Activists paraded shirtless through the streets of New York on Saturday, flashing their chests to celebrate the 10th annual GoTopless Day Parade. Walking to the beat of drums in a carnival-style atmosphere, dozens of men and women embarked on one-mile (1.6-kilometer) march from Columbus Circle to Bryant Park for the event, which this year falls on Women’s Equality Day.Participants of all shapes and sizes held up placards proclaiming “Equal Topless Rights For All” and “War Is Obscene, Not My Nipples, Meditate 4 Peace Topless.”
“I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” said Rebecca Barwick,
35, who traveled up from Virginia and works in the federal government.“It’s
important to send a message. These are our bodies. They should not be policed
any other way than men’s. Men walk around like this all the time, so why is it
such a big deal?”
Many inked “Go Topless” across their chests and wore hair
bands with breasts popping up from the scalp on springs. One woman wore a blue
Wonder Woman cape, and a couple of men wore bras.Heavily out-numbered by
spectators, the march was organised by US-based rights group GoTopless, which
has spent 10 years campaigning for women to be able to go shirtless.
It is already legal for women to bare their breasts in
public in New York, America’s fourth most populous state.Parallel events were
scheduled in other US cities, which this year fell on the 97th anniversary of
Women’s Equality Day, when American women were given the right to vote. (AFP)
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