In Ontario the legal fight that won women the right to be topless began 30 years ago when Gwen Jacob, a 19-year-old student was charged with indecency after removing her shirt on a hot day. Since 1996, when Ontario Court of Appeal found that Jacob was not guilty of indecency, women in Ontario have had the right to appear topless in public.
You wouldn’t know that from my newsfeed today.
Here’s two stories that maybe don’t look to be that connected that floated across my social media newsfeed.
First, there was all the fuss about Florence Pugh’s sheer bright pink dress, both from people who were appalled about seeing her breasts and nipples, and then from men who were critical of what her breasts look like.
UGH. Just SHUT UP. Please STOP.
But I liked her response. See FLORENCE PUGH HITS BACK AFTER BEING BODY-SHAMED FOR SHEER VALENTINO DRESS: ‘FREE THE F****** NIPPLE’
Says Pugh in the article linked above,
“I’ve lived in my body for a long time. I’m fully aware of my breast size and am not scared of it,” she wrote. “What’s more concerning is… Why are you so scared of breasts? Small? Large? Left? Right? Only one? Maybe none? What. Is. So. Terrifying,”
“It has always been my mission in this industry to say ‘f*** it and f*** that’ whenever anyone expects my body to morph into an opinion of what’s hot or sexually attractive.”
And then from last year, Woman With Double Mastectomy Told To Wear a Bra to Pool, So She Gets Creative. Geesh. In this story a woman with a flat chest because she’s had her breasts removed is told that she needs to wear a bra under fitted long sleeve swim top, because “pool rules.” You might like her solution.
You know our view here on the blog. We’ve written lots about #freethenipple here, as well as about nipple phobia.
We’ve also written about the decision to have a mastectomy without reconstructive surgery.
Michelle Goodfellow, “I was diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2015, and at that time I wrote here on this blog about my decision to have a double mastectomy without reconstruction, and about what it was like to go through the rest of my breast cancer treatment.” Since then Michelle has appeared topless on national television and blogged about that too.
More and more I think it’s pretty simple, we should just stop telling people what to wear. Don’t like someone’s breasts? Look away.
