TOPLESSNESS

(Redirected from Topless)

Being 'topless' or ''bare chested'' means not wearing any clothing above the waist, exposing the entire torso. The term "topless" is in general only applied to women, though it can be applied to men.

Contents

Non-western cultures

Western cultures

Legality

See also

Non-western cultures

For many non-western cultures, including southern Africa and South America (for example the Namibian Himba people and Ancient Minoans on the island of Crete) toplessness was the norm for both men and women.
In parts of Africa, such as Nigeria, women have staged topless nonviolent protests as a way of shaming authorities.[1]

Western cultures

In Western culture it is much more common for men to be bare chested than women. "Bare chested" itself and the euphemisms "stripped to the waist", and 'shirtless' are commonly used for men.
The principal difference between ''toplessness'' and ''bare chestedness'' is that the female breast has strong overtones of sexuality, while the male chest is not considered as sexually provocative, so local decency laws often discriminate specifically between women and men not putting clothes on their upper bodies. For the debate on this issue and the position that the breast is not primarily a sexual organ, see breastfeeding.
A ''topless bar'' is a bar where, as an attraction, waitresses are topless.
Most western cultures disapprove of or punish women who reveal their breasts in public. A movement, topfree equality, opposes this view.
In Europe and North America, there remains some objection to bare-chested men, with many shops refusing to serve bare chested people, often with the idiomatic policy of "no shirt, no shoes, no service". This, however, is often a sanitary and safety issue, rather than a matter of indecency.
In the US, a brief moment of partial female toplessness during family entertainment television (Janet Jackson's breast being exposed during the Super Bowl) generated considerable outcry. (See Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy).

Legality

Topfree equality is a North American social movement that seeks to legalize toplessness for women where it is legal for men. It has been successful in several locations, most notably in Ontario, Canada (since 1996). While there are a few cases of women asserting a right to be topless in Ontario, mostly in swimming pools and beaches, the effect on the level of toplessness has been small. Since then, successful court cases in other Canadian provinces have made toplessness for women legal in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, resulting in some increase in toplessness.
Toplessness is also legal in large parts of Europe and Australia, though generally constrained through convention rather than law within designated areas or situations, e.g. beaches in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, The Netherlands and the Nordic countries, the latter also allowing toplessness in saunas. Toplessness among young women at beaches is accepted as routine at most continental European and Australian beaches, and at South Beach in Miami Beach, FL.

See also

★ Barechested

★ Handbra

★ Sociology of clothing

★ Topfreedom

★ Skin Cancer

★ Breasts