Toplessness

Bare male chests are generally considered acceptable in or around the house; at beaches, swimming pools and sunbathing areas; when exercising outside in hot weather; and in certain outdoor construction work settings.

West Virginia's regulation is very specific and is not likely to be misinterpreted, stating: "[The] display of 'any portion of the cleavage of the human female breast exhibited by a dress, blouse, skirt, leotard, bathing suit, or other wearing apparel [is permitted] provided the areola is not exposed, in whole or in part.

In 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.

[38] Wearing of bikinis and one-piece, breast-covering swimsuits in the Marshall Islands is mainly seen at Western, restricted-access beaches and swimming pools like those at private resorts or on United States government facilities on the Kwajalein Atoll within the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.

[39][40] During the Vietnam War, American GIs encountered the Montagnards, native inhabitants of the Central Highlands, whose women Infantry Lieutenant A.T. Lawrence described "completely uninhibited in their bare-breasted nakedness".

[43] Francis Hall, 1861, described such an encounter: "The screens of the house are wide open to the street for the summer fervors are great and a half dozen women, married as their black teeth denote, are lying face downwards and leaning upon their elbows on the mats.

[45] During the Renaissance, many artists were strongly influenced by classical Greek styles and culture,[46] and images of nude and semi-nude subjects in many forms proliferated in art, sculpture and architecture of the period.

[47] Breast-baring female fashions have been traced to 15th-century courtesan Agnès Sorel, mistress to Charles VII of France, whose gowns in the French court sometimes exposed one or both of her breasts.

Security services and law enforcement agencies may ask women to cover their breasts, usually under § 118 of the Ordnungswidrigkeitengesetz, which forbids vaguely defined "nuisances to public order".

Female toplessness has been officially legalized (in a nonsexual context) in all public beaches and swimming pools throughout the country (unless otherwise specified by region, province or municipality by-laws) on 20 March 2000, when the Supreme Court of Cassation (through sentence No.

[89] The appellate court's decision was binding, but it also created an aura of ambivalence, with topless sunbathing in public declared acceptable only if nobody else including families with children formally objects to it.

[93][94] There are no laws in Spain that officially prohibit public nudity (in a non-sexual context),[95] and because of this, both topless sunbathing and naturism (the latter on a smaller scale) are frequently practiced without any issues in all beaches throughout the country,[96] while the amount of partakers may vary depending on the location and the day.

In February 2023, the cities of Edmonton and Calgary, both in the province of Alberta, changed their policies so that wearing bathing suit tops in city-operated pools was an individual's choice.

[111][112] The only public place in Mexico that officially allows female toplessness is Playa Zipolite (a nude beach located in the state of Oaxaca), where the practice of naturism was legalized in 2016.

That effectively gave females of all ages the right to go topless wherever males can in the jurisdiction of the 10th Circuit (Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma states as well as all counties and cities therein).

[124] The protestors objected against the "objectification" of the female body, and also disapproved the decision made by 20 police officers, who days before, had expelled from a beach located in Necochea 3 women who were topless sunbathing there.

During the famous two-night parades yearly held by 12 samba schools (6 on each day) at the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí, the official policy is that only the genital area cannot be publicly shown (in this case all nude men and women must wear a merkin, which is known in Portuguese as tapa-sexo, roughly translated as "sex cover").

Similarly, the Article 495 says: "Shall be punished with a fine of one monthly tax unit (first paragraph) whoever contravenes the rules that the authority dictates to preserve public order or prevent it from being altered, unless the act constitutes a crime or simple offense".

Women who took part in the movement expressed their desire to turn attention away from the excessive eroticization of the female body in American popular culture to more essential societal needs.

Artifacts such as bowls, rock carvings and sacred statues with breasts have been recorded from 15,000 BC up to late antiquity all across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Even certain male deities representing regeneration and fertility were occasionally depicted with breast-like appendices, such as the river god Hapy who was considered to be responsible for the annual overflowing of the Nile.

[145] Pasties are sometimes worn by erotic dancers or burlesque entertainers to give the impression of toplessness while avoiding prosecution under local public indecency laws which prohibit exposure of the nipple and areolas.

[149] Gernreich's monokini consisted primarily of a brief, close-fitting bottom that "extended from the midriff to the upper thigh"[150] and was "held up by shoestring laces that make a halter around the neck".

[156] Despite the negative reaction of fashion critics and church officials, shoppers purchased about 3000 of his swimsuit design at $24 each that summer, though the only woman reported as having worn it to a beach in the United States was arrested.

[citation needed] Photographers such as Jock Sturges and Bill Henson have been prosecuted or been embroiled in controversy for producing images of topless teen girls as part of their ongoing work.

To remain within the censors' guidelines or community standards of decency and modesty, breasts of actresses in an otherwise topless scene would be covered, especially the nipples and areolas, with their hands (using a "handbra" stance), arms, towel, pasties, some other object, or the angle of the body in relation to the camera.

This is the Hollywood convention which teaches us that brown breasts are not as sinful as white ones, and so while it may be evil to gaze upon a blond Playboy centerfold and feel lust in our hearts, it is educational to watch Polynesian maidens frolicking topless in the surf.

Notable actresses who have appeared topless include Jane Fonda (Coming Home, 1978), Julie Andrews (S.O.B., 1981), Kate Winslet (Titanic, 1997), Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love, 1998), Reese Witherspoon (Twilight, 1998), Rene Russo (The Thomas Crown Affair, 1999), Katie Holmes (The Gift, 2000), and Halle Berry (Swordfish, 2001).

[160] Two weeks later on 22 June 1964, Carol Doda started dancing topless wearing a monokini (designed by Rudi Gernreich) at the Condor Club in San Francisco's North Beach district.

The Ramakien Mural representing the epic lives of the Thai people found at the Wat Phra Kaew Temple depict women wearing only a skirt in public.