According to the women, the arrest was a symptom of the problem that
they were fighting, which is ignorance about the right of women to bear
their breasts any place that men are allowed to. "We held our picnic as
a celebration and that was why we invited our male friends as well to make
the point that this is really OK and that it feels great to be this way,"
Wloch says. "Having a European background, I have been exposed to a lot
of people being topfree in public spaces. It is just a natural way to be."
Lourdes sees going topfree as a powerful way to help get people to
not see the female breast in a purely sexual light.
"By unveiling our breasts, we are dissolving the tantalizing secrecy
that encourages the rape and objectification of women," she says.
Since the arrest, both women have worked with Signer to put a plan
in place to better educate city officers about public decency laws. The
IPD has already hired a trainer to make the police better aware of a 1992
ruling by the New York State Supreme Court that found it unconstitutional
for women to be prejudiced against in such a way.
The problem, according to Signer, is that officers are referring to
the penal law, which still mandates that women walking around in public
with bare chests is illegal.
"The law is on the books. Even though it was struck down by state court,
the legislature never changed the law. Thus there is some confusion over
what the law is," Signer says.
Wloch believes the picnic, of which there will be another this week,
will inspire more women to embrace their right to not wear tops in public.
"This was kind of an experiment and I now I see more and more women
walking around Ithaca topfree," she says.
One woman who is encouraged by the picnic incident is Kayla Sosnow,
who, while not actually at the picnic, is a major activist with the Topfree
Equal Rights Association.
"The exciting thing about this movement is how women are taking it
upon themselves to fight oppression," says Sosnow, who, herself, served
jail time in Florida for going barechested. "We are allowed to take our
shirts off for men's entertainment at strip clubs, but not for comfort.
That's just wrong."
©Ithaca Times 2002