Legal for women to go TOPLESS in NY state!
Just today I learned of a woman named Moira Johnston who cheerfully bares her bosom during everyday life all around New York City.
(CNN story linked here: )
Both the way that she doesn’t seem to fit-in (yet?) and the way that I generally want (and would "allow", socially, mentally and morally) her to fit-in really give cause for thought. Clearly this seeming near-intro to female toplessness in New York State is influenced before it got started by the lightning rod for the subject being an attractive 29-year-old who looks especially great in that CNN/Doctor Drew interview. (how is the public reception going to change when it is, say, "Lovey Howell" circa 2014 who is merely "exercising her legal rights" to go topless in public?)
At this point Moira Johnston is ‘famous’ not for standing up for her rights, but for how relatively attractive she looks while so doing. She certainly isn’t ‘wrong’ for taking the stance and being NYC’s answer to the "Naked Guy" on the Cal Berkeley Campus a couple of decades ago. I really admire the photos of her seeming so out-of-place in the mind’s eye against various everyday NYC backdrops. She does indeed give off an overwhelmingly innocent look of semi-disconnect in some of the pictures you can find at this link, and at this link.
The sixth and final photo at one of those links shows Moira from behind, while at least three female onlookers have expressions on their faces for which men are "bashed" all the time. Now I accept that the reasons those women are blatantly interested is the mere shock value of Moira’s efforts, and not, for example, the mere size of Moira’s boobs. In order for female toplessness to catch on there will be a phase of considerable length in which looks and stares like those are commonplace, and then happen less and less as more women join Moira.
Some of Moira’s special appeal lies in the fact that she does play the mental role most suitable to the raising of awareness (of the legality) that she claims to champion. The tireless stopping/posing for photos with curious viewers and the non-sexual-ish nature of her everyday exposure each go a long way toward helping her to seem authentic. Unfortunately it will be many, many years before absolutely nobody wants to gaze/lust/leer at Moira Johnston’s tits, so New York just isn’t getting the full test from her well-meant efforts.
While I’m glad that the law is there, allowing women to go topless in any area/venue that men are allowed to be topless, it is going to take much, much more to change our way of life toward that seeming ‘equality’. Of course there are many, many behaviors allowed by law which are still not very good ideas for those wishing to remain safe and comfortable every day.
The whole exercise serves in a way to draw further attention to, and understanding of the idea that men are draw a great deal toward a woman’s seeming vulnerability than conventional wisdom tends to perceive. Put Moira Johnston in a different setting and she could be covered in necklaces of beads in New Orleans, and being pawed left and right by drunken creeps. Perhaps New Orleans would just about eliminate the sale of Mardi Gras beads if indeed they merely made it "legal" for women to be topless within their city limits. Once again, the subset of women who exercised that would-be legal right would be the younger, more attractive women, who still wouldn’t let society react in full to all of those who could, possibly, ever wish to exercise that new legal right.
Sure, Moira has enjoyable breasts and a pretty face, but it really is the idea that she has taken a seeming risk, and surprised her environment (legal or not legal) which draws the keenest interest from those all around her on New York City streets. Of course it isn’t likely that Moira goes out late at night undressed in that way, nor does she likely stray from well-traveled areas. Hers is a "controlled experiment", but one which would, after lots of time and lots of others joining in, eventually alter the surface of what our society sees as "normal".
I’m sure I’ve written many times in this diary, and in various notes to others here, that to challenge established norms within a relationship is the surest way to spice-up said relationship. It is the society all around her which established those norms, and Moira Johnston is getting the attention because she is among the first to challenge those norms. This works, too, for couples who, for example, are used to routine sex on Tuesday evening and Saturday morning… and who, in addition, plan a quickie during Wednesday lunch hour in the back of a car or even at home. And of course it works with established limits and boundaries where one or both partners agree to step beyond those limits for 15 minutes, two days, or forever. So much of it is related to the pscyhology present in our minds and the long-established normals that we’ve created. To ‘push’ anywhere against those normals is the way to gain attention and/or deeply intrigue your lover(s).
So good for Moira Johnston for causing so many people to think.
You know, here would be an interesting place to debate it—I wonder if there would be outcry if, instead of maintaining her low-key make-up/hair/pants choices, she made a point to look like she was going to dance somewhere topless (outfit/shoe choices, makeup and all)? Would it feel less acceptable then, I wonder?
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Desexualising women’s bodies. Bravo! I find it absurd that breasts exposed naturally, or for their intended purpose of Breastfeeding is found offensive (banned from Facebook) and yet sexualised images of women in bikinis and soft porn lingere shoots are seen everywhere.
