A quote is as good as a thousand words
"When an actress takes off her clothes onscreen but a nursing mother is told to leave, what message do we send about the roles of women? In some ways we're as committed to the old madonna-whore dichotomy as ever. And the madonna stays home, feeding the baby behind the blinds, a vestige of those days when for a lady to venture out was a flagrant act of public exposure."
Anna Quindlen
posted by maeree @ 11:43 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I wonder about the logic of what is considered to be public indecency insofar as it differs between men and women. Both genders are required to cover their bum-crack; both are required to cover their reproductive organs and any related hair. But insofar as the chest area is concerned, men are permitted to appear bare in many public places, such as at a swimming pool.
Is the assumption that women are not susceptible to either lust or embarassment the way that men are when women go topless? If so, are the male experiences of lust or embarassment not simply due to the fact that our society rather than our instincts have engendered these?
I know very little about these things from a scientific point of view, so perhaps there are aspects of the debate of which I should be aware before I make ignorant statements. All that I can say in my current ignorance is that since women are not permitted to go topless in public, men should not be granted this privilege either. Failing such a revocation of men's rights, I believe that in fairness a full right to toplessness should be extended to all women who choose to bare themselves, whether they are lactating or not.
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