Double standards and modesty

One thing that I object to is double standards. In a previous entry I mentioned the one in the Middle East where adulteresses are judged by a different standard than adulterers. Another double standard here in America involves unequal modesty laws and taboos. Why is it acceptable for men and boys to go shirtless in public places but unacceptable for women and girls to go topless in the same places? I’m not saying that they should, just that there is an illogical and arbitrary double standard involved. On European beaches, in Africa, South America, the Pacific Islands and Australia this double standard doesn’t exist to the degree that it does here but in the U.S.A and possibly Canada it does exist. I do believe that for sanitary and hygienic reasons genitelia and buttocks should be covered in public places but there is generally no such concern about nipples. I have heard several defenses for this double standard and all of them fall short: Some say that if women went topless in public then men would burn with lust for them. Fair enough, but when men go nude from the waist up women, girls and homosexuals are turned on by it. Some say that if girls went topless in public child molesters would target them but when boys do it they are targeted by predators as well. I am just saying that the same standards of modesty should apply to all citizens regardless of age or gender. I never take off my shirt in public because I am naturally modest, I am saving my body (such as it is) for my future wife, and I don’t want deviants looking at me that way. I also refrain from going shirtless to protest our society’s irrational and arbitrary taboo against topless teats and bare bosoms on females. There is a movement called the “Topfreedom” movement which seeks to change laws so that women and girls could go topless anyplace that men and boys are permitted to, such as beaches, swimming pools and public parks. However they only want equality, they are NOT asking for females to be allowed to go topless where males are not allowed to either such as the workplace, most businesses or houses of worship. I really don’t care to see male nipples in public though they don’t gross me out like genitals or butts do, plus I can admire a woman’s body without desiring it, so whether it goes one way or the other I do believe that we should abolish the double standard and make laws concerning public modesty apply equally to all of us of both genders and all ages. Admittedly I don’t relish the thought of a wrinkled up old woman going topless where people could see her yet I’ve seen old men shed their shirts outdoors and that wasn’t a pleasant experience either. (Have you ever had the desire to scrub your eyeballs?) There are times when I wish that my brain had a “delete” button.