Today's topic is Topless Women! Sorry guys, no pictures included. Instead this is going to focus on the "equality" (or lack thereof) that women have achieved in our society.
I find it amazing that in this day and age, women are still unable to take their shirts off on a public beach, but men can. I've got a word for that: Discrimination.
We aren't talking about the bottom half where men and women are substantially different, but the top half. Men have breasts & women have breasts. Yet one gender can display them openly, while the other gender cannot. And before anyone is ready to jump in saying that there is a size difference, I can point to plenty of obese men on the beach that have far bigger "moobs" than many very attractive ladies have. There is no one that can justify that it is OK to force me to look at French Fry Eating Champion Jimbo Ieatsalot and his bare EE cups with no tan lines, while at the same time saying that I am not allowed to gaze upon Kate Hudson's torso in the same manner.
Why do women not care about this? Have we as a society sexually repressed them to the point where they are just fine with being on the short end of the stick (pun possibly intended)?
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of ladies that I would NOT like to see out on the beach with their tops off. Aretha Franklin can visit the beach and keep all 8 of her bedsheets, I mean her top on. If I wanted to see her nude, I could go watch Free Willy 2. Roseanne Barr can keep her clothes on as well for the benefit of all humanity. We don't need any more lines involving Roseanne and "crotch" in the same sentence ever again. And so on and so forth. But nonetheless, they should have the RIGHT to do so.
Merriam-Webster defines discrimination as: the process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded to differently AND to make a difference in treatment or favor on a basis other than individual merit
Thus, the fact that women are deprived of this same basic right that men are allowed is blatant discrimination. It goes on in every town in America and people just blindly accept it as the norm. In places such as Norway or Denmark, every single beach in the entire country is fully clothing optional (tops and bottoms), yet their countries somehow manage to survive.
And what about on that hot day when Tony Siragusa can be outside mowing his lawn with shirt off, while his wife can't be outside in the exact same yard gardening without wearing clothing drenched in sweat... is that fair?
Women still aren't equal with men in the corporate world either. Of the Fortune 500 companies last year, only 12 are run by women while 488 are run by men. No woman runs a Top 50 company.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/womenceos/
And what about in sports? I'm not talking about the players, but about the big 4 sports that America enjoys. The NBA has had two female referees (now only Violet is left). MLB has 0 female umpires. The NHL has 0 female officials. The NFL has 0 female officials. How is it that the NFL makes such a big deal out of hiring people of color (a tiny fraction of the population), but won't promote having females (half of the population) get jobs on the field or in the executive positions? And before you say that a female would get killed out there, take a look around at some of the 107 year old guys out there calling the games. Heck, the NFL doesn't even have a female holding the yardsticks and flipping the numbers for change of down. Yet when it comes to sexy cheerleaders, they are all for supporting that aspect.
Seriously, how hard is it to hold the yard marker? Can't the NFL make a deal with Victoria's Secret at the very least and get some models out there holding the sticks (pun definitely intended) to boost the ratings? lol
And what about the front office positions? How many women are there in the NFL with high profile positions? The highest profile women in the league currently are Virginia Halas McCaskey (thanks to George Halas) and Denise DeBartolo York (thanks to her brother). I guess a woman is incapable of being a GM as she apparently can't build a SuperBowl Champion, Perenial Playoff Powerhouse, One Time Playoff team, uh... "team" nearly as good as Matt Millen could. Hell, there are some women on this site that could have done better if given that same opportunity as full time job.
Here's a link from ESPN from a few years ago loosely talking about the subject (and we see the NFL try to spin the subject away):
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2196916
Don't get me wrong... I'm not complaining as it doesn't really affect me personally as proud member of the male gender... I'm just pointing out the realities from a different point of view.
We as a society seem fairly complacent that women are where they currently are and that's simply how it is.
In fact, this story happened just several months ago. A female referee was not allowed to work a boy's basketball game because a faith-based school said in essence that they couldn't allow females to exert authority over men:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4305675
In conclusion, the next time you see a guy with his shirt off in public or on network television, ask yourself why women can't do the exact same thing. The next time you see cheerleaders at an NFL game, ask yourself why the NFL is more concerned with race than with promoting women within its ranks. The next time you see an old guy holding the yardsticks, ask yourselves why Tyra Banks or Rebecca Romijn are not holding those instead. :)
As always, I welcome your opinions (hopefully many from the ladies as well)....
Cheers!