August 28 2016 was national ‘Go Topless Day’ in the United States and beyond.

The annual parade was the second of its kind in the United States, which saw women from all walks of life defiantly going bare chested in a bid for gender equality. Protesters gathered in Los Angeles, New York City, New Hampshire, San Francisco and in many other cities sprawled around America. https://twitter.com/SenBAnalyst/status/770237899744960512 Women are going topless to de sexualise their mammary glands and highlight the stark everyday sexism that exists between women and men. Go Topless day is designed to fall on the Sunday closest to Women’s Equality Day in the United States, August 26, which is the very day women earned the right to vote. Speaking to AP, Nadine Gray, President of GoTopless said

“This push for women to go topless in the 21^st century is as strong as women wanting to vote in the 20^th century. It may be sensual, but it’s not illegal to be sensual”

(image courtesy of Go Topless CoMo)

There are only a handful of states in America where it is illegal for women to go topless. These states are Utah, Indiana and Tennessee. There were reports of other GoTopless events happening all around the world in places such as France, Canada, Columbia and Germany. Currently in Ireland, it is illegal for a woman to go topless in public. It falls under public indecency which states that

‘any act in such a way as to offend modesty or cause scandal or injure the morals of the community shall be guilty of an offence under this section’.

This law was put to the test, a few months ago, by one female Free The Nipple protester who decided to go topless at Knockanstockan Festival and was escorted off the premises. There were two arrests made following other women who went topless at the same festival.