Women take off tops for equal rights
Vancouver is famous for its picturesque mountains but on Sunday, “mountains” of another sort will be on display for all to see.
Women will be marching topless down Robson Street on Sunday afternoon in honour of International Go Topless Day, an occasion that promotes the right for both men and women to go topless in public should they choose to do so.
The event takes place internationally, with nearly 50 cities in the States coordinating their own events.
Women participating in the march will bare their breasts, while male allies are asked to wear bikinis or pasties on their man-boobs to highlight the double standard.
“In our society, men and women are supposed to have equal rights,” write organizers on gotopless.org. “But women are commonly arrested, fined and humiliated for daring to go topless in public, a freedom men have had for decades.”
The event, which was first launched in 2007 in the U.S., is meant to promote gender equality and combat laws that categorize nudity as an indecent or criminal act.
In July 1991, University of Guelph student Gwen Jacob took off her top and walked topless down a street in Guelph, Ont. She was arrested and charged with indecency under the Canadian Criminal Code.
Jacob’s story garnered support and led to protests elsewhere and after appealing twice, she was finally acquitted in 1996 by the Ontario Court of Appeal.
In 2000, B.C. woman Linda Meyer, an SFU political science student inspired by Jacob’s case, attempted to go swimming at a Maple Ridge pool wearing only her bikini bottom.
Following complaints, Meyer was charged under a Maple Ridge bylaw. A judge then cited the 1996 decision in Jacob’s acquittal, and Meyer’s case was tossed out.
Currently, it is legal for women to go topless in most states, with the exception of Utah, Indiana, and Tennessee. Laws in Canada are also ambiguous but lean toward the less conservative side of the argument.
The Province’s Lori Welbourne also blogged this week about going topless, in advance of Sunday’s event.
Her blog, viewed more than 8,500 times online and shared more than 15,000 times on Facebook since Thursday, detailed her own experience with learning to accept nudity and dispelling the taboos around the human body.
An accompanying video also shows Welbourne, topless, interviewing her hometown Kelowna Mayor Walter Gray about the issue.
International Go Topless Day is always scheduled to take place on the Sunday closest to Women’s Equality Day in the U.S. which, this year, takes place on Aug. 26. That day marks the occasion in 1920 when women first earned the right to vote.
Vancouver’s march begins at 1 p.m. at Robson and Denman and continues east along Robson toward Hornby.