It has been legal in Ontario, Canada for 11 years, but I have yet to see women take advantage of it.

http://www.niagarathisweek.com/news/article/112115

Do we get to tell the ugly ones to cover up?

Put it on! Put it all on!

Do we get to tell ugly men to cover up? I'm tired of seeing (and smelling) nasty, fur-covered fat jiggling around torsos and arms. Boobs don't bother me. I've breastfed 3 babies. In public, whenever the need arose, sans hot cover-up. In fact, I negotiated a new car deal while bfing in the salesman's office. To his credit, he didn't blink or blush. I did buy the car.

But, boobs have been sexualized in the US, whether you want to call them genitals or not. So until the men here grow up past their need to be breastfed, I think they'll continue to be covered. And need to be.

I'm more bothered by plumber's crack in public than I am by boobs in public. o_O

I'm all for it but just like spandex and going shirtless discretion should apply.

"Do we get to tell ugly men to cover up? I'm tired of seeing (and smelling) nasty, fur-covered fat jiggling around torsos and arms." Now when I hear shit like this from someone who breast fed in public I feel the need to do some wookie streaking. I normally cover up as I'm still working off the last of the grad school chunkies out of respect for others. If I have to casually look away when some mom (biology doesn't make you special) is cooing some little fat kid in a restaurant slurping on her saggies (yes the moms we might actually want to see always hide) I refuse to be be-littled for being furry.

Covering up doesn't help the smelly either as it just keeps it all stewing under the cloths.

All this time, and I never realized that as a man I have a constitutional right to be bare-chested.

"I'm more bothered by plumber's crack in public than I am by boobs in public. o_O" oh, and muffin top and...

"So until the men here grow up past their need to be breastfed, I think they'll continue to be covered. And need to be." momof3

are you really sure you want that to happen? For me to think of the female form as just a subset of the male one, and just as boring? you prolly should be careful of what you wish for.

It isn't guys that think women should cover up, it's women.

What bothers guys is that we are told we CAN'T look, and then when we don't look we get in trouble for that too.

If men were to grow out of this curiosity, the species would probably die, because of a complete lack of interest. It wont happen, though. Male brains are WIRED to be interested that way, otherwise why do you think we put up with a group of people working at cross purposes and frequently hostile to us? Instead of trying to make guys into something they are not, why not ask yourself what it is that actually bothers you about the situation? Does it really bother you that some guy thinks you are a fine physical specimen? When you see some 20something boyo with an outstanding physique at the beach, are you actually telling me that you are concerned with what his IQ is? Or are you appreciating the human male form?

Most women I know are as interested in a well defined musculature, as I am in soft curves. It's just that they feel no compunction in appreciating what they see, while telling me that I cannot.

Most people mistake this issue for a puritanical thing, but that is a ploy for what lies at the base. There is enough general diversity in religions that this question of what can be seen and what can't is not really quite straightforward. But the largest SINGLE group, and this is an opinion, are women regardless of their religion.

I wonder if the question has come up yet as to WHAT AGE in America these women can begin to show off their breasts... imagine the legal ramifications if a couple topless 13 year old young ladies go walking by and a bystander snaps a shot of them. Child pornography prosecution? Contributing to the delinquency?

If I have to casually look away when some mom (biology doesn't make you special) is cooing some little fat kid in a restaurant slurping on her saggies...

Do you kiss your mother with that mouth, vlad?
You witty, furry, little creature, you!:)

Yes, I think we should start an organization to insist men cover up. They are some things that you just can't un-see.

I thought Rael was the Imperial Aerosol Kid. Huh.

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth, vlad?" Nope I have a fake one in my back pocket that I pop on when I go home.

BTW I'm all for breast feeding in public provided that 1) You don't look like you hate doing it as a miserable mother tends to make a miserable child. 2) I'm not eating at the same time. Yes it's natural but so is using the bathroom I also don't want people taking a crap next to me while eating either. 3) Don't look at me like I'm a freaking perv if I take a closer babies have cute faces and I like children. If your being even remotely discrete then I can't tell your feeding until I look closer.

I also think that if women went topless just like men the boob obsession would fade over time. The same reason I'm anti abstinence only programs the more mystical and forbidden something is the more attractive it is.

Rolling my eyes at your last comment, vlad!

I didn't BF in public more than once or twice - precisely because I was wearily aware of the tangled response in the average male.

You want us to look happy!

(Because of some spurious reason about damaging our kiddies through frowning!).

You want us to be discreet!
You want us, nevertheless, to remain calm if we're spotted in the act!
Especially when you decide to take a closer look!
Yet you want us to be aware BFeeding is, in fact, rather like shitting!

