Toplessness

"Topless" redirects here. For the Miles Tredinnick play, see Topless (stage play).

Two Tahitian Women, (1899), by Paul Gauguin

This article deals with topless females. For males, see barechestedness.

Toplessness is the state in which a female has her breasts uncovered, with her areolae and nipples visible, usually in a public space. The adjective topless may refer to a woman who appears, poses, or performs with her breasts exposed (a "topless model"); to an activity or performance that involves exposing the breasts (a "topless dance"); to a graphic, photographic, or filmic depiction of a woman with her breasts uncovered (a "topless photograph"); to a place where female toplessness is tolerated or expected (a "topless beach"); or to a garment designed to reveal the breasts (a "topless swimsuit").

In many societies today, concealment of the breasts, or at least of the nipples and areolae, is a cultural norm of female modesty from adolescence onwards. However, considerable variance has existed in attitudes toward toplessness, both across cultures and through history. The 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, and it continues to be the norm in many indigenous cultures today. Toplessness was also the norm in Sri Lanka and other Asian cultures before Muslim expansion in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In most Middle Eastern countries, toplessness has not been socially accepted since at least the early beginning of Islam (7th century), because of Islamic standards for female modesty. However, toplessness was the norm in earlier cultures within Arabia, Egypt, Assyria and Mesopotamia.

Cultural and legal attitudes in the West

History

Agnès Sorel, who was known to appear topless in the French court, was the model for this Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels, by Jean Fouquet (c.1450)

In many European societies between the Renaissance and the nineteenth century, breast exposure was not necessarily considered overtly risqué, since a woman's bared legs, ankles, or shoulders were considered to be more scandalous than her exposed breasts. In fact, the exposed breast could even be a status symbol: Because aristocratic and upper-class women could maintain youthful-looking bosoms by employing wet nurses to breastfeed their children, they often displayed their breasts as a sign of beauty, wealth, or social position. In addition, the bared breast during this era was seen to invoke associations with the nude sculptures of classical Greece that were exerting a huge influence on art, sculpture, and architecture of the period.

Historians have traced the emergence of breast-baring female fashions to the fifteenth-century courtesan Agnès Sorel, mistress to Charles VII of France, who was known to wear gowns in the French court that exposed one or both of her breasts. (Jean Fouquet's portrayal of the Virgin Mary with her left breast uncovered is believed to have taken Sorel as a model.) Similar fashions were popularized in England during the seventeenth century by Queen Mary II and by Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I of England, for whom architect Inigo Jones designed a masque costume that fully revealed both of her breasts.

From the Victorian era onward, however, social attitudes shifted in the West to mandate the concealment of women's breasts. Contemporary Western societies generally take an unfavorable view of toplessness, with the very term "topless" often carrying the connotation of sexual licentiousness or deliberate defiance of cultural taboos.

Contemporary view

See also: Dress code

In contemporary society, the extent to which a woman may expose her breasts depends on the social and cultural context. Women's swimsuits and bikinis commonly reveal the tops and sides of the breasts and the display of cleavage is considered permissible in many settings, and is even a sign of elegance and sophistication on many formal social occasions. However, it may be prohibited by dress codes in settings such as workplaces and schools, where the non-sexualized display of the female breast may be considered inappropriate. However, showing the nipples or areolae is almost always considered partial nudity, especially when men are present. Women and girls may consider female toplessness (and nudity in general) 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.[1] However, toplessness has come to feature in contemporary haute couture 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 and Latin America.

Legality

See also: topfreedom

Legally, many Western jurisdictions consider the public display of women's breasts to be indecent exposure. However, the activist topfreedom 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. Campaigns promoting the health benefits of breast milk have also convinced many jurisdictions to make exceptions to the law for public breastfeeding. In the United States, for instance, a federal law enacted in 1999 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."

Since many indigenous, non-Western cultures consider it culturally normal for both men and women to go without clothing on their torsos, and since female toplessness can also constitute an important aspect of indigenous cultural celebrations, cross-cultural and legal conflict has taken place on the issue. Such an instance occurred when Australian police banned members of the Papunya community in 2004 from using a public park in the city of Alice Springs to practice a traditional Aboriginal dance that featured topless women.

Topless beaches

File:Finnish girl in Istria.jpg

Finnish woman in Istria

In the mid-1960s, led by movie starlets and models in Cannes and Saint-Tropez, women began to remove their bikini tops while sunbathing on the beaches of the French Riviera. The practice slowly spread to other Western countries, many of which now allow topless sunbathing on some or all of their beaches, either through legal statute or by custom. A topless beach differs from a nude beach or naturist beach in that beach goers of both sexes are required to keep their genital area covered, although females have the option to remove their tops without fearing legal prosecution or official harassment. Women who sunbathe topless do not necessarily consider themselves to be nudists.

