the status quo – it’s a multi-front assault. I’m pretty sure Comrade Kevin wasn’t *defending* the mindset, just describing it (based on his past comments here, which don’t tend to be “yay patriarchy!” in any way).

  27. Jadey:
    @ Jenae

    It can probably be both. Men and women are both taught all kinds of system-justifying myths in order to perpetuate the status quo – it’s a multi-front assault. I’m pretty sure Comrade Kevin wasn’t *defending* the mindset, just describing it (based on his past comments here, which don’t tend to be “yay patriarchy!” in any way).

    Could be. I don’t know his posting history. His post just sounded like the usual mansplaining to me (but I’m willing to think I could have read his wrong).

  29. Jenae: Could be. I don’t know his posting history. His post just sounded like the usual mansplaining to me (but I’m willing to think I could have read his wrong).

    I can’t vouch for him personally and I think the comment was a bit ambiguous without any context, but I’m kind of leaning toward his trying to explain another element of it *from* a male perspective, and not trying to over-write other explanations *with* a male perspective, if that makes any sense.

  30. Odysseus:
    Is it possible to be a Good Feminist(TM) and think that fighting the cultural prohibition on public female toplessness is just plain stupid?

    Is it possible to be a feminist (no trademark required) and diss other feminists’ choice as to which aspects of culture to fight against? I don’t think so, but your mileage may vary. Your comment sounds like it came straight out of Derailing For Dummies, to me.

  31. @Jadey That article you linked to by Rebecca was wonderful!

    “I’m not OK with the idea that my body is offensive.”

    So much awesome!

  34. Astrid: I agree. If it was meant that the right to be topless in public is not a top priority, I agree, but I do also realize that this is a reflection of body policing and body hate, which *is* an important feminist issue.

    I understand what you’re saying but I can’t help but feel that the idea that being topless in public and body policing/hatred are two separate things is short sighted and dismissive (not you, the idea). The reason women have to cover up (by law where I live or culturally) is because of misogyny (the “cover your floppy boob skin!!” argument has been discussed and has been thrown out). As a woman I am made to believe there is something inherently wrong with my breasts because and therefore I can’t show them to the public and I’m freaking pissed about that! It boils down to this: “Your existence offends me. Cover up and make it less noticeable.” In my mind, that will never be defensible.

    @Andie and tinfoil hattie- Thanks! Feminist compliments are *the* best.

  36. Lis:
    Is it legal to go topless in Canada?I thought that was just Toronto.I mean, if it is, whoohoo!When I get home my shirt and bra are the first things to come off, and I’ve been jealous for years of the ladies in Uncovered: Busting Out in the Big Apple.

    I think it’s true in some provinces, but not necessarily the entire country. Ontario for sure, and BC too, I think. Check the legislation in your province/territory first!

  37. Andie and Kimberley – it’s been legal in parts of Canada for a long time. Just Ontario and BC as far as I know although I’m open to correction. But yeah, when I lived in Ontario the only place I saw women topless was at Toronto’s Pride parade. It is a shame that women don’t feel as free as men to do so (I understand that some women feel more physically comfortable in a bra – I am one of them! But on very hot days you would expect to see more than 0 women topless if women felt as free to go topless as men do).

  38. Part of me would like to walk around topless. Part of me recoils at the thought of sunburned nipples. Part of me realizes that I would attract all sorts of unwanted attention. And part of me just wants to take the opportunity to drop the greatest New York Post headline ever: Headless Body in Topless Bar.

  39. And even in Ontario and BC, my research tells me, individual municipalities can place restrictions on when and where women can go topless. I think the fear of being arrested is still a factor.

    So it actually isn’t old hat to Canadians. I sometimes feel like my fellow Canucks want to paint our country as more-liberated-and-enlightened-than-thou, and, well, I come from Alberta. I’m not buying it. Sometimes our moral superiority is pretty fragile.

  41. Becky:
    the only place I saw women topless was at Toronto’s Pride parade.

    Yeah, in the first year or two that it was passed I saw a number of people go topless at Wasaga Beach, but not really anywhere else. Although there was one day a lady was standing out in the middle of Bayfield street in Barrie. That kind of threw me for a loop.

    Good for her, though.

  42. zuzu:
    No one likes a smug Canadian, people.

    See, we’re not actually polite – that’s a complete myth. We’re just deeply, deeply sarcastic.

  43. Our national sports are hockey, lacrosse, and satire.

    As a child I was repeatedly told by my relatives, on any number of topics, “And this is why we’re better than America.”

  44. Emilybites – whereabouts in the UK are you? Toplessness isn’t de facto illegal, and there are even clothing-optional beaches and lidos knocking about. Plenty of boobs on display in my village during summer*! I mean obviously Tesco might not like them on the bread aisle, and best not to disrobe at the petrol station, but you’re more likely to be screamed at for smoking than going topless.

    *In the North this is generally any day between April and October without rain. So er… 72 hours worth per year. This year is unreasonably and unseasonably hot. Sun? In June? Unpossibles.