Small wonder some of us just preferred to keep the whole business private.

"You want us to look happy!" No but the look of miserable rage at the natural thing just comes off bad.

"You want us to be discreet!" Never said that.

"You want us, nevertheless, to remain calm if we're spotted in the act!
Especially when you decide to take a closer look!" No just don't call the cops. By closer look I don't me walking up and glaring just taking more of a curious glance.

I'm pretty sure I have missed hundreds of public BF. The only ones that stick in my mind are the ones that made a spectacle of it.

"Yet you want us to be aware BFeeding is, in fact, rather like shitting!" No but that's my response to the natural argument preemptively. If you are a child friendly environment then be my guest but not at a bar in Boston.

I will admit that upon rereading my post it sounded a lot different in my head.

I will admit that upon rereading my post it sounded a lot different in my head.

Thanks for that vlad!

(I think it was the way you rattled off your points - the cumulative effect was like nails on a blackboard to me. I folded on the whole BF in public thing due to probably excess sensitivity on my part to others' awkward reactions. It was cowardly - but there it was.)

Rael? Give me a f'ing break. Hey, I don't really care if anyone wants to go nude, as long as the genitals are not in an obviously aroused state (That's the rule of thumb in France). But Rael? Foolishness!

"Why this protest in August? "

Because it is f'ing hot and you wanna air your titties out?

Really, I'm jaded. After one to many gay pride parades, you just don't give a shit anymore. Show yer limp dicks too! Who cares?

Yeah, so after reading my last message, I think that I am truly frenchifried. :)

But seriously, the French are practically hippies about their bodies. Despite all the fashion, they are very practical and unabashed. It is funny that a guy like de Sade ever got any traction here.

After a bit of thought I can find no logical objection to breastfeeding in public. We are using modern puritanical distaste for the female form (a form that I have quite a taste for) to oppose a few million years of mammalian evolution. Sound kind of silly if you think about it. Just cause I may find some of it a bit unsettling to look at (as most of you would find me spandex) is not a valid reason to restrict it.

I'm a bit more sensitive to the hysterical reaction to this stuff cause I have a bad habit of looking down while thinking. I have not gotten into trouble yet cause I don't have and bat shit crazies at work but I have gotten a comment or two years back in school.

SwiaaArmyD is right, no guy is againts women going topless.

No there are guys that SAY they are against it, but there are only two reasons for a guy to say so

1. He is trying to get into the pants of a woman who disapproves

2. He has gotten into the pants of a woman how dissaproves and she now has his balls in a jar on her desk

There must be some men against women going topless because they don't want their still pretty hot 40 year old wife checked out by their friends and strangers. Sure, they don't mind women going topless...just not THEIR woman.

I'm also curious, are breasts still a sexual "toy" in France, when people get down to business? Even though they see them all over the place? Perhaps that evolutionary curiousity can remain in the boudoir, even if they become common in public? Has the North American male appreciation of boobs in person been ruined because of playboy centerfolds?

"SwiaaArmyD is right, no guy is againts women going topless."

I disagree. It is illegal because Congress decided it should be illegal. And the majority of the Congress is men.

I figure that average middle aged and old law makers do not want their wives and daughters walk around topless at the beach while they are busy screwing their mistresses in D.C.

Personally, if I were a woman and had a boob like that in the poster, you will never get to see it for free. Why should I do that when I can get free drinks out of it?

Only really good reason imho for people NOT to go topless: What happens when soft, delicate usually-covered-up flesh is exposed to the sun and the rapidly-decreasing ozone layer - pink blisters are not attractive.

I think Amy should lead this movement...starting with a new photo on her blog!!

There were plenty of topless lesbians in the Dyke Parade this summer. All walking down Yonge Street (main street of Toronto). I also saw lots of bare asses, and quite a few penises (thanks to the Totally Naked men's group, I saw more than I ever wanted to see-the mature male droops in the rear, and gets a potbelly!)

I'm also curious about moreta's question about French boobs.

An exposed breast with a baby attached is like a car wreck - I can't help looking. If Mommy is a friend or acquaintance, it's worse because I try to either lock my eyes onto her face or strive not to look at all - and people can tell if you're doing that.

This hardwiring is really a pain in the ass.

But it's so easy to be discreet when BFing in public - I used to use a small light-weight blanket, just draped strategically. Not a big deal, people knew and could look if they wanted, so what? More than a few younger kids on the train asked what I was doing and when I told them, they were all, oh, okay. It was the teenaged and early 20something guys that giggled like idiots. Oh yeah, and there was the occasional nasty look from older women, but I wasn't blantantly flippin' a tit for the kid to suck on, so too bad for them! I never got busted for public indecency, although one old lady tried. Cop told her to leave me alone!

