Why can men be casually topless in public but women can't?

[msrisotto]

I was hot in the car today and envied a bloke in a van for being able to be topless.

I don't believe it is illegal for a woman to be topless in public in the UK but she would get a load of attention and I reckon if the police were around, they'd tell her to put a top on. (she might get prosecuted under the public order act?)

Why? And, should, in an ideal world, women casually be able to be topless in public like men? Or should everyone put some clothes on!

bleurgh at the idea of anyone walking round topless . don't see why men can be 'casually topless' in public either. unless they have a rather fab six pack in which case I make an exception

Aww thanks Milly!

I believe you are allowed to go topless on your own property.

TM, but the connotation can change. What parts of the body can be shown has be changed before and it will change again.

If you are that bothered about it, why not join the Naturists, then you can let everything hang out without any sexual risks.

Well that's what they say.

Must be fun though

Of course it can change, absolutely. But it would just not be possible in our culture today.

Interesting fact about women not going topless anymore on the beach... It was very common in portugal a few years ago. I wonder why it's gone out of fashion?....

I'm sure you can go topless in your own garden, Milly. Do you really want to on a British beach? For sure your nips would be terribly stalky .

MilyR - remember to put plasters on your nipples to stop them burning.

I wonder when this became the norm in Europe?

I read somewhere, (sorry don't remember where) that in cultures where no bras are worn there are less breastfeeding problems perhaps because bras are pushing our breasts into the wrong position? Also that breastfeeding with no cover up and the whole breast being free of clothing means that girls subconsciously learn/know how to breastfeed as they have watched it growing up.

Did you kknow that Facebook ban photos of breastfeeding? Look at the last but one phot on that page - ridiculous to ban it!

I used to work in an alternative/counter-culture area of London. One of my colleagues told me that she had seen a woman walking along the street topless, just adorned with several strings of beads...

I have always thought it a bit unfair that men could be topless and disliked seeing it in public, however I now find myself in a bit of a muddle reconciling it with my support of public breastfeeding.

Maybe we should organise a topless public protest. :)

It is because breasts, biologically speaking, are a secondary sexual characteristic - males have no equivalent on their top half. If women were allowed to walk around topless, all male activity would cease IMO, knowing how fascinated/obsessed men are about breasts.

I actually don't want to see anyone, male or female, wondering around topless in most public places. Keep it for the beach/swimming pool, not Sainsbos >

I have never personally experienced 'hot breasts' and feel no need to uncover mine, thanks.

PYT - Even when on holiday in a hot place, you don't feel like maybe you'd be more comfortable out of a t-shirt? That's like saying you never feel hot

And Absofcroissant - Men would get over it. There are cultures where women are topless as a norm and shock horror, society continues. It is a fault of this culture that breasts are seen primarily as sex objects.

Out of interest - which cultures?

I don't know where they are from specifically but tribal cultures, you know the ones, like you see in photos, so not exactly advanced cultures like the west but valid none the less.

Wow, way to convince me of your argument

I suppose you mean groups like maybe the khoisan? At work, so can't really go running around googling "topless tribes"

As for feeling uncomfortable in hot weather - normally my instinct would not be to remove my shirt (danger of burning nips), but to wear loose breathable clothing, as the space allows air to move around your skin and convects heat away from your body here. It's why Bedouin tribes wear large dark robes.

I'm with the OP on this one. There is no logical reason why men should be able to go topless and women not.

I actually think that if breasts were regularly exposed they would cease to become sexual objects very quickly. In Victorian times a woman's ankle was seen as erotic because it was so rarely seen. Not now.

However, as lemony says, where do you stop? Why shouldn't we all go bottomless as well?

Abs - are you saying that tribes where women don't necessarily wear tops don't exist just because I don't know their names?

No, I'm saying that if you're wanting to convince someone of your argument, "tribal cultures, you know the ones, like you see in photos" is hardly going to cut it. Apologies, but it may be the lawyer in me coming out.

Yes, there are cultures, definitely, where the women go topless and it is obviously not considered controversial. However, in biological terms, breasts are a secondary sexual characteristic, and therefore it is likely that they would cause arousal in heterosexual males.

Anecdotal evidence, you knew what I was talking about, I was illustrating a point. I didn't need to convince you that these tribes existed because you knew it, everyone knows it so lets not make a scene about providing bloody evidence, this is only a conversation.

This is going off topic because I would dispute your point of breasts being a secondary sexual characteristic (Wikipedia isn't exactly a credible source either ) because female breasts are there to feed offspring, however some men have boobs and some women have flat chests and some intersex people have 'female' reproductive organs but appear male, have 'female' looking bodies but internal testes etc Calling womens breasts a seondary sexual characteristic is a man made assumption.