I know what I’d rather be on a hot day.
Making women wear clothing for religious/cultural reasons is something most John Gormley listeners critcise, but only if those women are in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan and it’s Islamic garb. If they are Westerners/Christians in Toronto or Regina, then those women had better follow customs and laws of decency!
The commenters on John’s facebook wall had me writhing in smug superiority. The spelling mistakes were amusing me to death, and the hypocrisy was delicious. I’ve highlighted some of my favourite mistakes and comments in the edited thread below.
John Gormley Live:
On now, yesterday women stormed Toronto topless after their request to do so in a park was turned down. Should women be allowed to go topless in public?
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Chelsee Blackett: I’m all for womens rights, but I don’t get the point? I’m a woman and would hate drawing that kind of attention to myself taking my toddler for a walk or grocery shopping… It kind of confuses me that its important enough to some women to fight for it.
Saskboy K. I’m disappointed by many of the comments here. They are extremely conservative, and some are contradictory.
It’ legal in Ontario for women to be topless in public, but not in SK yet, we’re quite behind the times in some ways. This isn’t the 1920s people.
Women are not “sluts” for going topless like men, quit being so sexist.
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Joel Gibson: what about the children? don’t people care if their young children see older women topless? young kids shouldn’t be exposed to that kind of stuff. And what about perverts? wouldn’t there be more sexually related crimes against women out in public?
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Gerry Teigrob: Dave what values did u grow up? Behind the barn. If I am a mess so is the church I attend. Do u attend a church? I do. And I do my best to live what I believe ans I know some will take offense but that’s what I believe and only the Bible can change me! Deal with that!
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Linda Sopp: I actually think it’s not a good idea. […] It makes me feel uncomfortable and awkward.
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Joe Lockhart: We don’t have more important issues on our plate? Walk naked for all I care. :)
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Les Hildebrandt Well i am all for rights and freedoms on an equal basis….But there has to be a line that separates us from the animals. For man or woman to go topless or expose there neither regions only invites our true animal instincts to come out. May it just be looks, jeers, or even actions…Then watch them cry out some one looked me the wrong way or said a rude remark….How can u stop our natural instincts when they appear naked and not expect some action on a primal basis to come out of us ! TIME TO STAY OUT OF THE TREES WE CLIMBED DOWN FROM AND NOT GO BACK TO THE ANIMALS WE EVOLVED FROM
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April Klein: okay I’m going to be serious here. I only liked this page because i think most of you have something wrong with you. I am only commenting because I think most of you have to be from the stone age, but then again women went topless in the stone age so…yeah… We are all brought into this world naked, we get naked to have a shower, get naked to cool off, you can perform and do everything naked you can do with clothes on. Why should clothes be required? Why do you think evolution supposed to be moving us towards more clothes rather than less (which is sort of not true if you look at what people are wearing now-a-days) people already seem to be wearing less and less.
Why not go topless? Why would that gross out children? probably because children are shaped by us. by adults, if you think its gross then they will too. If you can get your small heads out of the sand and see that its society that makes you “Think” that topless is wrong.
For all you christians out there, if god created Adam and Eve and they let it “all hang out” why would you disagree?
I think its very rude for people to judge others on their looks. If more people went around topless and EVERYONE bared all maybe because you can be seen the same as the others perhaps there would be less people making fun of others. I think that just because you yourself wouldnt go topless dont judge those who do.
We are women, why hide it? why deny the fact we are ALL beautiful the way we are? why cover up when there is NOTHING wrong with how we look.
Also there are many different cultures throughout the world that their women go topless and they are the most respected people. So if anyone says that it wouldn’t work then why does it already in tribes in africa?
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Christopher Lee Beaven: Well they grow up with it in Africa and in those tribes they all do it it’s part of their culture, not ours.. The male in me says go for it! But it’s really not a good idea.. Are sexual assaults not high enough already? Why the need to go topless? Does having on a top cause harm? No? I thought not.. But why stop there let’s just make being nude in public legal to be fair.
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Saskboy K.: Christopher, it’s ludicrous to think that clothing prevents sexual assaults today, haven’t you seen the news? Fully clothed women are attacked all the time – level/style of dress is NOT an excuse for an attacker.
The only thing that can prevent people being uncomfortable at how others appear is to improve education and socialization among those who are uncomfortable. It’s possible to change our culture to be more accepting of women behaving and dressing as a man can/does. Many of the commenters here are already as old fashioned and out of touch as most 90 year olds, and will be regarded as such by the coming generations, not to mention peers in mine.
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff 
So, I can assume that the men commenting against women going topless are themselves unable to control their base impulses? Unable to control themselves, they set about controlling those around them.
I love the concern trolling about sexual assault. Michael Coren was railing about this back when the topless law in Ontario was being debated, and he was adamant that sexual assaults would rise the moment toplessness was confirmed to be legal.
It… didn’t happen, to say the least. I would go see what he’s saying about this issue, but the idea of visiting the intellectual cesspool from which he writes isn’t that appealing to me.
I enjoyed a later comment by someone else who noticed that those least able to spell were in support of banning toplessness. The one guy saying that only the Bible could change him, was priceless too.
The sad truth… I talked to a man who was on jury duty because a young woman had been running down the street naked, when a family man saw her through his window, chased her down, and raped her. (in Saskatchewan sometime in the past 10-25 years)
HE WAS FOUND NOT GUILTY because the woman couldn’t explain why she was running naked…. The legal precadent here is scary.
I was pretty sure the law in Saskatchewan is ‘anywhere a man is allowed topless, so is a woman’ …
That is an upsetting story.
Unfortunately the law hasn’t been updated in SK, although an effort was made in the 1990s by some women, once the ruling in Ontario had been settled that it was legal for women to be topless wherever men can be.
Anywhere it’s legal for men to be topfree (or topless, whichever word you choose to use) should also be legal for women to be the same way. I see absolutely no reason why women must wear tops (except at topless/topfree beaches) while men don’t have to. I think it’s sexist and degrading to have laws that ban women from being topfree while allowing men to do just that. The problem is so many people associate female breasts as sex objects and not as natural parts of the human body that they really are. And so, they say “uh-oh…female breasts are sex objects…gotta make them illegal in public…and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” I say bulls**t to that kind of thinking. Either both men and women can be topfree or they both must wear tops. I refuse to play this sexist game. Thank you.