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Topless Day in Central Park

National Go Topless Day was held over the weekend, and protesters were out in full force in and around Central Park to fight for their rights to be topless in public. Of course, in New York it is legal--in 1992 the NY State Appeals Court ruled that women have the right to go topless, just like men. The Empire State ladies were merely marching in support of the women who get fined, humiliated and arrested around the nation. Some of the picket signs read: "Shame is Lethal, Go Top Free & Be Healthy," "Breasts Are No Longer Indecent in NY," and of course the 'ol standy, "Free Your Breasts, Free Your Mind."

As the founder of GoTopless.org, Rael, put it: "as long as men can be topless, constitutionally women should have the same right, or men should also be forced to wear something hiding their chest." Amen, sister. (You've been warned: these images are NSFW!)

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Comments [rss]

  • Geraldine

    Female breasts have mammary glands to produce milk for babies. Male breasts do not, so this is not about equal rights for equal parts. Seems to me, more like an opportunity to be an exhibitionist.

  • neutral observer
  • neutral observer

    I just threw-up in my mouth of the pic of the Hippie chick with the peace symbol around her neck. aaaaahhhhhh!

    Cover that sh_t up before the park gets covered in vomit due to the sight of you!

  • m@mor

    yeeeeeahhhh boi..????.

  • neutral observer

    I just threw-up in my mouth of the pic of the Hippie chick with the peace symbol around her neck. aaaaahhhhhh!

    Cover that sh_t up before the park gets covered in vomit due to the sight of you!

  • neutral observer

    I just threw-up in my mouth of the pic of the Hippie chick with the peace symbol around her neck. aaaaahhhhhh!

    Cover that sh_t up before the park gets covered in vomit due to the siight of you!

  • felixthecat2
  • JohnTheDesigner

    bleh, does anyone else think that when it's all out in the open, it's not as much fun? i realize now my imagination automatically airbrushes the goods, removes stretch marks, fixes asymmetry, even adds a cup-size.

  • cotrindonato

    Love topfree and topless, because women is equal mens.



    Porn ! is BOMB NUCLEAR, North Coreia, war is more imoral.

    Hitler is IMORAL.



    Women , breasts, is human.

    Love Womens, Love breasts, Love Human.



    I'm Brasilian's MEN. iN pORTUGUESE: TRRANSLATE



    PESSOAL, É O SEGUINTE, PARA QUE A PROVOCAÇÃO DO DECOTE, HOMENS E MULHERES TEM TODO O DIREITO DE TIRAR A CAMISA SEM SER CRIME, AFINAL, SOMOS HUUMANOS, FEIO E IMORAL SÃO AS GUERRAS, A CORRUPÇÃO PELO PODER. SOU ADEPTO QUE SE FOSSEMOS OU DEIXASSEMOS DE HIPÓCRITAS, ANDANDO NÚ NAS CIDADES, ANDA PELADO QUEM QUER, NÃO ÍAMOS TER POBREZA E FOME.



    SOU O MARCELO COTRIN DONATO NO BRASIL.

    cotrindonato@yahoo.com

  • Spirit of 76

    Calm down, people. It's an annual event. Just mark your calendar for next August.

  • Anna_Merkin

    I have nothing to say about this since I did not know about it in advance.

  • lanciano

    Oh my god. These women are scraping the bottom of the oppression barrel. Get lives ladies.

  • robingee

    We do have the right... it's just too much trouble. And I prefer to keep the mystery alive.

  • hubcap

    gross.

  • robertreno

    After all the jokes and rude comments, the real message in this protest is equality. Women should have the right to go shirtless, if they choose to, in every situation a male would. I don't think anyone is really promoting 5th Ave topless walks. But...at the beach, Central Park, bike riding, running, at public swimming pools...everywhere you can remember a man without a shirt... should allow women the same right.



    Most women won't make use of that right, but all should have it. It's simple equality. It's equal protection under the law.



    And, eventually, breasts will be looked at as what they are...just breasts. The only real losers will be the skin mags and movies that will have lost (two?) of their best promotional items.



    The country needs to growup...and let women have the same freedoms men have enjoyed for decades.

  • soopaman

    They have my support! with both hands of course..

  • robingee

    Most dudes that I see w/o a shirt on definitely need to cover their shiznit. Equal rights for me not having to look at your floppy noise.

  • Polite New Yorker

    Follow some links from GoTopless.com and you get this crazy shit:



    http://rael.org/rael_content/index.php

  • Andre

    For Rael! Dude's bonkers. Hey I love tits but don't these chicks have jobs?

