Boston Globe - Topless protesters at Boston Common demand 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?”