Toplessness is the state in which a female Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova (egg cells) has her breasts uncovered, with her areolae This article is about the breast tissue. For the entomology term, see the glossary of Lepidopteran terms. For an artistic cloud motif, see aureola and nipples visible, usually in a public space A public space is a social space such as a town square that is open and accessible to all, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age or socio-economic level. One of the earliest examples of public spaces are commons. For example, no fees or paid tickets are required for entry, nor are the entrants discriminated based on background. Non-government-. The adjective An adjective is a word signifying a conceptual representation of an ontological possibility 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 Sun tanning is the act of exposing the skin to ultraviolet radiation, for the purpose of darkening skin color, either during sun bathing or using artificial sources, such as tanning beds"; "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 A monokini, sometimes referred to as a unikini, is a woman's one-piece garment comprising only the lower half of a bikini, leaving the breasts uncovered. The term monokini is also used for any topless swimsuit, particularly a bikini bottom worn without a bikini top").

In society

In many societies today, concealment of the lower portion of the breasts, including the nipples and areolae, is a cultural norm Social norms are the behavioral expectations and cues within a society or group. This sociological term has been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit. Failure to follow the rules can result in severe punishments, including of female modesty Standards of modesty are aspects of the culture of a country or people, at a given point in time, and is a measure against which an individual in society may be judged.[citation needed] 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 The culture of Asia is the artificial aggregate of the cultural heritage of many nationalities, societies, and ethnic groups in the region, traditionally called a continent from a Western-centric perspective, of Asia. The region or "continent" is more commonly divided into more natural geographic and cultural subregions, including the cultures before Muslim A Muslim or Moslem is an adherent of the religion of Islam. Literally, the word means "one who submits (to God)". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. All Muslims observe Sunnah, but differences in the definition of what is and what is not Sunnah has led to the emergence of sectarian movements.[ 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 Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are a linguistic and ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, a state in India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. They speak Tamil (தமிழ்), with a recorded history going back two millennia. Emigrant communities are found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Canada, 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 Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha Chulalongkorn Phra Chunla Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua , or Rama V (20 September 1853 – 23 October 1910) was the fifth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri. He was known to the Siamese of his time as Phra Phuttha Chao Luang (พระพุทธเจ้าหลวง - The Royal Buddha). He is considered 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 The Dayak or Dyak are a people indigenous to Borneo. It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic subgroups, located principally in the interior of Borneo, each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture, although common distinguishing traits are readily identifiable. Dayak languages are categorised as part of, Javanese people Predomatinely Islam. Some adherents of Kejawen, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, Balinese people The Balinese population of 3.0 million live mostly on the island of Bali, making up 89% of the island's population. There are also significant populations on the island of Lombok, and in the eastern-most regions of Java (eg. the Municipality of Banyuwangi) 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 Islam (Arabic: الإسلام‎ al-’islām, pronounced [ʔislæːm] [note 1]) is a strictly monotheistic religion articulated by the Qur’an, a text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God (Arabic: الله‎, Allāh), and by the Prophet of Islam Muhammad's teachings and normative example (which is called the Sunnah in (7th century), because of Islamic standards for female modesty Standards of modesty are aspects of the culture of a country or people, at a given point in time, and is a measure against which an individual in society may be judged.[citation needed]. However, toplessness was the norm in earlier cultures within Arabia The Arabian Peninsula , Arabia, Arabistan, and the Arabian subcontinent is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia. The area is an important part of the Middle East and plays a critically important geopolitical role because of its vast reserves of oil and natural gas, Egypt Egypt (pronounced /ˈiːdʒɪpt/ ; Arabic: مصر‎ Miṣr, pronounced [misˤɾ] ( listen); Arabic: مِصْر Miṣr [ˈmisˤɾ]; Egyptian Arabic: مَصْر Maṣr [ˈmɑsˤɾ]; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, kīmi; Egyptian: 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 Kemet), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula, Assyria Assyria was a kingdom centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur (Akkadian: 𒀸𒋗𒁺 𐎹 Aššūrāyu; Arabic: أشور Aššûr; Hebrew: אַשּׁוּר Aššûr, Aramaic: ܐܬܘܪ Aṯur. The term and Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and southwestern Iran. Tunisia Tunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic (الجمهورية التونسية‎ al-Jumhūriyya at-Tūnisiyya), is the northernmost country in Africa. It is an Arab country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area is almost 165,000 km², with an estimated population and Egypt Egypt (pronounced /ˈiːdʒɪpt/ ; Arabic: مصر‎ Miṣr, pronounced [misˤɾ] ( listen); Arabic: مِصْر Miṣr [ˈmisˤɾ]; Egyptian Arabic: مَصْر Maṣr [ˈmɑsˤɾ]; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, kīmi; Egyptian: 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 Kemet), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula are an exception among Arabic states, allowing foreign tourists to swim topless on private beaches.^[10]

