First off I would like to thank Lauren Walter profusely for reminding me why I left Bowling Green and Ohio in general [“Why Bourne shouldn’t have won,” Nov. 8]. She needs to get herself out of the dark ages and join this century!
She claims that the laws preventing women from going topless are to protect them from being exploited (she used my example of “Girls Gone Wild”). She needs to understand that on some level, men and women alike are “exploited,” “sexualized” and “objectified.” With women it’s topless bars, Hooters and Girls Gone Wild, etc. With men it’s establishments like Chip ‘N’ Dale’s and such.
What I want to bring to everybody’s attention is the double standards. Men can do their thing at Chip ‘N’ Dale’s and be sexual objects and then the very next day they can go shirtless in a park with no consequences. Women on the other hand are allowed only to go topless in establishments such as strip clubs or on occasions such as “Girls Gone Wild” coming to town – just as long as men benefit from it. The very same women who take their shirts off for men at strip clubs are cited and fined if they go topless the next day at a park or even in their own backyard if someone sees them.
She called women’s breasts solely for reproduction. If that is the case only babies would be sucking on them and touching them, but that is not the case. Men and lesbians fondle breasts and they are considered sexual erogenous zones – but so are men’s breasts. Yes, breasts. They have breast tissue just like women, only not as much.
I would like to propose a question to Walter and everybody who is offended by female breasts: What do you think nourished you when you were infants? Better yet, how would you feel if every time your crying baby was hungry you were told it was “indecent” to feed him or her? These gender-biased laws don’t “protect” women, all they do is create double standards and sexist laws.
I am going to the Ohio Supreme Court. The ACLU wants to take my case. I will go as far as I can – and if I win, I will be doing a service to all women in Ohio. But if I lose I will make lemonade from lemons. So good-bye all, from Portland, Ore., where it’s legal for women to go topless!
Lorien Bourne is a University alumna. Send responses to her column to [email protected].