> Male brains are WIRED to
> be interested

And if they aren't, then at least here in the States, we've been so deeply acculturated to the fascination that there's no turning back.

Ten years ago I went diving on this Micronesian island. (There are many stories to tell: Ask me about the Mantas! Ask me about the stone money! And the floor of the airport! The library in Colonia! The family of Texas-settled Bolivians I vacationed with! The mangove swamps! The Japanese WWII cannon I found rusting on a hilltop by the hotel! And the betel nut! And a whole bunch of other stuff.)

It's one of the few topless cultures left on the planet. And it's amazing, just stunning, how fast your eye adjusts to this. By the third day, you can be walking through the capital village and you see some unremarkable, middle-aged woman in a tee shirt a block away, and suddenly you feel an unfamiliar anger sparking in your heart. Whats going on over there? What's the problem?

Listen, this may be a distinctly American “perversion of a perfectly natural function”, and all that.... But it's one of my favorite American perversions. That women should feel compelled to seek a little privacy for feeding children seems a worthwhile price to pay. In every culture, feeding has strictures and customs and boundaries. Why should it be different for newborns?

Besides, women who theatrically breastfeed in public are like the mothers Amy often complains about in this blog, the ones who put their babies' diapered butts on the counter at Starbucks, or who actually change diapers in a restaurant. They're boasting of their fertility in a backhanded and intrusive way... They're daring the rest of us to tell them that their children aren't the center of the universe.

I think it is hilarious that the "free the ta-tas" movement has a "spiritual leader." I wonder what her job description is exactly.

I could care less either way. I know what boobs loko like. I saw them before I had them. It did not affect me negatively. Do I want to see them as much as I see topless men? Probably not.

Catpajamas is right. Breast skin is more delicate than regular skin. So those of you who decide to participate, use extra sunscreen.

One little thing I have noticed about the whole thing: The site GoTopless.Org is a front for the Raelian Sect. Remember the cloned babies scare a couple of years ago? It is the same type of bozos running the show now.

this brings me to one point; where we can found sexuality, we will found a market. Regardless of who's at the cash register (Sects, pornographs or self-claimed righteous sentinels), everybody is making money out of it. I think we need to grow up a little.

Listen, this may be a distinctly American “perversion of a perfectly natural function”, and all that.... But it's one of my favorite American perversions. That women should feel compelled to seek a little privacy for feeding children seems a worthwhile price to pay.

So women pay the price for men to worship The Divine Secrets of the Ta-Ta Sisterhood?

Seems a little lop-sided!

In my experience, sexuality is not about fairness.

And speaking of lop-sided, y'know how sometimes....

Never mind

In my experience, sexuality is not about fairness.

Yeah, but it's great for puns!

Points taken.

Time for a litmus test.

Go down to WalMart and look around.

Now, tell me with a straight face that you want to see that uncovered.

This is more idiocy. I can imagine these morons getting their way, then complaining (because that's really what they do) that their eyes are up here, and that "lookism" is keeping them from {fill blank}.

Hey, nitwit - clothes make most people look better. And we can all use the esteem.

Maybe we should start a movement to get some men to cover up their hairy, sweaty man-boobs.

Hey Amanda, keep your hands off my hairy sweaty man-boobs!

Oh, wait, damn it...

Sooooo many funny posts on this thread! "Wookie streaking!" ROFLMAO! As for Radwaste's litmus test, NO I wouldn't want that uncovered! I would venture to say that my local Walmart has WAY more than its fair share of idiots and ugly people! They're just idiot enough to not realize how ugly they are! *shudder*

I'm not even remotely offended by bare breasts on the cover of Vanity Fair. However, I'm offended almost beyond my ability to bear it that Paris Hilton is on any magazine cover anywhere ever.

Just IMHO the line between "Oooh! Bare chest!", and "Eeeew! Bare chest!" is when the guy turns to the right and then there's a delay before his boobs do.

Why people be hatin' on Paris so much? I like her. She's insane, and you gotta admire that in a young millionaire.

Is it really a big deal to keep one's boobs covered? Do local cultural standards matter? Is there a difference between things that attract (like nice tits) and things that repel (like a fat hairy asses in Speedos)? Are feminists nuts?

Ooops. 'Nuts' is a patriarchal and phallocentric word. I meant 'crazy?'

I don't think it's a big deal to keep 'em covered. In fact, I'm glad I don't have any bare boobs (guy or gal) or bare, sweaty, hairy butts brushing against me when I'm riding on the bus.

I think every single person pictured here should be wearing a mobile home (over their body).

http://www.zombietime.com/breasts_not_bombs/

I am grateful