Toplessness
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"Topless" and its synonyms redirect here. For the Miles Tredinnick play see Topless (stage play).
Going 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, since 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 barechestedness is that the female breast is widely considered as a sexual organ, or at least having strong overtones of sexuality, so local decency laws often discriminate specifically between women and men baring their upper bodies.
A topless bar is a bar where, as an attraction, waitresses are topless.
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[edit] Attitudes towards toplessness
Many cultures disapprove of or punish women who reveal their breasts in public. A movement, topfree equality, opposes this view.
In parts of Africa, such as Nigeria, women protesting an injustice, especially middle-aged and older women, will go topless as a way of shaming the authorities.[citation needed]
Some countries, such as Thailand, condone toplessness among women in order to maintain European tourism. While 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".
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. Toplessness is also very popular in art.
[edit] 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.
Toplessness is also legal in parts of Europe and Australia, though generally constrained through convention rather than law within designated areas or situations, e.g. sauna culture in nordic countries, beaches in France and Spain. Toplessness among young women at beaches is accepted as routine at most continental European beaches.
[edit] See also
- Barechested
- Sociology of clothing
- Topfree equality
- Ancient Minoan culture was famous for its clothing that specifically bared the female chest.
