Monday, July 23, 2018

GOING TOPLESS

Who likes to go topless children???? Would you believe it was only about some odd 75 years ago the men could finally go topless? The Mistress was shocked himself. Back then had I wanted to run around the lake I'd had to be covered top and bottom.

On social media and in public spaces, there's a fight afoot for the female nipple. #FreetheNipple has become a viral hashtag protesting the inherent sexualization of breasts and bans on images of areola that happen to be attached to female breast tissue. There's even a documentary about it in the works, Men's brief fight to free their own nipples also highlights the disparity in how we perceive these highly gendered bumpy flesh dots. Would you believe it's was only about  since the 40's that American men started going toplessness...before that,  it used to be illegal for men to reveal their nipples and pecs in public, which was true in certain public spaces. But aside from a brief flurry of press attention in the late 1930s, the issue quickly transitioned from hot button to ho-hum.

 The late 1910s many public swimming pools mandated men not wear suits that conformed too closely to their physique, some even requiring short skirts worn over trunks. Good God...the Mistress would have had a fit!!!!! Swimsuit fabric and style quickly evolved in 1920s, introducing tighter two pieces as well as belted and elastic waist briefs, which some men like Hollywood dreamboat Rudolph Valentino wore sans shirt or tank.


Then in the 1940s, male nipples and pec had their heyday. On the silver screen, Olympian Johnny Weissmuller wore nothing but a loincloth in 1932's Tarzan and the Apes.Two years later, Clark Gable impressively sidestepped the Hays Codes with his famous undressing monologue to Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night. Men's undershirt sales even fell after the film's release, though it's unclear whether Gable's inspirational nipples were the cause. I would like to think it was. Hubba Hubba!

Off screen, male swimmers began intentionally flouting Coney Island's coverup rule by going barechested to the beach.

 After a series of fines, a judge overturned New York state's male shirtless bans in 1939. The incident attracted press attention, as Atlantic City and other waterfronts similarly mandated against man-nips. With that legal domino tipped, along with help from Hollywood's hunks, men's barechestedness was here to stay by the late 1940s, save one homophobic exception. Even after New York state lifted its male nipple ban, publicly shirtless men still risked arrest if they were perceived gay. In 1947, for instance, Harvey Milk was among a group of shirtless men arrested for indecent exposure in Central Park, yet the bare-chested married men in the park weren't harassed. Good thing the Mistress wasn't living back then. My summer attire is usually very lax in the summer. At a pool , lake or running I also go topless. This would have had them in fits....

And this for sure would have had them reaching for their smelling salts and powders...
And I would have replied back, in the famous words of Mae West, Those who are easily shocked, should be shocked more often.

50 comments:

  1. oh mistress! you will have all the boyz coming to your yard with pix like these!

    I did not know these facts. around my house it's all naked all the time. a shame we must cover up when going out of the house...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WHAT! Well you better make sure one of your cats doesn't get stuck under one of your jahoobies...you'll never find it, lol,lol,lol

      Delete
    2. but what if one of my pussies gets stuck in my pussy?????

      Delete
    3. Perhaps a do not enter sign?

      Delete
    4. I'm with Anne Marie. When home, I'm always naked.

      Delete
    5. "anne marie in Philly: but what if one of my pussies gets stuck in my pussy?????..."

      I believe that makes you a lesbian...Have you any flannel and Birkenstock?


      Delete
    6. Carebear, you learn from the experience, then look before you sit!

      Delete
    7. Oh Anne Marie...we have to dress. You wouldn't want to see my wrinkles. I look like a balled up old road map.

      Delete
  2. Being all for equality, perhaps we should all go topless..

    Except trump. No one need to see those male tits.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just threw up in my mouth thinking about that!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7/23/2018

      So did I!
      Denis

      Delete
  3. Shit, I got to the last picture, and I now forgot what I was going to say. Damn boy!!!!!!!!!

    Interesting post though, you knew??? But thankful for shirtless men......

    ReplyDelete
  4. you and mae…..always pushing those boundaries. and if we listen closely, we can hear the fabric stretching...….

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hard to believe it was only since then. I guess this country always had hang ups. Great post, and would NOT need smelling salts for the last picture!!!!! Your so adorable.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Let the nipples be free!

    My fave pics in this post are the 1st/3rd and 4th ones, because there's a kid foto bombing each pic! It totally throws off the dignified air these manly men were trying to express.

    It Happened One Night is one of my fave movies ever! Love that iconic hitchhiking scene!

    They've been featuring topless women in art and history since mankind first learned to draw. It's just boobs--beautiful and natural (well there are some enhanced pairs out there), but the point is, everyone has them. And everyone should be free to let them out if they want to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your right about the photo bombing, I hadn't even noticed.