Cultural and legal attitudes in the West

History

In many European societies between the Renaissance The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historic era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform across Europe, this is a general use of the 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 The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India, from a military caste. They are usually below only the and upper-class women could maintain youthful-looking bosoms by employing wet nurses A wet nurse is a woman hired to breast feed and care for another's child. Wet nurses are hired when the mother is unable or chooses not to nurse the child herself. Wet-nursed children may be known as "milk-siblings", and in some cultures the families are linked by a special relationship of milk kinship. Mothers who nurse each other's to breastfeed their children,^[12] the exposed breast could even be a status symbol A status symbol is a perceived visible, external denotation of one's social position and perceived indicator of economic or social status. Many luxury goods are often considered status symbols. Status symbol is also a sociological term – as part of social and sociological symbolic interactionism – relating to how individuals and groups, 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 Ancient Greece is the civilization belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. At the center of this time period is Classical Greece, which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC, at first under Athenian 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 Charles VII , called the Victorious (French: le Victorieux) or the Well-Served (French: le Bien-Servi), was King of France from 1422 to his death, though he was initially opposed by Henry VI of England, whose Regent, the Duke of Bedford, ruled much of France from Paris, whose gowns in the French court sometimes exposed one or both of her breasts. (Jean Fouquet Jean Fouquet or Jehan Fouquet was the most important French painter of the 15th century, a master of both panel painting and manuscript illumination, and the apparent inventor of the portrait miniature's portrayal of the Virgin Mary Mary, Queen of All Saints Aramaic, Hebrew: מרים, Maryām Miriam; Arabic:مريم, Maryam), usually referred to by Christians as the Virgin Mary or Saint Mary and occasionally Madonna, was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, identified in the New Testament[Mt. 1:16,18–25] [Lk. 1:26–56] [2:1–7] as the mother of Jesus Christ. Muslims 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 Mary II was Queen regnant of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1689 until her death. Mary, a Protestant, came to the thrones following the Glorious Revolution, which resulted in the deposition of her Roman Catholic father, James II and VII. Mary reigned jointly with her husband and first cousin, William III and II, who became the sole ruler of and by Henrietta Maria Henrietta Maria of France ; (25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was the Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I. She was mother of two kings, Charles II and James II and grandmother of two queens and one king, Mary II, William III and Anne of Great Britain as well as paternal aunt of Louis XIV of France, wife of Charles I of England Charles I was the second son of James VI of Scots and I of England. He was King of England, King of Scotland and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles, for whom architect Inigo Jones Inigo Jones is regarded as the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England. He left his mark on London by single buildings, such as the Banqueting House, Whitehall, and in area design for Covent Garden square which became a model for future developments in the West designed a masque The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio . Masque involved music and dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the architectural framing and costumes might be costume that fully revealed both of her breasts.^[13]

From the Victorian Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria' reign and of the moral climate of Great Britain throughout the 19th century in general, which contrasted greatly with the morality of the previous Georgian period. Victorian morality can describe any set of values that espouse sexual restraint, 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 A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and forbidden based on moral judgment and sometimes even religious beliefs. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society. The term comes from the Tongan word tabu, meaning set apart or forbidden, and.

Contemporary view

In contemporary society, the extent to which a woman may expose her breasts depends on social and cultural context. Women's swimsuits A swimsuit, bathing suit, or swimming costume is an item of clothing designed to be worn while participating in water sports and activities such as swimming, water polo, diving, surfing, water skiing, or for any activity in the sun, such as sun bathing. It is also used as an undergarment in sports that require a wetsuit such as waterskiing, scuba 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 Dress code is the unwritten but understood by most members of the society rules of clothing as an aspect of human physical appearance. Clothing like other aspects of human physical appearance has social significance 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 Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finish by the most experienced and capable seamstresses, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques 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

Legally, many Western jurisdictions consider the public display of women's breasts to be indecent exposure. However, the activist topfreedom Topfreedom is a social movement seeking recognition of rights of women and girls to be topless in public where men and boys have that right. Examples of public spaces at which topfreedom might be exercised include beaches, swimming pools and parks, although the principles of the movement admit to no restriction in location. The reason for 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 Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts rather than from a baby bottle or other container. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. Most mothers can breastfeed for six months or more, without the addition of infant formula or solid food.^[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 First documented in the 11th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the beginning of the 15th century and during the 17th century under the reign of Christian IV it became a significant regional centre. With the completion of the transnational Oresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating's Culture and Leisure Committee voted to approve topless bathing by women.^[20] Also in 2008, the city council in Vancouver, British Columbia The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the fifteenth largest metropolitan region in Canada. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada and the second-largest in the Pacific Northwest. In 2009, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,419,974 . The province is currently governed by Premier Gordon, 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 Malmö (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈmalːmøː] ), in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden after Stockholm and Gothenburg, 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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