Shirtless men

[DeeLight00]

The hot weather has brought them all out where I live. I took DS to the barbers after school and there was a guy in there getting his hair cut, shirtless, in just a pair of shorts. No one batted an eyelid.

I didn't feel offended or sexually aroused, but I did think, what would happen if women did the same? Would we be regarded as mad? Might someone call the police? Would we get sexually assaulted? I think all of these are probable outcomes. Just pondering the double standard!

Good point - I think this is the main reason why women's breasts are considered more sexual than men's chests.
Orgasming or not is not relevant, nor is some men liking nipple play.
DH says he gets almost no pleasure from having his nipples touched (though I'm sure some men do) whereas for me it's the opposite.

Women's breasts are a sexually selected trait. Few other mammals have breasts as proportionately large as ours. So they are dual purpose: feeding young and sexual display. Female breasts are erotic which is why I imagine in our culture they are taboo in most circumstances. Cultural mores vary immensely of course and over time too. It was not long ago taboo in this country to show too much of an ankle or an unhatted head outside of the home. I personally do not wish to see our British mores change to accept naked chested men in shops, topless women anywhere other than a naturist beach, or women with their arse cheeks on display on the high street. I don't care one jot off that is so-called body shaming. I don't want to see strangers genitals either. It's not empowered of them. I'm not going to applaud their body confidence. It's indecency. I don't want to have to see it and I don't want my children to have to see it either.

Add up the posts in this thread and you get a pretty consistent view of how unwilling people are to accept other people's totally natural bodies, even when they're not being used to deliberately offend anyone. I really wish we could be more tolerant!

Now I'm getting the idea that if I'm seeing someone who isn't ashamed of their imperfect body, I should be telling them "You go ahead and do what you're comfortable with, and let the eeew-sayers grumble all they want."

Maybe I ought to be doing it myself, but I mostly won't.

So it's only relevant when women like nipple play, but not when men do?
How does that work?

I worked in the epicentre of Camden for a bit and a colleague reckoned that she once saw a woman walking along topless near the market.

Apparently lots of strings of beads made it an acceptable look!

I can just imagine the Style and Beauty thread: ‘Will these accessories work with this skirt or are bead necklaces a bit frumpy these days?’ 😁