Go Topless Day

By Tonia

Did you know that August 25^th is Go Topless Day? Yep. Started in 2007 as an annual event to support (well, without certain support) the right of women to go topless in public. It’s to promote gender equality since men are allowed to go topless. I would go – it’s a summer Sunday and it would be fun to hang out in a park with half naked people - but I hear that attendance is sagging in Oklahoma.

I love a good protest – takes me back to my hippie days. And this seems like a good cause. Isn’t this the Land of the Free? Shouldn’t my Ta-tas go free? And think of the benefits! No more tan lines or wrong-sized bras; Peeping Toms would go out of business; and, if allowed at work, male absenteeism would decrease significantly! But I guess the down side would be that eye contact would become nonexistent.

And, I wonder, if we were allowed to go topless, would we become fashion conscious about our boobs? Would we be trying to turn our breasts into better shapes and colors? Personally, I wouldn’t mind a little perkier. Otherwise I’m good. I’m somewhere between dollar-size and Good-God-Almighty-size.

All kidding aside, Go Topless Day is actually scheduled on the Sunday closest to Women’s Equality Day (Aug 26^th) which celebrates the passing of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. No laughing matter. This was the result of DECADES of effort by women suffragettes. Click HERE to see Bad Romance: Women’s Suffrage, a parody music video paying homage to Alice Paul and the brave women who joined together, protested, went to prison and died so that we would share with men the right to vote.

For this month’s girlfriends’ get together, in honor of Women’s Equality Day, consider a movie night and show Iron Jawed Angels with Hillary Swank and Anjelica Huston – a tribute to the “defiant young activists who took the women's suffrage movement by storm." It’s inspirational.