Dress: Urban Outfitters
Summer might bring an influx in street harassment (Yes, I mean harassment, men - you're being vulgar and scaring me. Not complimenting me), but I am determined to have a bra-less summer in support of the mounting awareness of female toplessness and the Go Topless campaign. This loose, gauzy dress from UO has just the right amount of slinkiness for me to feel quite free. Unfortunately, I do not have the courage go to fully topless in the streets. However, my boyfriend works at the Highline and he claims that some women sun bare-chested at the park, so maybe on a warm night when there isn't a huge crowd I'll bare it all.
(I got a 20% discount because the back was ripped. It's pinned right now but I'll sew it before wearing it again.)
Since the temperature has spiked I've seen so many bare-chested men nonchalantly walking the streets in NYC. It's refreshing to see some brave bare-chested women, too! Obviously female toplessness is a polarizing issue. Some men and women believe it's attention-grabbing or, despite the law claiming otherwise, an act of "public lewdness."
Wedges: Old Navy
Me? I still shake my head in confusion over the fact that beachwear proves it's acceptable to see 95% of a woman's breasts and torso as long as the offending nipples are covered. Nipples, man. They really set some people off.
Lips: Revlon, 124 Bordeaux
I believe the anger or nervousness surrounding bare-chested women is telling. The female form is being stripped of its functionality. Unless I'm in stirrups pushing a baby through my canal, my naked body is constantly defined as a sexual object even if I don't present it as such. Personally, my sexuality is a state of mind, and I enter into it consciously. My nakedness or someone else's nakedness doesn't always catalyze that state.
So please remember that these breasts bear milk and that wonderful thing between my legs - it bears children. The official Go Topless Day is on August 25th, 2013. Are you brave enough to do it? Share your thoughts in the comments!
