Toplessness is the state in which a female has her breasts uncovered, with her areolae and nipples visible, usually in a public space. The adjective topless may refer to a woman who appears in public, poses, or performs with her breasts exposed (a "topless model"); to an activity or performance that involves exposing the breasts ("topless sunbathing"; "topless dancing"); to an artistic, photographic, or cinematic representation of a woman with her breasts uncovered (a "topless photograph"); to a place where female toplessness is tolerated or expected (a "topless beach"; a "topless bar"); or to a garment designed to reveal the breasts and the nipples (a "topless swimsuit").
In society
Two Wichita Native Americans in summer dress. Photographed by William S. Soule, 1870 Two bathing Indonesian women, c. 1950In many societies today, concealment of the lower portion of the breasts, including the nipples and areolae, is a cultural norm of female modesty from adolescence onward. However, considerable variance has existed in attitudes toward toplessness, both across cultures and through history.
Traditional cultures of North America, Africa, Australia and the Pacific Islands considered female toplessness normal and acceptable, at least until the arrival of Christian missionaries,[1] and it continues to be the norm in many indigenous cultures today.
Toplessness was also the norm in various Asian cultures before Muslim expansion in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.[2] Not only fully clothed attire but topless attire was found widely among Indian women before Muslim conquest of India.[3][4] Female toplessness had been the norm in Southern India in medieval age.[5] Several peoples of South India like Tamils along the Coromandel coast, Tiyan and other peoples on the Malabar coast, Kadar of Cochin island, Toda, Nayar, Cheruman (Pulayar), Kuruba, Koraga, Nicobarese, Uriya adopted topless attire for women until the 19th or early 20th century.[6] Thai Cultural Mandates issued in 1939 and Western writing[7] prove Thai women would go clothed fully or topless in public before the westernization of dress.
In the late 19th century the influence of missionaries and modernization under King Chulalongkorn encouraged local women to wear blouses to cover their breasts.
Until the early 1900s, women from northern Thailand wore a long tube-skirt (Pha-Sin), tied high above their waist and below their breasts, which were uncovered.[8]
In 1858 Henri Mouhot took the picture of Laos women in which virgins clothed their breasts, while the married women revealed both breasts in public as the function of breast-feed was attached to their breasts.
Toplessness had been the norm among Dayak people, Javanese people, Balinese people at Indonesia before being affected by the culture of Islam and the West. In the Javanese and Balinese society, toplessness had been limited to the women to work comfortably or rest. In the Dayak society, only the sagged or big breasted women among the married covered breasts which can disturb them in their work. [9] In most Middle Eastern countries, toplessness has not been socially accepted since at least the early beginning of Islam (7th century), because of Islamic standards for female modesty. However, toplessness was the norm in earlier cultures within Arabia, Egypt, Assyria and Mesopotamia. Tunisia and Egypt are an exception among Arabic states, allowing foreign tourists to swim topless on private beaches.[10]
Cultural and legal attitudes in the West
History
Agnès Sorel, known to appear topless in the French court, was the model for Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels, by Jean Fouquet (c.1450)In many European societies between the Renaissance and the nineteenth century, exposed breasts were more acceptable than it is today, since a woman's bared legs, ankles, or shoulders were considered to be more risqué than her exposed breasts.[11]
Because aristocratic and upper-class women could maintain youthful-looking bosoms by employing wet nurses to breastfeed their children,[12] the exposed breast could even be a status symbol, and was often displayed as a sign of beauty, wealth, or social position. The bared breast was even seen to invoke associations with the nude sculptures of classical Greece that were exerting a huge influence on art, sculpture, and architecture of the period.[13]
Breast-baring female fashions have been traced to fifteenth-century courtesan Agnès Sorel, mistress to Charles VII of France, whose gowns in the French court sometimes exposed one or both of her breasts. (Jean Fouquet's portrayal of the Virgin Mary with her left breast uncovered is believed to have taken Sorel as a model.) During the sixteenth century, women's fashions displaying their breasts were common in society, from Queens to common prostitutes, and emulated by all classes.[14]
Similar fashions became popular in England during the seventeenth century when they were worn by Queen Mary II and by Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I of England, for whom architect Inigo Jones designed a masque costume that fully revealed both of her breasts.[13]
From the Victorian period onward, however, social attitudes shifted to mandate the concealment of women's breasts. Although a degree of liberalization took place in the later twentieth century, contemporary Western societies still generally take a somewhat unfavorable view of toplessness, with the very term "topless" often carrying the connotation of sexual licentiousness or deliberate defiance of cultural taboo.
