Nudity and protest
Some opponents of any public nudity claim that it is indecent, especially when it can be viewed by children; while others argue that it is a legitimate form of expression covered by the right to free speech.
For example, on July 19, 2020, a young woman wearing only a face mask and stocking cap, later dubbed "Naked Athena" by reporters, confronted police in Portland, Oregon, during George Floyd protests.
[5] On 29 June 2016, Cambridge academic, Victoria Bateman walked into a meeting of the Faculty of Economics while naked in protest against the results of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.
[6] Two "Topless Disturbance" protests took place on Canada's Parliament Hill against the proposed (and then finalized) Canada-US Free Trade Agreement, in 1987 and 1988.
The women claimed bouncers, armed with pangas and firearms, stormed the meeting and stopped them from participating in the voting process to elect the new branch committee.
[16] To demand fuller implementation of the United States legislation Title IX, the 1976 Yale University women's rowing team held a naked protest.
Pointing attention to their inadequate training facilities were more than a dozen team members, including Christine Ernst, Anne Warner and Ginny Gilder.
[17][18][19][20][21] In November 2011, a transgender woman from Morristown, Tennessee was arrested and jailed for 21 days for indecent exposure after removing her top in the parking lot of her local department of motor vehicles after they refused to alter the gender designation on her driver's license from male to female.
[24] Following the Arab Spring in the early 2010s, women in Islamic counties made personal protests opposing the restrictions on their freedom by posting nude photographs of themselves on the internet.
Aliaa Magda Elmahdy an Egyptian and Amina Tyler from Tunisia fled to Europe to escape legal and religious threats.
On 8 February 2017, artist Rick Gibson walked naked in front of the Vancouver Law Courts in the middle of winter to protest Canada's ban of genetic engineering of the human genome.
Activist Daniel Johnson believes that labels and affiliations overly complicate a relatively simple phenomenon, alienate others from a fear of over-commitment or undesirable stereotypes, and thus get in the way of integrating nudity into everyday life.
Since 1996 Critical Tits has been hosting a "raucous topless bicycle joyride" on Friday afternoon at the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada.
[51] In 1969, in Denmark, 300 individuals participated in a naked "wade-in" at a Danish beach, which helped push forward a reform of public policy.
[citation needed] It is now allowable to be naked at any public beach in Denmark with only two major exceptions: Holmsland Klit and Hennestrand.
[52] In July 2016, Carina Fitzpatrick, a female concert-goer at the KnockanStockan music festival in County Wicklow, Ireland, was arrested for revealing her breasts at the concert in an attempt to highlight the inequality between men being able to go topless during outdoor summer events whereas women can not.
"[64] Gerald Ganglbauer convened Free Beach Action NSW, a lobby group for naturism in New South Wales.
He authored the book Robbert Broekstra's Nude World[66] and his group appeared in "Naked Travels 1", by Charles MacFarland.
Vincent Bethell made legal history[68][69] in January 2001 by being the first defendant to stand trial naked in a UK court.
[70][71] Stephen Gough, also known as "Steve Gough" and "the naked rambler", is an activist from Eastleigh, Hampshire, famous for walking the length of Great Britain from Land's End to John o' Groats in 2003–2004 and again in 2005–2006 (that year accompanied by his girlfriend Melanie Roberts), with nothing on except boots, socks, rucksack and sometimes a hat.
Collins has been arrested numerous times and released, although he was convicted of an offence under section 5, Public Order Act 1986, in Bournemouth, England, on 13 June 2011 after his nude cycling attracted complaints approximately 12 months earlier.
