Personally, I think that viewing a bare breast as inherently sexual and hence corrupting of innocence is silly; I’d much rather my hypothetical kid see women of all shapes enjoying the outdoors and being comfortable with their bodies than, say, two fully clothed people dry humping on a bench. One would think such an enlightened place as New York would understand this. I like to think the New York City of the future will be a joyful place full of free-swinging breasts, billowing marijuana smoke, and copious jaywalking. (We’ll also be grilling rat meat in the bombed out remains of condo developments, so we’ll need boobs around to cheer us up.) Until then, though, I think I’ll confine my public boobsploits to more socially acceptable arenas. Like the Internet.
(Yes, as you might suspect, some of the photos in the linked articles are NSFW. Hey, we’re talking about boobs here….)
I’ll start this off by owning up to my bias in this discussion: I like boobs. Quite a lot. Of course, that hardly makes me unique. Surveys have shown conclusively that 99.9978% of men also enjoy female breasts, so I’m not exactly breaking new ground here.
No, my point here is the idea that men can go topless with impunity- anytime, anywhere, in any situation- while the idea of a woman doing the same thing is…well, depending on your perspective, anything from inappropriate to downright sinful and satanic. For my part, I’ve always wondered why our society has demonized breasts. Not only are they as beautiful and unique as their owners, they’re part of the female anatomy. Nothing more, nothing less.
Try as I might (and I haven’t exactly overextended my powers of reason), I can’t think of a compelling reasons why breasts should be feared. If we accepted them as merely part of the human body instead of teaching our children that they’re evil, sinful, and a threat to our moral well-being, perhaps we’d be a bit closer to treating women as equals. Instead, women are treated like property, existing primarily for the edification and sexual gratification of men.
If you doubt me, just try being a female in possession of a pair of exposed breasts. Be female and topless in public, and in most of the country you can bet the full force of the law and moral outrage will be visited upon you. It’s doubtful anyone will be able to make a truly compelling argument as to why being female and topless is wrong…only that it is. You might not be able to define obscenity…but you know it when you see it, right? (Apologies to Louis Brandeis.)
OHMIGAWD!! WHAT ABOUT OUR POOR, PRECIOUS, VULNERABLE CHILDREN???
Indeed; what about the children? Why must we teach them that the human body is and should be the source of shame and that the female breast is a threat their moral well-being? There are no good answers, but we continue passing along outdated Puritan sensibilities because that’s what we’ve always done. Few in positions of power or influence have seen their way clear to call “Bullshit!” on the way we collectively educate our children about their bodies…and so the uptight and the sexually repressed continue poisoning young minds
A good place to test what I’m referring to is New York’s Central Park, where going topless- male or female- is legal. Even in a place where uncovered female breasts are a common sight, there are those who recoil at the sight of a topless woman. It makes no sense, but Central Park also shows what can happen when people see topless women and learn that boobies aren’t the gateway to licentious and therefore the province of Satan. Sure, you’ll get the “What about the children?” question, or the catcalls, but you’ll also increasingly get no reaction (or very positive reactions) as people come to accept that toplessness isn’t sinful, licentious, or immoral.
Once people see uncovered female breasts, they more often than not come to understand that boobies have only whatever prurient value we allow them to carry. If we teach our children that the female breast is dangerously because of its overt, undeniable sexuality, that’s how our children will see them. If we teach them that the human body is something we all share, and that it’s beauty and wonder is limitless, they’ll not only see it that way, it’s more likely they’ll treat women and their bodies with respect.
We grow up being taught that the female body is dangerous, something that must be controlled and contained because a woman’s sexuality can tempt a man to travel the path of sin and sexual license. We learn this because our parents have passed along their sexual hangups and body shame to us. That means we can change the future by teaching our children that the human body is unworthy of neither shame nor fear.
Boobies…and the women they’re attached don’t need to be controlled. They should be appreciated for their beauty and for the role they play in creating and fostering life. They should be appreciated for…well, because they’re boobies, and who in their right mind doesn’t like boobies??