  • Polite New Yorker

    I'm all in favor of women being topless, but take a close look at the sign advertising Go Topless Day. It quotes Rael, the "spiritual leader" of the go topless movement. Rael is a cult leader whose followers believe that Earth was created by space aliens, that Jesus was the son of a space alien and a human, and that Rael has visited these aliens on their planet. They claimed to have cloned a human and want to build an embassy in the Middle East so the aliens will visit us again.



    Breasts yes, cults no.

  • malebranche99

    @PTG in nyc,



    Stupid.



    I started to write a long winded rebuttal to your comment but realized 'stupid' says it best.



    For all our sakes I hope none of the 'uber cool' Europeans here in Barcelona read you. You sound like the Taliban. Embarrassing.



    mrguy just might have a point. You do not.



    Grow up.



    Stupid.

  • annieuro

    I also wanted to add that I don't want to look at saggy lumps of crap, hence, saggy boobs. Therefore, we should all keep our shirts on.

  • annieuro

    What would the FCC say? This is an interesting situation though...



    I'm such a prude that I wouldn't do it.

  • Agnostic Farts

    some nice boobies there.

  • citizenerased

    Yeah the one in the middle is evidence that this idea is much better in concept than in reality.



    It still should have definitely been on "Pencil it In" though.

  • Fritzdecat

    Spandex over tits is hotter

  • takethecanoli

    Damn, I'm out of dollar bills.



    I'll just throw out the 'fried egg nailed to a wall' descriptor, since no one else has.

  • aveB4life

    did you see that one in the middle??? i'm the biggest fan of boobs but what the hell are those two drooping jelly bags dangling from her chest?

  • MFer

    Time to combine Walking Street, Walking A-Breast, and Critical Mas into one big ball of an event. Spiritof76 can be the marshal.

  • Future Taliban

    I feel interest in this topic is starting to sag.

  • Peter

    I'll have to say that most of the pictured women did not adhere to the First Rule of Public Nudity:



    Those who do, shouldn't.

  • JenChungsBaby

    Holy fucking shit! I can't believe I didn't know about this!

  • Pull My Finger

    you gotta love tits

  • Barbj8

    Remember ladies, going topless in not mandatory.

  • Future Taliban

    Why is it that only the woman with UGLY breasts are so eager to show them off?. I've seen nicer teats on a German Shepherd.

  • NannyState

    Whatever happened to female flashers? Over the pond, it's "tits out for the lads", but here, we have to endure politics, protesters, police, and, as #17 makes clear, poindexters. For god's sake ladies, open up and show off the boys from time to time. Let them get some fresh air and healthful sunshine.

  • books

    I wish Gothamist could have hipped us to this important protest BEFORE the fact not after

  • Rocknrope

    My question is, do the women of Gothamist support this movement? Jen and Jen, I'm looking in your direction.

  • nohateparade

    @lordnacho



    the lord hath cometh.

  • Kojak

    Whoaa one of them has theirs down past their belly button.



    I fully support this, but THAT woman needs more support!

  • mrguy

    spiritof76- a prude i most certainly am not, and i'm all for women having the right to go topless whenever they want, but i agree with you that there are times and places to exercise your right to be half-naked, some better than others. The beach? Sheep's meadow? the roof of your building? Totally cool. the sidewalk in midtown? outside a grammar school? ground zero? maybe not so great for topless strolling (men and women alike).



    however, from the looks of their promotional material, they certainly seem to have it in their heads that you should be able to hit the mean city streets sans shirt whenever you choose.



    Also, I can't let this slide: i'm surprised that the first thing you'd see on their website page is a rather callous photo comparison suggesting an argument to this effect: "can you believe it's legal for this disgusting fatty to take his shirt off, but not for this hot chick with porn star boobs??". If they want to have a little fun with their campaign, that's fine, but for a group whose purpose is to foster more enlightened thinking about the human body, using a derisive caption under a picture of an overweight man really strikes me as hypocritical.





  • drewo

    I think they should combine this march with this Friday's Critical Mass ride.

  • Sketto

    Great cause! Now, how about a Topless 5K run? I'd bet attendance at that would rival the marathon.

  • lordnacho

    @nohateparade

    You mentioned pancakes, well look close at pic #2, third from left. Get that lady some maple syrup

  • Rfive

    In pic #2, I'll take the porn star in the red glasses and the flat-chested asian hottie. The trucker with the peace sign is why we have shirts.



    No black women? WTF?

  • kapusta

    how cum nobody told me about this!!!!

