Thread: 'Topless' protest falls flat in Brazil

'Topless' protest falls flat in Brazil
December 22, 2013


EPA A much-hyped protest for the right to go topless on Rio de Janeiro's beaches has fallen flat. A much-hyped protest for the right to go topless on Rio de Janeiro's beaches has fallen flat as only a handful of women bared their chests for the movement.

More than 100 photojournalists stampeded across the golden sands of Ipanema beach when the first woman took off her bikini top to flout Brazilian law, but just three or four other women joined in.

"A breast isn't dangerous!" said Olga Salon, a 73-year-old Rio native, as she stripped off her black tank top.

"It's a false-Puritanism and indicative of our macho culture that we have a law forbidding that a woman can go topless."


Media members surround a woman as she takes off her top as a protest at Ipanema beach.
Photo: Reuters

Internationally, Brazil has a reputation as a nation of liberal sexual mores, where nudity is not only tolerated but enthusiastically embraced during Carnival parades.

The hundreds of thousands of foreigners who'll descend on Brazil for next year's World Cup and the Olympics two years later will indeed see the famed "dental floss" bikinis that expose the wearer's rear end.

But under Brazil's penal code, which dates back to the 1940s, female toplessness is an "obscene act," punishable by three months to a year in prison, or fines. Even the law's critics admit few are prosecuted.

Women going topless on any of the city's beaches are almost guaranteed to a quick response, both from the patrolling municipal guards and fellow beachgoers.

Saturday's protest is the latest chapter in a debate over just how much skin is too much on Rio's beaches.

Protest organisers told media they were responding to a November incident in which actress Cristina Flores was set upon by municipal guards after she removed her shirt during a photo shoot on Ipanema beach.

au.news.yahoo.com

"A breast isn't dangerous!" said Olga Salon, a 73-year-old Rio native, as she stripped off her black tank top.

She would have been a good advert for covering up.

boo boos get as much attention as a superstar.

Queensland is a nightmare. Bunch of friggin wowsers.

In Sydney you can guarantee on a nice summers day that at least 10% of the women (and I mean the fit young birds) will have their jubblies out.

Friggin QLD is a joke. A fella makes the effort to drag himself down to the beach and lie there. The least the girls could do is put on a modest show.

Even the tourists from interstate seem intimidated into covering up by the lack of a local lead.

Friggin bollocks that is. We need a TV campaign to encourage the tops to come off.

Didn't take you long to get here, Looper...

Just in case folks aren't sure; this is what they are talking about.