When the 1992 decision was made, some magazine (maybe the Village Voice?) had a model walk topless down an avenue in Manhattan and asked people on the street what they thought.
I’m perfectly fine with women not walking around topless because a good portion should have clothes on. Same with any nude beaches that may be out there. Most people need to be clothed.
“He said it’s very disturbing, and it’s distracting the cars and it’s dangerous,” Rijcken told the Daily News. “I thought he was joking around but he got angry and asked me for ID.”
Seems to me that cops like this would go a lot farther in harassing topless women.
In New York they have these things called “seasons.”
Yeah. I know. CRAZY. But what are you gonna do, it’s New York.
That’s right, the whole state of New York. I understand that female toplessness is also legal throughout Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Ohio and Texas.
By all means, put the chesters back in Rochester.
I’m with you 100%.
“Women! Do not empower yourself by turning on Nobody!”
Best wishes,
hh
I think that women cover up because even when they ARE covered up, they get hollered at. And told that sexual assault and rape are their fault, for dressing in a sexy manner.
Change men’s behavior, and you’ll find the women are more willing to change theirs.
…and?
Y’know, on second thought, the tourists may be the bigger issue. Regular Noo Yawk people would probably go “meh” and move along but the tourists would probably stop to stare… and get trampled.
Ah, that’s a relief. For a few posts there I was worried that this thread might not derail into SDMB Rape Debate #78,327,916!
And the District of Columbia, where bare-breasted antiwar protests are fairly routine. And then there’s the Dyke March… oh yes. It never fails to occur at the Dyke March.
I’ve been to many such events, and never seen a single catcall or police harassment. The cops in DC are long inured to wild-ass protest marches and are completely blasé about many things more raucous than a few tits. As for the common layabout miscreants who harass women on the streets, I’m talking about events comprising teeming masses of humanity, where safety in numbers comes into effect.
I love NYC but I wouldn’t walk around topless here. At least a few times a year I accidentally brush against a subway train and get a black smudge on my skin or clothes. I end up smooshed against other people to ride the train or the bus or just get through parts of the city a few times a month and it is nice to know that the girls aren’t out and about for that. It is also really hot for part of the summer and very cold through much of the winter. I enjoy the snowy winters very much but they aren’t very nipple friendly and I’m not a fan of the heat, in part because I burn so easily, which is also not a nipple friendly experience.
Humans started wearing clothes for a reason, to protect themselves from the elements and occasional sharp/sticky/etc. things that could damage your skin and cause pain. Those reasons are all still there even though the law says that I technically don’t have to wear a shirt.
Huh. Huh. Nobody said “Pops up.”
Yeah, yeah. 
My point is that every picture I’ve ever seen of New York always seems to be set in the colder seasons. I’ve never seen a pic of people wearing summer clothes, walking around in a bathing suit top or anything. In fact, in a quick google, I rarely even see people wearing shorts.
I’m just proposing that NYC is rarely hot enough that the desire to be cool overrides the desire not to be ogled. I mean, apparently 99°F is a record high temperature for you guys. We’re going to hit two degrees shy of that just this month. And people around here still wear more clothing than you would expect at those temperatures.
Then again, apparently New York does have some nude beaches. So maybe I’m totally off-base.
I’m in Boston which is a tad cooler than New York. We can have sustained temperatures in the high 90s, and summer here goes for about 4 months. We hit 99 last week (or were supposed to, it never did quite get there). And I’ve seen it over 100 a number of times.
During a heat wave, reminding one’s self that in 6 months we’re going to be socked with snow doesn’t really provide relief. And we’re not as used to the heat as you southerners.
If she put her name in the title, would that make her the titular character?
Walking through the Faellenparken in Copenhagen on one nice summer afternoon, all the woman were sunning themselves topless. An American man’s dream come true. After 15 minutes, it all looked the same …
Be careful what you wish for. 
As long as female victims of assault have to justify what they were wearing, and New Yorkers can count on being catcalled while walking the dog in sweats, I can’t imagine how many would want to go topless.
If this is true, I hope that guy was handing out tickets to bare-chested, lycra-clad male cyclists.
When a similar court decision found that it was legal for Canadian women to go topless (the decision was brought down in November, IIRC), an excellent political cartoon featured a parka-clad man and woman digging their car out of a snowdrift, and the woman is explaining, “Yes, but the point is that I could go topless if I wanted to.”