forrest@ucsbcsl.UUCP (09/06/84)
I spent a month in Europe this summer and I noticed that women regularly go topless on beaches, at swimming pools, and at many other places. They do it without attracting any more attention then women do here (the US) when wearing tops. Also, it wasn't just young women, women of all age groups did it. Why question is simple. What is it about the USA that prevents women from doing the same here? If responses warrent, I will summarize for the net. Jon Forrest ucbvax!ucsbcsl!forrest
forrest@ucsbcsl.UUCP ( ) (09/21/84)
I went to Europe this summer and noticed that women go topless at many places. It is done without any sexual connotations and without women being hassled (any more than they are ordinarily). What is it about the US that prevents women from going topless here? This is probably a good topic for discussion on the net. (I tried to send this out once before but I don't think it made it. If it did sorry for the repeat.) Jon Forrest ucbvax!ucsbcsl!forrest
saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (09/29/84)
Toplessness in Europe is not "without sexual connotations". If you
listen to european local news, whenever people start going topless in a
new beach, there is immediately quite a controversy created in the local
area. Furthermore, it is not people from every country who go topless.
In Spain, mainly tourists are topless, to the disgust of many of the
local women who accuse foreign women of "stealing" their men by their
lewd behaviour.
Another indication that toplessness is not "without sexual connotations"
is that many of the men are very embarrassed by it. I have found that
one way to avoid lewd looks when talking to men on topless beaches is
to be topless. When you are wearing a bra, they don't hesitate to look
at your breasts, but as soon as you take your bras off, whenever you have
a conversation with a man, he will usually look at you IN THE EYES and
nowhere else. Quite funny....
Not to say that I disaprove of toplessness. As can be construed from my
comments above, I like it myself, but I wouldn't go as far as saying
that people are really comfortable with it yet, even europeans (gasp!).
Eventually, I hope people will become comfortable with it.
I do agree that Americans do seem more puritanical in their swimming
dress. Not only is toplessness very uncommon, but wearing bikinis
is not that common either, and horror of horrors, children also
seem to be indoctrinated at a very early age. To me there is nothing
more ridiculous than seeing a 2 year old girl embarrassed because her bra
fell off!!
Sophie Quigley
...!{clyde,ihnp4,decvax}!watmath!saquigley