Protesters to go topless, advocate for gender equality in Boston Common rally – The Boston Globe
Protesters to go topless, advocate for gender equality in Boston Common rally The Boston Globe
sdgtalks
Shirtless Protesters Advocate for Gender Equality in Boston
Shirtless protesters plan to gather Saturday on Boston Common to make a bold statement about gender norms and equality. The protest aims to challenge the double standard where men in Massachusetts can be topless in public while women cannot.
The activists and their supporters will gather at “The Embrace,” the Martin Luther King Jr. statue, then march around the park to the State House and back. The event is taking place ahead of Women’s Equality Day on Aug. 26, which celebrates the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote and promotes gender equality.
“This is not necessarily about the desire to take our tops off. It’s about the desire to have equal rights under the law,” said Katrina Brees, co-organizer of the protest for the group Equalititty.
Protest Against Oppression and Discrimination
The protest, a collaboration between Brees’s group and GoTopless, will be their first event together in Boston. The organizations are protesting what they call oppression and discrimination.
With an exception for breast-feeding, women who go topless in public can face six months in jail, a $200 fine, or both. Brees gives some credit to Massachusetts for improving its laws. During the 1970s, when her mother was an activist for La Leche League, it was illegal for women to breast-feed in public.
Equalititty and GoTopless are pushing for Massachusetts legislation allowing all genders to go shirtless without restrictions.
In 2022, in the name of body equality, Nantucket residents voted to allow anyone to go topless on island beaches. “Now I may not choose to go topless . . . but I think other people should have that choice,” Dorothy Stover, who proposed the bylaw amendment, said at the Town Meeting.
As of Tuesday, organizers said they expect nearly two dozen participants at the Boston rally. GoTopless hosted events in New York City in 2015 that drew dozens of protesters — and many more gawkers. The group plans to hold GoTopless Day in New York on Aug. 24 at Bryant Park.
Organizers of the Boston protest said the two groups have no plans for extra security or collaboration with police, but say they will comply with any orders if law enforcement intervenes.
The goal of the protest is not about avoiding wearing a top but about challenging society’s expectations of how women should present their bodies in public, Brees said. She also sees some similarities to tactics used during the Civil Rights era.
Rachel Umansky-Castro can be reached at rachel.umanskycastro@globe.com.
Source: bostonglobe.com
