Women shuck their shirts for Go Topless Day in Vancouver

reply to post by chiefsmom
I've been to that kind of party and I think I'll take a pass this time!!!

Originally posted by halfoldman
I think there's a real issue here concerning gender equality.
In South Africa indigenous cultures don't view bare-breasted women as sexual at all (although they have covered up, except for certain festivals).
For men to go topless in gender mixed spaces was also not an universally accepted practice until the last century, although strangely male nude swimming was the norm in many US schools or the YMCA until the late 1960s, and it was fairly widely shown in magazines, and even adverts.

Despite raising a gender topic, in this case it has little to do with feminist groups.

In fact, the "go topless" campaigns appear to stem from the Raelians, a so-called "UFO cult".

The event is sponsored by GoTopless, a group formed in the American state of Nevada by former French auto-racing journalist Claude Vorilhon, currently known as Rael, spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement, a UFO religion. GoTopless has supported events and chapters in other countries.

en.wikipedia.org...

edit on 25-8-2013 by halfoldman because: (no reason given)

Do you give chocolate chip cookies to your 5 year old child just because your adult friends eat them? Think of it like that. Women are but children in adult bodies.

reply to post by FlySolo


Too bad it wasn't raining in Vancouver...it would have been awesome to see a wet t-shirt contest for those who aren't as hardcore to take their shirts off

reply to post by Barthandelus

I'd totally disagree with the notion that women are children in adult bodies.
Not to involve myself in a war between the sexes, but I believe men and women are intellectually equal.
Of course, it's easy to make a sex or group look inferior by denying equal opportunities and education, or channeling them into limited roles.

What concerns me is what dress and gender reveals about notions of males and masculinity.
It seems to imply that men are immature, sexual automatons.
There's also still the dichotomy of the woman as the "Madonna" or the "whore".
So there's a lot of gender stereotypes around clothing and the body.

I'd say currently, looking at advertising and so forth, the male image is more one of "the boy in a man's body".
The man is the boy who won't grow up, and therefore he needs all kinds of useless gadgets, or even more expensive insurance, because he's genetically irresponsible, and might just break some limbs after watching Jackass movies while drunk.

Especially around Father's Day there were adventure books for dads (and boys) that reminded guys in their 30s and 40s how to build model planes, use a compass or sleep in the woods.
Men's ministries and camps are big business in religion.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but if any gender is constructed as a "big child" at the moment, it's the middle class male.
Even the whole well-preened beard fashion first struck me as rugged, but now I wonder whether some women don't see it as teddy-bearish and adorable?
Oh no...

In one magazine a woman wrote that it's dreadful that beards are back, because men's beards are full of bacteria.
The next week some guy wrote back saying that some women have dirty and neglected feet, with yellowish and half-painted toenails.

It appears some men are growing beards almost because they know some women would disapprove.
Perhaps it's a form of unconscious resistance against being conceptually infantilized.

It figures though, because of social policies many men are living less independently and are more infanitilized, and currently there's a huge disjuncture between what society superficially expects from men, and what it will actually facilitate.