Men.. Which would you choose in regard to equality as it relates to laws on going topless?

I think it should be based on location. In the street, in a store or a restaurant, being half-naked is not appropriate for either men or women. In a swimming pool or on a beach, or on your own private property, it should be fine for both men and women to be topless.

Breasts are not part of the genitals. They are nothing to do with sex. They are a tool for feeding babies. What on earth is so dirty about that?

~ It gets even more complicated when adults breastfeed adults… anytime anywhere.~

Topless is okay for both sexes where it’s appropriate and the person looks good enough that others enjoy looking at them. If I don’t feel I look good the shirt stays on.

@Adirondackwannabe The problem is that everyone has a different view of what is and isn’t enjoyable to look at. For instance, I prefer to only see topless people who are female. Someone else may enjoy seeing the nice pectoral muscles of a fit male athlete. Yet another person may have a fetish for man boobs. The question is more about what would be fair as it relates to topless exposure that is visible to the public. Would men choose that all should legally be topless regardless of gender, activity & attractiveness – (like it currently is for men in our society) just so they can keep the right to be topless when they want or would they be willing to give up being topless in order to keep women from having that same right?

If equality were the rule in regard to toplessness which direction would the men in our society lean? Cover it up no matter who you are or let it all hang out no matter who you are?

@downtide if breasts are a tool for feeding babies, should they be restricted when that is not how they function? Meaning… would it be fair to ban the man boob?

What does ” the most fair solution ” have to do with the real world?

@Neodarwinian obviously nothing or we’d have a slew of “most fair solutions”... I’m simply curious which option men would choose if they had to make a choice.

I believe it is where and when the situation is. It is not ok for men or women to be topless wherever and whenever.

I’m with @Downtide on this.
Nudity doesn’t bother me at all. People have bodies. Some have amazingly attractive bodies, others not so much.

It’s not society’s job to treat us to eye candy and shield us from stretch marks. A person’s subjective attractiveness cannot be a variable in enforcement of a standard.

Clothing is for protection and hygiene. In a restaurant, remain covered so your body parts do not contact food. At the beach, do as you please. Just remember the SPF.

I’d be willing to tolerate exposed titties out in public places, they’re just milk taps anyway.
Although to be fair, nothing & I do mean nothing, beats a firm pert pair of baps.

I’ll also have to agree with @ucme. On principal.

This is purely hypothetical, in that no one will ever pass a law to force men to cover up or to force women to be topless in public. So this is sort of what-if question that can never come to pass.

My two cents: no laws at all. Let people dress, or undress, as they please. If a woman wants to be topless at the grocery, so be it. If a man wants to wear a shirt mowing the lawn, so be it.

If the silly current laws didn’t exist, then the concept of female toplessness wouldn’t be such a big deal, and no one would care. Its rareness is what make it ‘special’,

@Jenniehowell

Obviously?

Is obviously the new literally?

” I don’t know why we allow for men to run around hairy, sweating & topless manboobs out for the world to see while women receive scrutiny for doing the same. ”

You do know that there are differences between men and women, don’t you? Reality, that which recognizes women’s secondary sexual characteristics and endures men’s poor sartorial choices.

What ifs outside of what is always leave me cold.

Personally, I’m OK with either option. I’m willing to let the majority rule, but I’m on board with the idea that it would be more equitable if the same rule set applied to both sexes. In tropical areas where, for very practical reasons, both males and females go topless all the time, it’s no big deal to either sex. The males aren’t driven to terminal testosterone toxicity by the sight of a female’s bare breasts.

“Life is not fair – get used to it.” -Bill Gates

@Neodarwinian in this case obviously and literally can be interchangeable considering that “the real world” has literally and obviously nothing to do with “the most fair solution” because in the real world life isn’t fair and thanks to privilege and power there’s no likelihood of it becoming such whether it is in regard to exposure of manboobs vs exposure of womanboobs or some other random topic.

RE: men being different than women – of course yet another obvious and literal statement. However, the appendages & their uses with regard to the bodies of the human male and female don’t necessarily have anything to do with the logic in regard to why I have to drive down the road and come across Mr. Hairy Man Tits mowing his lawn or Mr. Jiggly belly riding his bike down the road and can’t come across the same in regard to Ms. Hairless tits mowing her lawn or Ms. Jiggly belly rolling down the road on her bike. That which is above the belt is not sexual or reproductive in nature on either gender.

Equality in regard to nudity has nothing to do with the differences between the male and female bodies as much as it has to do with varying degrees of patriarchy and varying degrees of the male sex’s inability to control their baser urges when it comes to seeing nudity among females. Perhaps if things were more equal in that regard men wouldn’t have such troubles handling topless women be they breast feeding their children, mowing their lawns, riding their bikes or just hanging out with the girls at the ball field etc.

