Around April 2022 I read an article in which the German city of Göttingen became the first city in Germany to allow bathers of all genders to swim topless in their public pools at the weekends. It was a trial to run from May 1st through to the end of August and came about in response to a complaint from a person identifying as a man, whom pool staff perceived to be a woman, who was asked to cover their chest. The trial run was announced as a win for gender equality by the authorities.
Ideally there should not be any sort of discrimination when we talk of society. Apart from human beings we don't see discrimination in the nature. We all live on one planet, however there are laws & regulations which differ from place to place. In Afghanistan women aren't allowed even basic education & in UK the women can practice naturism in public. It's north pole & south pole of the planet. Don't know when all these differences will disappear in true sense.
If memory serves, men's and women's swimsuits that caused 'moral panic' for millions of Americans (supposedly) around WWI were comically conservative by the end of WWII. What caused the change and might we learn from it?
Equality is an important attribute of human rights and helps remove the objectification and sexualisation of human anatomy.
The enforcement of equality helps strengthen the effectiveness of laws such as the Bill of Rights Act (1990) in NZ.
Hauraki Naturally have recently written to Auckland council asking them to clarify the accuracy of council guidelines on naturism in council controlled areas. This is based on guidelines which have been sent by the Police Commissioner's Office to all District Commanders for distribution to their respective Police staff. https://www.haurakinaturally.nz/police-guidance
The objective is to ensure park rangers are aware of the laws so that they don’t need to unnecessarily act on complaints of nudity in parks and beaches unless offensive behaviour is involved.
It doesn’t take much effort to stand up for our rights. Stand we must though. It seems this is something naturist organisations haven’t been very effective at.
If they were the situation in NZ and elsewhere that the law doesn’t prohibit nudity would be far more liberal and open than they are at present.
That said if nobody exercises their rights under the law then it’s a moot point. That’s also an issue in NZ where it’s ok to be naked. People, including naturists, don’t quite realise it.
For the entire province of Ontario, Canada, all genders have been equal for a decade or two at municipal pools, beaches, parks etc that anyone can be top less.
Despite this "win" for gender equality many years ago, in,practice 99.9% of females wear tops.
Interestingly, at the same time women advocates objected to shirtless construction workers, and employment standards and training seem to have ended shirtlessness for construction crews. Now a shirtless landscaper stands out as strange. People ogling and calling out has had to adopt a whole 'nother mode of expression, much subtler.
In the last two years as transgenderism has become the cause du jour, proud and showing it has become more common. Our naturist club now has a number of members of mixed gender/bodies. I don't know if this openness has extended to municipal pools yet, but I expect it will. Maybe men in thongs at pools will be the next hurdle to fall.
I constantly hear how "advanced" european counties are regarding sex, nudity etc but I am always a bit surprised when i go to Europe to discover things were more open at home in Canada, for PDA for example, or bathhouse, or gay friendly sidewalk cafes. "Why can't we be more europe" seems to be more and more a tired out lazy cliche.
Thank you for your comments. I can only call things from my own experience, and in New Zealand, it is not uncommon to see men baring their chests on a warm day, even just waking down the street. Women however are not afforded the same freedom.
I was in Europe last August and noted a much more relaxed attitude to body freedom and a much greater acceptance of diversity than we have back in NZ.
I am pleased to see that your community has embraced gender equality so well, and I am glad that trying to be "more Europe" is cliche where you live, but I fear that for much of the rest of the world, the European attitude is something to aspire to.
Perhaps trying to be more Europe is out of date. Maybe we should aim to be more like Ontario.
While the right for all genders to bear their tops should be a given everywhere, I don't believe that it would result in a huge number of people suddenly going topless. There are a number of other social reasons that prevent this, and to be fair, the right to go topless is not a compulsion to do so.
I just hope that the enlightened attitudes of places like Göttingen and Ontario help bring about change for a more equitable society everywhere.
Yeah, that's a problem. Men are pretty much excluded from "Free the Nipple" activism. Limited to quiet moral support because of the "creep" factor.
Ideally there should not be any sort of discrimination when we talk of society. Apart from human beings we don't see discrimination in the nature. We all live on one planet, however there are laws & regulations which differ from place to place. In Afghanistan women aren't allowed even basic education & in UK the women can practice naturism in public. It's north pole & south pole of the planet. Don't know when all these differences will disappear in true sense.
Berlin has now followed "suit" !
If memory serves, men's and women's swimsuits that caused 'moral panic' for millions of Americans (supposedly) around WWI were comically conservative by the end of WWII. What caused the change and might we learn from it?
Equality is an important attribute of human rights and helps remove the objectification and sexualisation of human anatomy.
The enforcement of equality helps strengthen the effectiveness of laws such as the Bill of Rights Act (1990) in NZ.
Hauraki Naturally have recently written to Auckland council asking them to clarify the accuracy of council guidelines on naturism in council controlled areas. This is based on guidelines which have been sent by the Police Commissioner's Office to all District Commanders for distribution to their respective Police staff. https://www.haurakinaturally.nz/police-guidance
The objective is to ensure park rangers are aware of the laws so that they don’t need to unnecessarily act on complaints of nudity in parks and beaches unless offensive behaviour is involved.
It doesn’t take much effort to stand up for our rights. Stand we must though. It seems this is something naturist organisations haven’t been very effective at.
If they were the situation in NZ and elsewhere that the law doesn’t prohibit nudity would be far more liberal and open than they are at present.
That said if nobody exercises their rights under the law then it’s a moot point. That’s also an issue in NZ where it’s ok to be naked. People, including naturists, don’t quite realise it.
Thanks for the link, it is a great resource and a good reminder of the situation here in NZ.
For the entire province of Ontario, Canada, all genders have been equal for a decade or two at municipal pools, beaches, parks etc that anyone can be top less.
Despite this "win" for gender equality many years ago, in,practice 99.9% of females wear tops.
Interestingly, at the same time women advocates objected to shirtless construction workers, and employment standards and training seem to have ended shirtlessness for construction crews. Now a shirtless landscaper stands out as strange. People ogling and calling out has had to adopt a whole 'nother mode of expression, much subtler.
In the last two years as transgenderism has become the cause du jour, proud and showing it has become more common. Our naturist club now has a number of members of mixed gender/bodies. I don't know if this openness has extended to municipal pools yet, but I expect it will. Maybe men in thongs at pools will be the next hurdle to fall.
I constantly hear how "advanced" european counties are regarding sex, nudity etc but I am always a bit surprised when i go to Europe to discover things were more open at home in Canada, for PDA for example, or bathhouse, or gay friendly sidewalk cafes. "Why can't we be more europe" seems to be more and more a tired out lazy cliche.
Thank you for your comments. I can only call things from my own experience, and in New Zealand, it is not uncommon to see men baring their chests on a warm day, even just waking down the street. Women however are not afforded the same freedom.
I was in Europe last August and noted a much more relaxed attitude to body freedom and a much greater acceptance of diversity than we have back in NZ.
I am pleased to see that your community has embraced gender equality so well, and I am glad that trying to be "more Europe" is cliche where you live, but I fear that for much of the rest of the world, the European attitude is something to aspire to.
Perhaps trying to be more Europe is out of date. Maybe we should aim to be more like Ontario.
While the right for all genders to bear their tops should be a given everywhere, I don't believe that it would result in a huge number of people suddenly going topless. There are a number of other social reasons that prevent this, and to be fair, the right to go topless is not a compulsion to do so.
I just hope that the enlightened attitudes of places like Göttingen and Ontario help bring about change for a more equitable society everywhere.
Well said! Would love to see a torrent of other cities follow suit, but not very optimistic.