Topless is Legal in Portland, Maine

Hubby is really bummed. There was a topless protest march in downtown Portland this weekend, and he missed it.!

A dozen or so women and a few men walked down Congress Street in Portland, Maine, topless, bearing their taa-taas to protest the double standard that exists in our society. Men can take off their shirst on the streets, on the beach, and no one cares. If women do the same, people tend to get their panties all in a bunch.

The goal of Go Topless (the group behind this type of demonstration) is to get society to accept the sight of a woman bare to the waist the same way they do men. In this city, it's not illegal to let the girls out; the law only restricts the airing of hoo hahs and men's junk. Their hope is that eventually, if a woman wants to remove her shirt on a hot day, or she wants to nurse her baby in public, those actions will not attract attention--they'll be ho-hum, run of the mill, normal.

There were a few men who strolled topless with the ladies in a show of support; or maybe to support the ladies' lack of support?

Ho-hum was not the reaction Saturday, however; hundreds of men armed with cell phones and cameras were snapping away, as though they had never seen a bare breast. Police stood by, trying to keep order. One officer said that because the demonstrators had not filed for a permit, they had to keep to the sidewalks. The streets would have been closed of if they had requested permission to stage a march, rather than a stroll, which might have made for less traffic congestion

From the newspaper write-ups about the event, I guess some of the "strollers" had good points; some were just not as salient. The weather was in the low 70's that day, with a bit of a breeze; you might say it got downright nippy! The group hopes to stage additional events through the summer, including on Augest 23, which is the official Go Topless Day.

I guess I have no objection to women going topless, as long as they don't expect me to turn the girls loose! Trust me, that would be a real downer!

Sources:

Advocate.com
NBC2.com
KansasCity.com/crimescene