Scarleteen

Why can't women be shirtless but men can? Before I cry out sexism (because I have a strong feeling it is but could be wrong) is there any reason for it? I understand women not wanting to go shirtless if it's not comfortable, but that goes with anyone! I hope it's not the whole "breast is distracting" thing because 1. That's sexist, expecting women to "cover" up for men and men to be unable to control their sexual attraction and 2. It's so heteronormative. But putting all that aside is there a reason women can't be shirtless?

There's certainly no objective reason besides sunburn worries or discomfort from a lack of breast support that women can't be topless in public.

The reasons why someone might feel it's inappropriate for women to be shirtless/bare-breasted are going to vary a lot based on who you ask and on the cultural context. From your location it looks like you're US-based (as I am) and here it's generally considered not acceptable, but that's not universal; there are cultures where being bare-breasted isn't a big deal or might be considered provocative but generally acceptable. I remember being in Italy in the late 90s and seeing billboards and tv commercials for things like soda featuring topless women; these were mainstream ads for the general public and no one seemed to bat an eye at them.

And of course, even in areas like the US where it might be an issue for someone to walk around topless in public (although some cities do specifically protect it as legal), that doesn't mean there's one unified reason why it's a "problem" or even that everyone thinks it is! I think a main reason is that many people see breasts as sexual, so having them exposed feels inappropriate in a similar way to how having one's genitals exposed would be. Some people even feel this way about breasts when someone is breastfeeding in public. Do I agree with this? Nope, but I suspect that's a common line of thinking. And culturally, it can take a long time for public opinion and policy to change! I bet you'd find a lot of people who would shrug and say they didn't care one way or another about bare breasts in public, but it takes longer to have real cultural change on something like this.

True. People do view breast as sexual, though I would argue the same could be said for topless men. I think one of the reason it still bothers me is that there seems to be shame surrounding women's breast, like they're doing something inherently wrong with exposing a part of their body (even if it's breastfeeding). But I guess that goes hand in hand with the shame surrounding sex, especially female sexuality. I just remember (and still feel this way to an extent) being jealous that my brothers could walk around shirtless on the beach but I couldn't.

You certainly won't get any argument from me that it's not fair that some people are in a position where it's more acceptable to be shirtless than others! I do think there's less pushback against people breastfeeding openly, which is a start at least, but in the US at least I think it'll be a good while before it's considered generally acceptable for people with breasts to have them uncovered in public.

I agree that the idea is totally heteronormative! Unfortunately, I also think the answer to this question is, in fact, sexism. If you're just looking at a nipple, it's impossible to tell if it belongs on a male or a female, but when it's suddenly apparent that nipple belongs to someone in a "female" body - we get scandalized (at least here in the states). There's a lot of recent advocacy to #freethenipple & like Mo said there is less opposition to public breastfeeding, so I hope we keep making progress!