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Boston Globe - Topless protesters at Boston Common demand gender equality
A half-dozen women marched topless through Boston Common to the State House on Saturday while calling on legislators to make it legal for women to expose their breasts in public in the name of gender equality.
By Nick Stoico Globe Staff, Updated August 17, 2024, 6:19 p.m
A half-dozen women marched topless through Boston Common to the State House on Saturday while calling on legislators to make it legal for women to expose their breasts in public in the name of gender equality.
Women walked topless through the Boston Common Saturday to protest for equality for women to be able to go topless in public. Photographer John Blanken (center rear) took off his shirt in a show of support. JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF
Massachusetts law prohibits women from exposing their breasts in public except when breastfeeding. Women who go topless in public can face six months in jail, a $200 fine, or both.
Katrina Brees, a Boston native and artist who now lives in New Orleans, is an activist with Equalititty, one of the organizers of the protest.
“If we cover our nipples, the entire breast becomes illegal, so really the woman herself is illegal,” Brees said, handing out nipple stickers as the march snaked along walking paths.The group chanted “Free your breast, free your mind!” and “Breasts are family friendly!” as the march kicked off from the Martin Luther King Jr. sculpture under a sunny sky.
The march, which included several women who were fully clothed, caught the attention of a sizable crowd. About 100 people looked on, many snapping pictures on their cellphones.
Raven Waddell, 54, of Tewksbury, was in town with four of her friends when they noticed the march moving through the park.
“Free the nipples, let’s do it,” she said. “I think it’s awesome. I’m ready to take my shirt off.” (She did not.)
Waddell’s friend, Joy Robbins, 52, of Worcester, said legalizing toplessness for women would “absolutely” mark an important step toward equality.
“For too long we’ve been told we can’t,” Robbins said. “Even when having kids, you try and breastfeed and we have to go into a bathroom with a shawl over us. It’s just not right.”
The march ended on the steps leading up to Beacon Street and across from the State House.
Nadine Gary, the president of GoTopless, another organizer of the march, stood from the top step with her breasts exposed and her group’s website written in black marker across her chest.
Holding up a female nipple sticker, Gary told the crowd, “This is illegal.” She then held up a male nipple sticker. “This is legal. Does that make sense?”“No!” the crowd called back.
According to GoTopless, the majority of US states have made it legal for women to shed their shirts, but restrictions made at the local level in some cities and towns continue to prohibit it. Massachusetts is among the few states with “ambiguous” laws around the issue, and it remains fully illegal in the states of Nevada, Indiana, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, according to the group.
In 2022, Nantucket residents passed a bylaw amendment to allow anyone to go topless on island beaches.
Dozens of people watched as the rally went on. Nearly all of the people taking pictures and videos with their phones were men. Kayso Perrier, who lives on the South Shore and is an organizer with GoTopless, said she believes men won’t be so awestruck by the sight of bare breasts in the future.
“Men will get used to that, and once toplessness is the law, their reactions will be different,” she said. “I found the men today to be pretty respectful.”
Billie Singletary, 57, and his wife, Brigida, 47, of Dorchester, caught the end of the rally.
“Say it’s 90 degrees outside and I get real hot and, you know, I take my shirt off and walk around, but if she has her shirt on, she has to just stay hot and suffer,” Singletary said, motioning toward his wife. “She can’t be herself, she can’t be comfortable.”
“I don’t see why women can’t do the same as men do. They fight in the military like us, women are CEOs of companies, and they work just as hard as men. So why not?”
Westword - DenverGoTopless Day Returns to Civic Center Park
“If we can inspire just one person to question our patriarchal norms in society and feel their freedom a bit more, that’s enough for me.”
By Jack Spiegel
July 28, 2024
DenverGoTopless Day returned to Civic Center Park Jack Spiegel
Denver's GoTopless march returned this Saturday to Civic Center Park, where about 100 people gathered to celebrate topless equality. The event, which was first held in 2013, brought out a diverse crowd of many genders and races, some of whom bared it all, while some stayed covered up.
This year's crowd was significantly smaller than the approximately 1,000 people who attended in 2017 and 2018, but that didn't dampen any spirits.
Law in Denver states that naked breasts are allowed to be shown in public, as long as they are not presented in a sexual context. But although the law is clear in what is allowed, that doesn't necessarily correlate to societal acceptance, says Heather Newhouse, a participant in the march.
"It's legal, but people don't exercise the right, and it doesn't become socially normalized until people actually stand up and exercise their rights," Newhouse says. She also feels that it isn't safe to go out topless on a typical day, when there is not an organized group, as she will oftentimes get weird looks or catcalled.
The perpetrators mostly, Newhouse says, are cisgendered men. But she doesn’t just close off those people. “There are also people who clearly don’t understand, and I think we nudge those edges for people to question themselves and question norms around sexuality,” Newhouse says.
Newhouse is a sex and consent educator, and her message Saturday was that female toplessness needs to be accepted in non-sexual contexts, just as it is for men.
Heather Newhouse and Jennie Burns soak up the sun on Broadway.
