# Breasts in the wind **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 16, 2014, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-in-the-wind/678949 "2014-01-16T08:42:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-in-the-wind/678949/41 "2014-01-17T18:04:37Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > I’ll bet that even in Europe there are some social conventions about what one wears in particular places. Of course. It is certainly not acceptable to walk around in the nuddy any-old-where. There are many places where you would be arrested. And Europe is diverse, there are many places that are probably far more conservative than anywhere in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-in-the-wind/678949/42 "2014-01-17T20:45:11Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > And Europe is diverse, there are many places that are probably far more conservative than anywhere in the US. True but you might be surprised! We Americans can be real fuddy-duddies. I remember topless/nude beaches in Australia. You could always spot the American men: we’re the ones staring and drooling. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-in-the-wind/678949/43 "2014-01-18T06:00:02Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > I’ll bet that even in Europe there are some social conventions about what one wears in particular places. The police told me to put my shirt back on when I was in Rome. I’m male, BTW (also, this was before I got too fat to remove my shirt in public without scaring the children). My girlfriend didn’t try taking hers off, I don’t know whether they would have cheered or had her arrested. Or first one, and then the other. She was told to cover her legs before entering St. Peter’s, though, come to think of it. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-in-the-wind/678949/44 "2014-01-18T13:12:02Z")
[quote=“Dangerosa, post:22, topic:678949”] it isn’t just the Swedish Bikini Team running around QUOTE] Don’t forget that this has to be in slow motion:p ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-in-the-wind/678949/45 "2014-01-18T16:16:10Z")
8 years ago I was walking in Las Ramblas in Barcelona (very popular pedestrian street) and I walked into somebody only wearing socks and sandals. I snapped a pretty good picture of someone I believed was not totally well in the head. It turns out that he was a French scholar testing Spanish nudity laws (it’s legal to be naked in public areas). He was not arrested or harassed anywhere. Sometimes people looked annoyed, some curious and some would shout “viva España!”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-in-the-wind/678949/46 "2014-01-18T18:04:19Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > 8 years ago I was walking in Las Ramblas in Barcelona (very popular pedestrian street) and I walked into somebody only wearing socks and sandals. I snapped a pretty good picture of someone I believed was not totally well in the head. It turns out that he was a French scholar testing Spanish nudity laws (it’s legal to be naked in public areas). He was not arrested or harassed anywhere. Sometimes people looked annoyed, some curious and some would shout “viva España!”. 🙂 It’s legal for a woman to be topless in New York as well. But there’s an exception - a woman can’t be topless for commercial purposes. And that probably explains why the photographer made a point of saying he was conducting a “social experiment” and explicitly denied he was doing a photo shoot. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-in-the-wind/678949/47 "2014-01-20T15:46:15Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Yes, that was my point. There’s nothing intrinsically “obscene” about breasts or legs or hair or faces - it’s just a matter of social convention. Social conventions are a real part of human nature. You can point out the illogic of this or that social convention, but social conventions are not logical in a mathematical sort of way, as these criticisms would imply. If succeeded in stamping out one particular “illogical” social convention you would still have any number of others that would remain, or new ones spring up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-in-the-wind/678949.md?page=2)