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I totally didn’t understand your note…what part wasn’t wrong? 🙂
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OOPS!! (ryn) – thanks! This is why all writers need editors, they are incapable of seeing what they’ve written but rather see what they *think* they’ve written. I even read your note 5 times before I realized the point you were making.
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RYN: I have had a few MILF compliments since I got pregnant – HAHA x
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RYN: LOL. She aint no “occasional” 😛
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Are you a football fan? CFL can totally do it with our lack of teams. It’s not our fault though – we don’t have very many Provinces!
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Firstly, I didn’t link to her diary with intent. I copy and pasted my note. Secondly, she has acted as if the whole ordeal was no “big” deal. Thirdly, I thought of her as a very dear friend and have, as I said in the first note, respected her and would continue to support her decisions about what to do….if she doesn’t want that support then that is fine…
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Ryn: Ida brought up a good point to me.. She lives alone.. Her bf has his own place.. So why does she have porn? Lol maybe I’m just weird or something but I don’t know any other females who buy Hustler or Penthouse… Lol! And now Luther wants to go over to her place again and I’m just like is it going to be as weird as last time? lol
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ryn I have thought some on the topic of “attractive” males and in fact, I think that those that are so called “in my league” based solely on their looks are indeed not trying in any way, they are spoiled and have never had any need to develop character, humor, consideration, empathy or humility, and truly I suspect the worst when I see a man who is physically attractive in the way you might say is”in my league” and while I normally go by the policy of not judging a book by its cover, I do reject the very handsome men out of hand. I almost always go for a man who is more “average” in looks, and usually between 5 to 15 years older than me, I prefer men who are NOT reliant on their looks, but have the substance of a hard work ethic and diligently applied brain power, I don’t think that this category of men is less likely to be humorous. In addition to average looks, I also prefer a man who has not honed his body to chiseled proportions with obsessive gym time, or who wears the most stylish clothing, I find those men UN attractive because it often is the red flag of an underlying lack of character or true substance.
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I was out at a festival today and had hours of opportunity to people watch, noting the vast and wide array of attractive to un-attractive, and found myself wondering if I was actually ending up with partners closer to that narrow range of physical similarity than I thought. Perhaps you are right and I have been completely lacking true objectivity to think I’ve been going for less attractive men with more substance, perhaps the degree they are less attractive is relatively small and leaves them still well within that narrow frat boy range as you say. In general that may be true. With at least a few notable exceptions – I recall being on vacation in Italy and meeting a group of Italians, among which was a man shorter than me, with terrible face full of acne, and hunched posture (turned out he had a degenerative disease which was collapsing his spine and causing skin lesions). At first I ignored him, but then he said something profound, deep and funny, and I suddenly found him to be the only man in the room I wanted to look at, and we had a love affair for the rest of my visit in Italy. Any man with depth and humor CAN overcome his looks with me that way.
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ryn, lol, I often find myself wondering how many of my favorites find the time to write about their busy lives too – they seem so busy and hectic I can’t imagine how they also squeeze in the hour(?) it takes to write about it. I suppose it could seem that way about my life too but I have PLENTY of time spent sitting around wasting and sitting. If I had my druthers and lived my life in perfectharmony with my ideal vision for my life, I would never waste time just sitting for hours surfing the internet or even writing quite as much as I do. First I’d have someone to share it with and most of my time would be doing something with them, and if there was any “down time” that involved sitting, it would be sitting with them reading, or sitting with them on a blanket in a park, or on a bench watching the sunset. Not alone at a computer typing.
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ryn, lol, you do see the world with a different lens 😀 that is very funny
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RYN: Well thank you for your appreciation of my vocab! I agree – there are few things meant to be up there. Douches are not on that list.
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random note, she has super saggy boobs, at least her self confidence is high.
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Well actually I haven’t seen that video! But I will make it a priority to watch when I am home :). I didn’t know that steroids were allowed when he played? Learn something new everyday! And to be honest… this is rather pathetic – I only know who he is from when he was on a VH1 show called the Surreal Life. LAME! Then I met Jzero and found out people were actually fans of him! lol!
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RYN: haha ok ok i watched it! Quite the amazing home run ! I didn’t realize how handsome he was back then. Nowadays his face just looks like an old catchers mitt! Did my horribly attempted pun work its magic on you? I thought long and hard about it ! Yeah and that whole steroids thing… isn’t that just what happened to Lance Armstrong as well? Or was his situation different…
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I think she’s ugly
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