Along with Newhouse was Jennie Burns, who has organized other topless events in Boulder, including the Free the Nipple Bike Ride. Her desire to be at the march was simple.
“The first reason is to feel the sun on my breasts. I mean, it’s just really nice,” Burns said, laughing. “You never get to do that as a woman, so it’s a good opportunity for that.”
Burns is soft-spoken but wanted to make sure her voice, and the voice of the movement, is heard.
“If we can inspire just one person to question our patriarchal norms in society and feel their freedom a bit more, that’s enough for me,” Burns says.
After a few hours of hanging around in Bannock Meadow, the group went for a march around Civic Center Park, much to the elation of passing cars. They then stopped in front of the Capitol for a group photo.
The group gathered for a photo in front of the Colorado Capitol.
“If the only nudity you ever see is in a sexual context, then it conditions you to respond to any nudity sexually, regardless of context,” Matthew Wilson, organizer of this year’s march, says. “This event is not just titillation — it is actually normalizing topless equality, because even though nudity and sexuality can overlap, they are not the same thing.
When Wilson was in gym class in middle school, he always thought it was unfair when teams would be split by shirts and skins, because girls couldn’t go topless and would complain about being too hot. As he grew up, he only saw the continuance of that inequality.
From left: Jade Li, Todd Cheek, Ebram Hakim and Kiki Cali pose for a photo at Denver GoTopless 2024.
“A man can walk the street [shirtless] and he’d be fine. A woman does that? She’s automatically objectified,” Wilson says. “I don’t like seeing an [unequal] world and not doing anything about it.”
This year's march was a bit smaller than organizers expected, but they have some big plans for next year. Leadership is changing hands to 36-year-old Jinx Colorado.
"I think the first thing that we want to do is make it a 501(c)(3), and so that way we can get donations and we can have more sponsors," Jinx says. "In 2018, there was a band and a stage with dancers and games — I heard it was so much fun. That's what I want to get to."
Westword - GoTopless Day Returns to Denver Saturday
"We deserve to have the same rights and comforts as any man, because we are all human, and that's just that."
By Jack Spiegel
July 26, 2024
A decade-old tradition, DenverGoTopless Day, returns to Civic Center tomorrow, July 27. "Our goal was to open Denver's eyes to the fact that women are equals, in every way, and not sexual objects to be censored where men are not," the organizer of the first DenverGoTopless, in 2013, told Westword. "We deserve to have the same rights and comforts as any man, because we are all human, and that's just that."
While that first gathering boasted just twenty participants, the annual event has grown to attract over a thousand, who will rally in Civic Center Park, then parade through downtown at noon.
Public nudity is legal in Denver, with the exception of exposed genitals or buttocks. Breasts may be naked here. But other municipalities are not as enlightened. The Free the Nipple movement wound up taking Fort Collins to court over its topless ban, and an appeals court ruled in 2019 that the ban violated the 14th Amendment because it only pertained to women. Rather than appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court, Fort Collins simply rescinded the ban.
This year's parade organizers are encouraging other towns to drop any bans — and allow women to drop their tops.
DenverGoTopless Day starts at 10 a.m. Saturday in Civic Center Park; find more information on the Facebook event page.
When School Dress Codes Discriminate
While a dress code is supposed to make the school environment more conductive to learning, it frequently does the opposite…
2019 Westword Interviews - Matt Wilson
Big thanks to Michael Roberts from Westword for the great interview questions and shining a spotlight on our social activism!
2019 Westword Interviews - Mia Jean
Every year we are so grateful that Michael Roberts from Denver Westword covers #denvergotopless! This is the first article for 2019, so read, enjoy, and #share! Look out for MattMan Returns interview being published soon! We will see you in about 2 weeks!! Libby made the front page!
https://www.westword.com/news/denver-gotopless-day-2019-preview-11445607
Denver Westword interviews Mia Jean - "What You Need to Know About Denver GoTopless Day 2018"
♥ Westword reporter Michael Roberts interviews Denver GoTopless' Mia Jean! ♥
Denver Westword - The Leading Independent News Source in Denver
Excerpt:
Denver GoTopless Day may be entering its sixth year, but there's a lot new about the event, scheduled to take place downtown on Sunday, August 26.
This year, the get-together, which attracted more than 1,000 people last year, has a new starting location: Skyline Park. And in addition to the traditional parade down the 16th Street Mall, which will find marchers heading toward the State Capitol building and Civic Center Park, there'll be a full musical lineup and a slew of other happenings.
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To get more information about the gathering and the body-positive meaning behind it, we reached out to Mia Jean, who's co-organizing the event with Matt Wilson. She took part in the following Q&A via Facebook Messenger and provided many of the photos seen here.
Pamphlet for this 2018's event now available!
Proud to share our *official pamphlet* for 2018 Denver GoTopless Day. Includes dates & time and location info, goals and rationales, and the relevant statutes showing topless equality is legal in Denver. :-D
Please feel free to share far and wide, both online and in person. <3
Click to download this year's pamphlet in PDF format. Tri-fold design. :-)