Contemporary view
See also: Dress codeIn contemporary society, the extent to which a woman may expose her breasts depends on social and cultural context. Women's swimsuits and bikinis commonly reveal the tops and sides of the breasts. Displaying cleavage is considered permissible in many settings, and is even a sign of elegance and sophistication on many formal social occasions, but it may be prohibited by dress codes in settings such as workplaces and schools, where sexualized displays of the female breast may be considered inappropriate. Showing the nipples or areolae is almost always considered partial nudity and sex appealing. Women and girls may consider toplessness acceptable in gender segregated areas such as changing rooms and dormitories, and toplessness may be permitted in specific mixed-gender zones such as topless beaches (see below), but full breast exposure outside of these contexts is mostly confined to occasional acts of exhibitionism or protest.
During a short period in 1964, "topless" dress designs appeared at fashion shows, but those who wore the dresses in public found themselves on indecency charges.[15] However, toplessness has come to feature in contemporary haute couture fashion shows.
Some cultures have even begun to apply the social interdiction on female toplessness to prepubescent and even infant girls, who may be dressed by their parents in bikinis or one-piece swimsuits on beaches and at water parks. This trend toward covering the female nipple from infancy onward is particularly noticeable in the United States and the Middle East, but is much less common in Europe[16] and Latin America.[citation needed]
Legality
An anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C., 24 September 2005 See also: TopfreedomLegally, many Western jurisdictions consider the public display of women's breasts to be indecent exposure. However, the activist topfreedom movement has been successful in some instances in persuading courts to overturn such laws on the basis of sex discrimination, arguing that a woman should be free to expose her chest in any context in which a man can expose his. Successful cases include the District of Columbia 1986, New York State 1992, Columbus, OH 1995, Ontario Canada 1996, Moscow Idaho 1998, and Maine 1998.[17]
Many jurisdictions permit public breastfeeding.[18] In the United States, for instance, a federal law enacted in 1999[19] specifically provides that "a woman may breastfeed her child at any location in a Federal building or on Federal property, if the woman and her child are otherwise authorized to be present at the location."
In March 2008, after a year-long campaign by a pressure group, the Topless Front, Copenhagen's Culture and Leisure Committee voted to approve topless bathing by women.[20] Also in 2008, the city council in Vancouver, British Columbia, location of the World Naked Bike Ride, gave women the right to go topless in public, not solely at swimming pools and beaches.[21]
In 2009, women in Malmö, Sweden won the right to swim topless in public swimming pools[22] when the City Council voted unanimously to approve the action.[23] "We don’t decide what men should do with their torso, why then do women have to listen to the men. Moreover, many men have larger breasts than women", said a council spokesman.[24]
In many indigenous, non-Western cultures it is completely acceptable for both men and women torsos to be unclothed. Female toplessness can also constitute an important aspect of indigenous cultural celebrations. However, this can lead to cross-cultural and legal conflict. During 2004, Australian police banned members of the Papunya community from using a public park in the city of Alice Springs to practice a traditional Aboriginal dance that included topless women.[25]
GoTopless.org, a US organization, claims that women have the same constitutional right to be bare chested in public places as men. They further claim constitutional equality between men and women on being topless in public. In 2009, they used August 26, (Women's Equality Day) as a day of national protest.[26]
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