  45. Jadey: See, we’re not actually polite – that’s a complete myth. We’re just deeply, deeply sarcastic.

    The sarcasm doesn’t always come across.. what with the accent and all 😉

    On that note: Sarcastic Guy

  46. Scarring children for life? Have they ever considered what a positive effect it might have on young women and men to see REAL, unphotoshopped breasts on a regular basis from early childhood?

  47. matlun: This was in the middle of the day with huge numbers of people around. Hardly high risk behavior.

    In addition to what Jill said, I recently went on a naked bike ride at night and I wasn’t with a big group the entire time. Now I wasn’t naked, just in a floofy skirt in bra, as most of the women were (minus the floofy skirt) but no one said a bad word to us in person (online on articles about it was a completely different story) or tried to harass us in any way. Hell the only people who even tried to take pictures were riders themselves or newspaper photographers, and they all asked permission first and respected every “no” or “don’t include my face.”

  49. I don’t understand why the rule isn’t a blanket “If it fits in a cup, cover up.” As people mentioned upthread, many men have large breasts, some larger than many women. With the added hair. So if the problem is the size of the breast, why can’t the rule be if it’s anything beyond an A cup, you need to keep a shirt on?

    Oh, I see. That might incommode a few men.

  50. @Jill & groggette
    I agree that there are good arguments against the whole “you should not put yourself at risk” argument. I just do not think this is a good example (anyone trying to make the argument from this example would be sillier than usual).

    Of course some behaviors are riskier than others. But life is risk – we all choose what risk level is acceptable to us.

    I am now going to take my bicycle home from work without wearing a helmet…

  51. speedbudget:
    I don’t understand why the rule isn’t a blanket “If it fits in a cup, cover up.

    Because there shouldn’t be a rule at all?

    I think the reaction from your typical New Yorker here appears to have been pretty close to perfect.

  52. Azalea: Couldnt it be that most women dont want to go without a bra? I mean there are women, like myself who rocks a 34H, not wearing a bra just means my back and shoulders will hurt like hell. Then there is the obvious boob sweat, a lot of shirtless men are flatchested and dont have to worry about sweat accumulating beneath a flap of exposed skin.

    Agreed. Big boobies are not exactly suited to extended periods of toplessness. Plus it’s just another place you’d have to apply sunscreen.

  53. In Berkeley, California – circa – 1995 – there was a group called The Explicit Players (both men and women) who walked within Berkeley generally wearing only foot coverings. Obviously men looked at the women with interest.

    Particularly because the individual women appeared assertive and self-assured, it was actually rather intimidating to some men. The clear harassment was mostly men tossing soda pop cups with ice and similar from moving cars, rather than verbal assaults or similar as more commonly was experienced by clothed women.

    Later on related to “The Naked Man” (A college student) Berkeley passed an ordinance banning such nudity.

  54. I participated in the World Naked Bike Ride in Portland, OR a couple weeks ago. I remember passing a car with children in back as we passed over the bridge. They were wide-eyed and fascinated, but I’m pretty sure they suffered no lasting trauma, and they were seeing actual penises!!!!1!

  55. Okay so a reasonably young attractive woman with perky, surgically enhanced breasts walks around Central Park without incident. I definitely believe if she were older/ less attractive/ and had natural sagging breasts people would have been horrified and disgusted and she most likely would have been ordered to cover up and possibly arrested.

    1. Okay so a reasonably young attractive woman with perky, surgically enhanced breasts walks around Central Park without incident.

      How in the world do you know that she has surgically enhanced breasts? And if you read the comments, you’ll see that a lot of people are attacking her physical appearance.

  56. Definitely not body-snarking Jill..you can tell theyre not real, when she lies down natural breasts would fall to the side, hers stay uniform, regardless, had they been real and slightly droopy she wouldve have gotten a completely different reaction.

  57. …and the only people who gave her a hard time were parks employees and cops. And that was Because There Are Children Around.

    The “wut about teh children?!” argument is made anytime there’s some disagreement over public displays of sexuality.

    Because that’s really what the ‘cover up’ crowd are uncomfortable with – sex. Women are the ‘sex class’ – people project sexual meanings onto our bodies in ways they’d never do with men. A woman breastfeeding her baby in her car? Sexual! A woman removing her bikini top at the beach to avoid tan lines? Sexual! A woman marching topless in a parade? Sexual!

    And I guess this is where I get hypocritical – I’m annoyed by the fact that my chest is seen as inherently sexual, and that I’d be sexually-harassed if I wanted to run topless through the sprinklers on a hot day.
    ..but I still wouldn’t run topless through sprinklers on a hot day, because I don’t want to be sexually-harassed.
    ..but part of the reason I’d be sexually-harassed is that topless women aren’t the norm; and by keeping my top on in public, I contribute to that norm.

    Oh, well. I suppose I can justify it by saying that it’s not a huge concern of mine, anyway.

  58. There is no way you can say from those photos that she’s had breast augmentation. The only picture on her back, she has a book on her breasts, which tends to round them out and make them look more centered – my breasts would look like that if I were to lie like that, and I am a small-breasted woman who has just gone up to a DD from gaining weight. ie: NOT high, perky round breasts!

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