I, for one, support what Moira Johnson is doing.
According to The Huffington Post, Johnson, an exotic dancer by night, has by day been walking around New York City topless to advocate a woman's right to go shirtless.
This is an equal rights issue, you see. Johnson and other topless lasses want to know why men are free to trot around shirtless anytime, anywhere, but women are not. After all, men have breasts, too.
But maybe Johnson has a point.
Where upper-torso nudity is concerned, maybe there is a double standard, and maybe we need to shed it like some old T-shirt, as we have so many outmoded standards of the past.
It wasn't long ago that women were expected to stay at home and attend to the needs of men. But nobody thinks this way anymore.
In fact, many men these days prefer that their wives work and make a boatload of money. They see no shame in staying home with the kids and clapping the first time Junior uses the toilet to do No. 2.
It used to be that women were expected to be soft and feminine, much like actresses in the old movies, but that's no longer true.
Women's professional basketball is as exciting and competitive as any male sport. Women now have their own professional football league. And on ESPN, professional female boxers do things to each other that make Mike Tyson look like a Quaker.
It used to be that women needed husbands to have kids, but that's no longer true, either. Famous women who have dough are not only shunning husbands, they think they're better off without them.
We men are stinky and hairy. We mess up the bathroom. We make loud noises when we eat. We snore when we sleep.
Regrettably, though some women may think they're better off without us, we don't fare so well without them. We find ourselves waking up in a pile of dirty laundry and newspapers, still clenching the tequila bottle we began drinking from three days earlier.
In these modern times, then, is it right that American society tolerates men walking around shirtless without extending this same basic freedom to women?
After all, many attractive European women are allowed to go topless. Sure, they don't frequently bathe or shave their armpits, but you can't have everything.
Perhaps this topless thing is just another example of our rigid thinking, in which we hold an opinion on how women should act without really thinking it through. So let's think it through.
What if more American women conducted their daily business topless? I assure you that would prompt me to get out of the house more often. I'd spend every waking moment, to quote the great Dean Martin, "standing on the corner watching all the girls go by."
Besides, many towns, including New York City, have no laws on the books that say it is illegal for women to walk around topless. Johnson was arrested for her topless protests, but the cops had to let her go.
In any event, as many Americans sit idly by while their government strips away all kinds of freedoms — such as a religious organization's freedom to not have the government tell it what health insurance plan it must buy — I suppose someone standing up for any kind of freedom is a good thing.
So I support all lasses who go topless on International Go Topless Day — I'm not making that up — which is on Aug. 26.
Because the freedom to go topless may soon be one of the few freedoms we have left.
Copyright 2012 Tom Purcell, a freelance writer who is also a humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune- Review, and is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Email Tom at Purcell@caglecartoons.com.
Arizona Willie posted at 9:47 am on Thu, Aug 9, 2012.
We have a mentally ill society.
I can watch people kill each other all night long on TV, but a woman breast feeding her child is banned.
War is considered glorious --- nudity is horrific.
There is no limit to the violence society will allow to be shown in the media.
Assault, beatings, stabbings, shootings --- that's all just fine.
But let a breast get exposed and the nanny state comes down with tremendous fines, even when it was accidental.
Networks have to have their programs delayed by 6 seconds so someone can keep watch and make sure no one utters a curse word or exposes any banned body parts accidentally.
It's surprising that females on tv and in the movies aren't required to wear burqas.
Even though 3rd graders have all heard all the bad words and know better than their parents what they mean --- god forbid they should get on the airways.
VofReason posted at 12:40 pm on Thu, Aug 9, 2012.
Let's wait until someone other then an Exotic Dancer takes up the mantle for this "right".
Engaged Voter posted at 1:07 pm on Thu, Aug 9, 2012.
VofReason - Why wait? Only an ignorant, mouth breathing bigot would attack a cause based solely on the personal attributes of a person for the cause.
Note to all you so-called Constitutionalists - exotic dancers are taxpaying American citizens, too.
Funny how "rights" get put in quotation marks by those who already take that right for granted.
MrBrightside posted at 1:40 pm on Thu, Aug 9, 2012.
I love how you're defending women's rights and stripping. Strippers basically sell their body for money. Is that a step forward or backwards?
Most women don't care if a woman chooses that profession but they wouldn't defend it or want that as their dream job.
Arizona Willie posted at 3:05 pm on Thu, Aug 9, 2012.
MrBrightside --- anyone who works for someone else is selling their body ( and their mind ) for money.
Most people get paid so much an hour. That is simply prostitution under a different name. Same for people who work for weekly / monthly salary. Just a matter of terminology but when you boil it down it means you get paid for the use of your body and mind.
The only difference is that < some > people make a moral judgement of what the stripper / prostitute does for the money. They think they are morally superior. But, most, of those people are doing basically the same thing ... they sell their body by the hour.
samkat posted at 8:30 pm on Thu, Aug 9, 2012.
If conservatives don't want to go topless, that is their business. If women want to go topless like their male counterparts, I say go for it. I have no doubt conservatives will stare just as hard as the next guy. :-)
Cerulean posted at 11:27 am on Fri, Aug 10, 2012.
Purcell is creepy.
What makes him say that European women “don’t frequently bathe”? A woman’s unshaven armpits and an unwashed body are not synonymous. If they were, would you then say that men never bathe? - Yuk.
It does not read as though Purcell understands that when a religious organization discriminates in such a way that women suffer, then it is to the freedom and justice of women when religious discrimination is removed.
And, I agree entirely with Arizona Willie when he says, “We have a mentally ill society.
I can watch people kill each other all night long on TV, but a woman breast feeding her child is banned.”
fae4now posted at 10:17 am on Sat, Aug 11, 2012.
Good points Willie.
And yes Cerulean, Purcell is creepy.
From a female perspective, if it came down to an issue of equality - should women go shirtless or should men be required to wear shirts in public , my guess is that the ladies would vote for you to keep your shirts on boys. Please. Nothing to stare at there.
P.s. Can we also ban those awful tank tops with the enormous armholes that exposé some less than attractive parts? Now there's a freedom I'd be happy to see lost!
Engaged Voter posted at 12:17 pm on Fri, Aug 17, 2012.
So Purcell is "creepy" for mentioning the facts in this article...
Did you know there are at least SIX states where it is already 100% legal for a women to walk around topless?
And the earth didn't explode, it's a miracle! ;)
"Activist Moira Johnston had been going around New York topless for a couple of weeks to raise awareness of women having the same rights as men in the state of New York. It is legal for women to go topless in Ohio; Texas; Washington, DC; Idaho; Maine and in some cities in other states (see link at the bottom of this article). It is illegal for women to go topless in other states since they do not have the same rights as men."