Letters to the Editor
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Why your blog sucks...
You prattle on, and on about crap like this, when SERIOUS issues of gender, sex and rape go uncommented on.
Consider:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/11/19/child.rape/index.html
When the prosecutor says, "But Wilkie said children that young cannot legally consent to sex"
What does it mean when by it's definition, "Rape" must have at least one consenting participant...
You suck, quit you day job, become a mommy.
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done and done
This battle was fought, and won, in Toronto (Ontario altogether?) like 15 years ago.
it's really no biggie.
and in all those years I've seen precisely one woman topless in the city - a particularly enterprising squeegee kid...the reaction I saw was amusement, nothing more.
man, the more I read this blog, the happier I am I live in Canada :)
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Yes
Women should be able to go around completely naked if they want.
There should be no legal restrictions whatsoever on women's actions.
As for their breast issue, well, they have my support.
I'm all for it.
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That Football Match reference...
"We want our breasts to be as 'normal' and desexualized as men's, so that we too can pull off our shirts at football matches."
She may have been referring to the habit many male players have of whipping off their shirts after scoring a goal. Remember that Brandi Chastain gained notoriety for doing just this despite wearing a rather modest sports bra underneath her shirt. And yet most people would not remember any particular male player for doing the same. (The irony, if this is indeed the case, is that FIFA has since mandated that a yellow card be issued to the perpetrator--not for indecent exposure, but for delay of game.)
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Burkah?
When you think about it, isn't the difference between a legally mandated blouse and a burkah just a matter of degree?
The underlying proposition for both seems to be that a woman must cover her body because a man can't be expected to control his.
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What interest does the state have?
The state wants to protect the public from having to view an adult female human breast? I can't help thinking of the procession of monks in Monty Python's Holy Grail, punctuating their dismal chant by knocking themselves in the face with a slab of wood.
When I was in Sweden in 1990, at one of the thousands of lakeside recreation areas, the family next to us included two young teen girls who, when they got out of the water, removed (or in the one case, rolled down) their tops. Nobody gave a damn, and after noticing that the earth didn't split open, neither did I. Yes, I'm incarnated as a member of a sexually differentiated species, but that's not exactly news.
It's also perfectly understandable that many women would prefer not to go topless, the way many of us (of whatever sex) would want to cover their faces if the sight of their exposed lips were likely to be taken as an invitation to kiss them.
And just as bootleggers and bible-thumpers both want liquor outlawed, the nervous giggles of Beavis and Butthead would lose all potency without these breastophobic laws.
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Umm, sure - but in Sweden? In November? Brrr...
I'm all in favor of the right to go topless, but it surprises me that the fight for that right is happening in such a cold locale. When I think of places I'd like to go topless in, Sweden in November is really not on my list. That's on my list of "places I'd like to wear three sweaters and a jacket in".
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It's a cliche to say that
societies with nothing better to do do things like this. Anyway, with Sweden being the #1 destination in Europe for Iraqi refugees it will be interesting to see that clash of cultures evolve.
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Anonymous with reading comprehension issues
What "Wilkie" was saying in the CNN story is that it's irelevant whether the young girl consented -- a point that is being contested -- since it is "rape" by definition to have sex with an 11-year-old girl legally incapable of consent.
The boys in question were 8 and 9 years old, and thus cannot be tried as adults on felony charges. They'll almost certainly spend many, many years in a juvenile facility -- WHETHER OR NOT THE GIRL CONSENTED. (She apparently bragged about the encounter at a slumber party.)
I'm failing to see the outrage committed by the legal system in this disturbing tale. Now go become a mommy.
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Ugh, can't we leave well enough alone?
I like lounging around my house naked when it's hot. Or just when it's convenient.
However...I have no interest in running around with my breasts bared in public. For one thing, if I'm "running around" anywhere, they'll start to hurt. I'm also likely to end up with a nasty sunburn as I burn easily anyway, and they've not been exposed to direct sunlight. Ever.
And, of course, if that becomes the cultural norm, then you get, "Well, why don't you take your shirt off? Are you some kind of prude?" It's bad enough being told that I dress conservatively because I wear pants that I don't have to tug up to cover my ass every five minutes. Sheesh. Function before fashion.
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To melthough and Juliebird.
There isn't a part of the female body that isn't sexualize (feel, hands, thighs, lips, ass, abs, etc), and whether they are clothed or not doesn't make a difference. A lot of men get hard just looking at women even when their are fully clothed.
Trying to figure out male arousal is not as hard (no pun intended) as women think. We see women (or men if the case may be), and then we want they. But some of us more enlightened men know that our arousal doesn't entitled to us anything.
I have said it several times here, and I will say it again; a woman should have the right to turn on as many men as wants without ever suffering any consequences. Don't try to desexualize the female body (any part of it), because that's not possible, but you can have it written into law that a man's arousal entitles him to absolutely nothing. It should be taken for granted that a woman's naked form is not an invitation of any kind, and every boy should be taught that in school starting from day one. I support the Bore Brost Swedish movement, not because it attempts to desexualize breasts (because it won't), but because it makes clear that nakedness should be accepted as norm without any possibility of threatening consequences.
Oh what a great world it would be if women could walk around completely nude, with no fear of rape.
Oh what a great world it would be if men accepted, without question, that their arousal entitled them to nothing.
BTW, nipples expose in freezing Sweden reminds me of Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical comic book, in which her grand mother says that she stayed good looking when she got old by placing her breasts in a bowl of ice water every night.