  • cucarachita

    And I happen to find men's breasts quite stimulating, PTG. So, men, cover up. I don't need my uncontrollable urges riled up. I might end up in jail!

  • cucarachita

    Women have the right to go topless, but you are obligated to black out their breasts in publication? Is this porn? No, it's journalism! Take the black band off! C'mon, Jen! Tear down that black band!

    :)



    It's not porn! It's breasts!

  • berniegoetz

    But do we still get to call them "jugs"?

  • Spirit of 76

    Oh, relax, [17]. They're not arguing that everyone should walk around topless all the time. They just want the option in appropriate circumstances and locations. Right now, women going topless is not a legal option at most beaches around the country, yet men going topless there are not just legal, but normal. Ditto for public parks. I think most people look better with clothes on, especially with the obesity epidemic in full swing, but it's not for me to tell them to cover up at all times.



    You sound like a prude, but at the same time trying to prove you're not a prude by saying it's okay.



    That said, that's a decent couple of pairs in the third picture, although I'm not sure the brunette's are real.

  • PTG in nyc

    So I'm all for equal rights, and if you want to show boobage, then go for it, but let's not forget the fact that female breasts do tend to invoke more sexual feelings and urges and might result in more societal problems than a man's chest. I'm not saying that's the way it has to be, but it's certainly the way it is. If this happens to be a never ending quest to make America like every uber cool beach in Europe, then please stop trying now because that will never happen.



    As for why is that first pic censored, I have a feeling it's so that the NSFW crowd can open the whole post without immediately resulting in boobage on their monitor.

  • Rfive

    whats with the angel wing? are we supposed to think about ravers with no tops?

  • TKaisen

    Pic #3: Sweet Jesus, what's going on there?



    Pic #5: Dude in the polo shirt: fight the good fight, brother.



    Ladies: focus your protesting efforts on something important. There are a lot more important things going on in the world then your right to have your boobs swinging around.

  • mrguy

    also, in pic #4- I always wondered what Sarah Silverman looked like topless.

  • mrguy

    you know what, i'm all for being comfortable with your body, but i certainly don't want to see a guy walking down central park west with his shirt off. i don't care if he's a fat mechanic or a toned athlete, if you're walking down a new york city street, put a damn shirt on.



    And in that spirit, the same goes for all those women. shirts exist for a reason, and it's not to shame you. if you're hot, wear a tank top. but for chrissakes, cover up.

  • ides_of_march

    Some skanks, I mean women, will do anything for attention.

  • Public Relations

    We saw them from out office window.



    Not only breasts, but buttocks should also be de criminalized.





    There really is no need to taboo the Human body.



    But you can't help wondering what that mother in the photo was saying to those two young kids she was escorting to Central Park

  • matty

    I think more women in their early 20s should support this.

  • ur doing it rong

    speak the truth my brother!

  • ides_of_march

    They should have held this event during the Puerto Rican Day parade.

  • HolyDiver

    horror

  • HolyDiver

    "300 lb. hippie woman with elephant sized pancakes sheds her top"



    HAHAHAHAHAHAHA - This could be the top grossing horro film of 2009

  • babyhitler

    gothamist. I am dissapointed that you didn't report this before the event. I would have been there with a lawn chair and a high powered zoom lens.

  • nohateparade

    @ Rach : good point, seriously.



    to all the people who think this is a great idea for all the wrong reasons, i sure hope one day a >300 lb. hippie woman with elephant sized pancakes sheds her top, because it's 90 degrees outside, sits next to you on the subway. that's payback for all the times you think others deserve to see your gross back/back of the arm/neck hair. or nasty talon feet in mandals.

  • Amanda Harletsch

    Boobs are not indecent! what it is, is to be DUMB!

    We are going to hell by enviromental issues...and people find this cause "important"?

  • flynn110

    i really like the one man marching behind them supporting their cause. good for him!

  • HolyDiver

    As soon as the demystification of boobies actually comes about - these broads are gonna be sorry, and lonely.

  • VanessaNYC

    nomnomnom,



    That's what I was thinking!

  • Steven

    I was thinking the same thing Rach! If there was a guy with no shirt it isn't NSFW, but with a women forget about it! Don't let your boss or co workers see you looking at breasts during work!

  • nomnomnom

    I had no idea it was so cold out yesterday!

  • Rach

    Soooo if it's legal on the street why are you blocking the boobs out? Isn't it kind of stupid that boobs are still NSFW?

  • mcc32

    this is a movement i can fully support.

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