Woman boobs and man boobs are not different in their appearance (minus hair) and functionality is only different in regard to feeding the young. Boobs are not sexual in their appearance or function until such time as someone chooses to make them so. I suppose some pervert out there is turned on by breast feeding as if it is a sexual act but I myself prefer to separate children from my sex acts. As far as poor sartorial choices that isn’t exclusive to any gender… See People of Walmart for some perfect examples of that on display. Seeing the breasts as sexual, be they on a man or on a woman, is a choice of the beholder but not a literal function of the boobs of either sex.

Regardless of all that though my question wasn’t in regard to whether boobs are sexual, whether men twist them into something sexual when by their functional nature they are not, whether men’s bodies and women’s bodies differ, whether there is hair present, whether one sex or another makes worse fashion choices…. The question is – despite the existence or non existence of those factors – if equality had to be chosen which way would men prefer – all topless freedom or all topless restriction?

@gondwanalon I see that many people didn’t understand the question. Benefit of the doubt on my part would say I worded it confusingly. The question isn’t whether life is fair. That is obvious already. The question is – if fairness was enforceable in regard to topless people which direction would men vote? Would men vote toward everyone being free to be topless regardless of gender or would they vote toward everyone being covered at all times regardless of gender?

I’m curious which is more important to the average male – freedom to be topless themselves or the restriction of women to do the same. If forced to choose which way would the average man lean?

@Jenniehowell

I think you’re missing a huge demo population in what you posit. Take it from me honey, at 54 most women do not want to go topless anymore.
Does your question include older and extremely old people too?
Not really relevant because regardless of law it would still be a personal choice.

I don’t want to see 50, 60, 90 year old topless women or shirtless old geezers either.
Pffft…go join a seniors only nudist camp. lol

LoL – well yes… beauty is in the eye of the beholder. People’s preferences in regard to what they consider attractive range from old to young, to fat to skinny, to male to female, to hairy to hairless etc. etc. My question would include it all. If forced to create a law which direction would most men choose? My suspicion is that they’d choose that everyone be clothed but I’m curious whether my assumptions are totally off.

Even if the law permitted toplessness, it wouldn’t require it, @Coloma.

Both sexes should keep their shirts on in public in my opinion.

Thanks @Paradox25

@Jenniehowell

” varying degrees of patriarchy ”

Now the ideology is apparent. The question is not worth considering let alone answering. Ill posed is the polite term.

Try being terse.

Due to the above quote of yours we are through here.

@Neodarwinian A-you weren’t answering the question anyway as much as you were attempting to refute what your perception of my reasoning or bias may be and nitpicking various parts of my question/statements – the fact that you clearly weren’t interested in answering the question in the first place (or you would’ve done so) was already evident so your statement of “we are through here” is of no consequence to me being that it changed nothing. It wasn’t like you were participating in answering the question anyway. Ideology has nothing to do with the question. It’s simple what do men prefer if forced to choose an across the board law relating to topless people? My ideology has nothing to do with the answers men would give as much as it has to do with my assumptions and stereotypes in regard to the nature of men in our patriarchal society. Even if my ideology is evident and you or others don’t agree with my views I still make it clear in my comments that I am curious whether my assumptions in regard to men and their choices are totally off. Your argumentative, nitpicking, avoidance of answering the question and over-analytic nature in regard to this question make it clear to me that at least you don’t fit my assumptions/stereotypes of what the average masculine man is like. I don’t know your gender but your methods of communication in regard to the answering of this question would indicate that if you are you are definitely outside the stereotype I have of the average male.

B- there is no argument that in America among other countries there are varying degrees of patriarchy. We haven’t for many many years in this world been a world that is on any significant level matriarchal. If patriarchy and its factors deter you that is fine but even still – patriarchy has nothing to do with the question as it was posed despite that there is no real argument to say that it doesn’t exist in and out of America.

Everyone has their different views, biases & assumptions based on them. My curiosity is only in regard to what men would choose one direction or the other. Apparently, something I said in my initial question/statement prompted you to debate as opposed to answer. Your intolerance of relativism and ideology clearly biased you away from answering the question and toward nitpicking the question & its following statements. I suspect the only thing that would’ve prompted you to actually answer the question rather than nitpick it would’ve been for me to have worded the question in a manner than made it unclear what my biases, relativism, ideology, stereotypes blah blah may have been. Unfortunately, my inability to be Stepford enough to not reveal my own biases etc. created an environment where your intolerance of them could justify your nitpicking of statements rather than answering of the question.

If you choose to avoid questions on a question answer forum because you’re biased against my biases then so be it. The only consequence to me is a slight annoyance that I didn’t actually get an answer.