      Delete
  7. Okay, that black and white cutie with the towel draped over his yummy, kissable (presuming here)neck, he would've gotten in trouble over his bare man tits, but not over his man tent. I'm sorry, but even in the ridiculous coveralls, my eyes wouldn't have been going above the waist. Just sayin'.
    You certainly rock the half naked look, Maddie!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Had I live back then I would have been fined every other day!!!!

      Delete
  8. Replies
    1. Next time, Ill use the French tickler on you Norma.

      Delete
  9. I have no issue with topless men in public outside of the norm where to wear shirts, but would like there to be some sort of regulation about the height of jeans and the length of any shirt ( if worn) in proportion to the extent of the flesh such garments are designed to conceal.

    Ass cracks and/ or that horrid sag of pale wobbling blubber betwixt base of shirt and top of waistband on either gender are sights that no one should have to endure..full shirt offiness is far preferable.

    Mistress...you are one svelte minx!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree Agnes, Everytime I see that I think to myself- "Shame they couldn't afford to buy the whole shirt."

      Delete
  10. Being in Ptown I see it all. I'm not afraid of the naked body. I do however dislike seeing beer bellies and sweaty man tits. Especially when I'm in the vicinity of a fudge shop.

    Speaking of packing, we can't wait to see you soon.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hard to believe it was only that long ago men could express themselves. These puritans and killjoys should never venture to your house, they would pass out. But you can show me all you want!!!!!! That last one.YUM.

    ReplyDelete
  12. And we at the Raven thank-you for your always scant clad visits.

    We really are far behind our European counter parts.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I loved this post! Very interesting. I especially loved the visual aids below. Those are pretty sexy! I also shared your post with my friend in France. He loved you, but said-

    Mais ils sont complètement cons ces Americans!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here we go again...TRANSLATOR!!!!!!!

      Delete
  14. I am vary fair skinned - a legacy of my hot blooded ancestry - so, I tend not to do the shirtless thing because I don't tan. I just burn quickly and then peel - not pretty sight. nOW it I looked like you.....

    ReplyDelete
  15. Even though I enjoy that sexy underwear and bulge, hell, you can go bottomless too.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Funny how we don't think of men shitless as odd, but if people saw a woman topless all hell breaks loose. Is it because we view their breast as sex organs over the male pecs? My pecs are defiantly sex organs as if played with correct turns me on like no ones business. Like your pictures for example.

    Is it 8'o clock there??????

    ReplyDelete
  17. Still, some of those onesies the men used to wear left very little to the imagination about what was lurking "downstairs."

    ReplyDelete
  18. The body is a wonderful thing, let it all hang out.

    ReplyDelete
  19. You should start a bottomless campaign! I have many photos of my grandfather on Coney Island Beach in the 1920s. He and his friends look like those athletes you pictured. I agree with free-the-nipple. Living on the beach, I've been appalled that woman have to cover up on the paseo while men with bigger breasts -- and nipples -- do not!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Nice trip backward in time when things were so...well, backward. Now, we fight about nude beaches. In Vegas, "European" pools at a couple of the hotels allow women to go topless, but men must still wear trunks. Sadly, the only gay hotel where clothing was optional at the pool closed - not enough business to keep them open.

    ReplyDelete
  21. This doesn't surprise me. We have always been backwards. But what amazes me is you looking like that for not working out and eating like a pig. It's unfair I say.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Odd that women can now show so much of their breasts EXCEPT their nipples, yet men, with decidedly smaller breasts, can show them.

    ReplyDelete
  23. It's not illegal for a woman to go topless in Canada, if men are topless in an area such as a beach, then women can also be topless. They usually don't but if charged the case will automatically be thrown out. For years and years I was in therapy over viewing a parade float of rather large husky lesbians bouncing up and down to dance music during a pride parade, oh the horror... the horror!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steven, tsk tsk. Big bouncy lesbians can't be any worse than big bellied bears prancing around in barely there thongs! Don't be sexist. Big bouncy freedom for all!

      Delete
    2. Female boobies actually fascinate me to no end.

      Delete
  24. How much for the guy in the center? In the full piece? The one quietly bragging about his endowment

    ReplyDelete
  25. No way I could have lived back then, I like showing skin or being naked. Meanwhile is it wrong I want to peel those small briefs down???

    ReplyDelete
  26. We've come a long ways, baby and still have miles to go. I would have loved to go back in time just to strip down to sunbathe in the nude, just to see some jaws drop. These days I'm afraid the only thing that would drop is my saggy breasts. OUCH! That was harsh!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Wait.....you own clothes beside underwae?

    ReplyDelete
  28. THAT'S what you have been hiding under your clothes???? Yoswsa!!! Your sexy!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Dame dude.....those stripes are bulging!!!!Interesting post. Who knew it has not been that long really since guy could go topless?

    ReplyDelete

Go ahead darling, tell me something fabulous!