Beaches permitting topless swimming and sunbathing are especially common in Europe and Australia, where the practice has mostly become uncontroversial. When Australian researchers conducted an academic study in the mid-1990s, they found that 88 percent of Australian university students, of both genders, considered it socially acceptable for women to remove their tops on public beaches—even though the majority disapproved of women exposing their breasts in other contexts, such as public parks. In the United States, which is generally more disapproving of female toplessness than Europe or Australia, topless sunbathing is permitted at specifically designated beaches such as South Beach in Miami, Florida and Black's Beach in San Diego, California.

Women can find themselves in legal trouble for sunbathing topless in countries with traditionally conservative values. In July 2008, as part of a crackdown on indecent behavior, police in the Muslim city-state of Dubai arrested 79 Western tourists for offenses including topless sunbathing. Multilingual signs have now been erected on Dubai's beaches warning that women who remove their tops can face criminal prosecution and sentences of up to six months' imprisonment. However, topless bathing is permitted at some beaches in tourist cities in Muslim countries like Egypt, specifically Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada, as well as other Red Sea Province cities.

Topless sunbathing is sometimes permitted in contexts other than beaches. Many resort hotels now allow topless sunbathing at their swimming pools, and some cruise ships offer adults-only decks on which women may remove their tops. At the Kenwood Ladies' Bathing Pond in London's Hampstead Heath, the Greater London Council has permitted topless sunbathing and swimming since 1976, although men are not allowed to enter the bathing area.

Arts

Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci (c.1480), by Piero di Cosimo

In many European societies as a result of the Renaissance many artists were strongly influenced by classical Greek styles and culture. As a result, images of nude and semi-nude subjects in many forms proliferated in art and sculpture.

During the Victorian era, French Orientalist painters such as Jean-Léon Gérôme presented an idealized depiction of female toplessness in Muslim harem baths., while Eugène Delacroix, a French romantic artist, invoked images of liberty as a topless woman.

From the mid-nineteenth century onward, there was a shift in social attitudes in the West, especially in the United States, towards the prohibition of the exposure of women's breasts. This has been reflected to a more limited degree in the arts.

Entertainment and media

Joséphine Baker topless

In the 1920s, the Hays Code brought an end to nudity in all its forms, including toplessness, in Hollywood films. Social and official attitudes have eased since those days and women now often appear topless in mainstream cinema, although some prominent actresses have used body doubles instead of exposing their own breasts on film.

However, the French have traditionally been more relaxed with toplessness and they continued to use topless dancers and actresses during the 1910s and beyond in musical theater and cinema. Toplessness as a form of entertainment has survived to this day at the Folies Bergère and the Moulin Rouge.

In many Western cultures today, women are regularly featured topless in magazines, calendars, and other print media. In the United Kingdom, following a tradition established by The Sun in 1970, several mainstream tabloid newspapers feature topless female models on their third page, known as Page Three girls. Although images of topless women are increasingly prevalent in Western magazines and film, images of topless girls under the age of eighteen years are controversial, and are potentially considered child pornography in some jurisdictions. Photographers such as Jock Sturges and Bill Henson, whose work regularly features images of topless adolescent girls, have been prosecuted or been embroiled in controversy because of these depictions. Even insinuated toplessness by minors can cause controversy.

Women are also at times employed in adult-only venues to perform or pose topless in forms of commercial erotic entertainment. Such venues can range from downmarket strip clubs to upmarket cabarets, such as the Moulin Rouge. Topless entertainment may also include competitions such as wet T-shirt contests in which women display their breasts through translucent wet fabric—and may end up removing their T-shirts before the audience.

Female toplessness has also become a feature of carnivals such as Mardi Gras, notably in New Orleans, during which women "flash" (briefly expose) their breasts in return for strings of plastic beads; and Carnaval of Rio de Janeiro where floats occasionally feature topless women.

Gallery

• 
  Liberty Leading the People Eugène Delacroix, 1830, French
• 
  Gérôme, Jean-Léon, 1824–1904, French
• 
  The traditional women's clothing of Southern Ethiopia
• An anti-war demonstration in Washington, 24 September 2005.
  An anti-war demonstration in Washington, 24 September 2005.

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See also

• Sociology of clothing
• Topfreedom
• Breastfeeding
• Naturism (including nudism)
• Handbra