So can we quit it with the boob puns already? Since I began reading about last weekend鈥檚 topless march in 91原创, I think I鈥檝e seen just about every nudity-based pun imaginable.
Last Sunday, more than 50 women marched topless through downtown 91原创 (joined by approximately 30 men wearing bras) to draw attention to double standards in our society when it comes to male and female nudity. It was a positive, friendly event and generated lots of laughs and smiles, judging from the photos 鈥� but the women and men of GoTopless were also making an important point about inequality.
Most of the coverage of the event, however, has been of the cheeky variety, which was awkwardly amusing the first time, and thence progressed to tacky and gross. Yeah, OK, the women involved did seem to have a sense of humour about the whole thing (I don鈥檛 think you can be brave enough to march in defiance of social conventions about nudity without a sense of humour) but there鈥檚 something icky about seeing breast pun after breast pun trotted out like world-class wit when people are trying to talk about inequality.
Humour is great and all, but I鈥檓 not sure that boob jokes are the best way to go here.
(The accompanying photos are all craftily framed, with women鈥檚 nipples carefully blocked out by nearby objects or blurred by distance. Nipples are always the magic line in situations like this: Somehow, the useful part of the breast is where indecency begins. For some reason. Except male nipples, of course. Those are fine. For some reason, anyway.)
It鈥檚 telling that we can鈥檛 begin to have a conversation about double standards without someone snickering, 鈥淗eh, boobs.鈥�
I don鈥檛 think this is just me being humourless. In fact, scratch that 鈥� I鈥檓 not humourless. I have snickered 鈥� nay, chortled 鈥� at many an Eddie Izzard pun. It鈥檚 just that it seems obvious that in this case, we鈥檙e laughing to cover up what would otherwise be an awkward silence.
Women in Canada have the right to go topless, and have had since 1996, but we don鈥檛. Why not?
There are huge social ramifications for a woman who chooses to go topless on a hot day. These negatives are often enough to prevent her from doing so, regardless of whether or not she has the right to.
Indeed, a recent CBC article refers to Lori Welbourne, a Kelowna-based blogger, as 鈥渇lashing鈥� Mayor Walter Gray in a recent interview, but that鈥檚 inaccurate. 鈥淔lashing鈥� is when you reveal yourself in public to violate standards of propriety and therefore shock. A woman removing her shirt to discuss double standards about nudity isn鈥檛 the same. It鈥檚 not intended to simply shock, it鈥檚 intended to criticize that shock.
A woman鈥檚 toplessness is invariably understood as sexual; she鈥檚 interpreted as sexually available or sexually aggressive in a way that endangers or stigmatizes her, though she isn鈥檛 violating any law.
These aren鈥檛 small concerns. We live in a world where a Facebook photo can bar you from job opportunities, and where a woman鈥檚 (or even a child鈥檚) 鈥渟luttiness鈥� can be used to argue that she wasn鈥檛 鈥渓egitimately鈥� raped.
So we have a law, but also a double standard, which we see every time we read a headline about the women in 91原创 鈥渕aking a clean breast of things鈥� or 鈥渞evealing our double standards.鈥� (鈥淢en wearing bras to show support鈥� is also terrible.)
The right to go topless is one of those feminist issues that I, as a feminist, often shy away from. Theoretically, I understand why it鈥檚 important 鈥� inequality is inequality and should never go unchecked. I鈥檓 sure if it were actually illegal for women to go topless in B.C., I鈥檇 write a very impassioned column about it. But since it鈥檚 legal, there鈥檚 something else standing in my way.
Because I, like most of us, have deeply, deeply internalized the idea that women鈥檚 bodies are inherently sexual in a way that men鈥檚 are not. Intellectually, I reject this idea, but there are other forces at work here, and the only way to address them is to talk about why we treat women鈥檚 bodies differently from men鈥檚, and why we view women鈥檚 nudity as simultaneously shameful and sexual, while we view men鈥檚 nudity as neutral and natural.
That鈥檚 a hard conversation, and the 鈥渢ee-hee-hee boobs鈥� style of commentary has shown us that we鈥檙e further away from equality on this score than we were 17 years ago.
