Topless swimmers make waves in Sweden

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071122/ap_ ... crs5Gek3QF

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A group of Swedish women is making waves by taking their tops off at public swimming pools in a protest against what they call gender-biased rules on swim wear.

About 40 women have joined the network and staged topless protests in at least three cities, said Sanna Ferm, 22, one of the founders of the group called Bara Brost, or Bare Breasts.

"The purpose of the campaign is to start a debate about why women's bodies are sexualized," Ferm said Wednesday.

She said the fact that men can be bare-chested in public swimming pools but not women is "a concrete example of how women have fewer rights than men."

Reactions from other swimmers have ranged from support and encouragement to anger and even indifference, she said.

The network was formed after two women who were swimming topless in a public swimming pool in Uppsala, north of Stockholm, were asked to cover up or leave.

Women can sunbathe topless in the summertime at beaches around Sweden, which is known for its relaxed attitude toward nudity, but they are required to wear tops at public swimming pools.

Inger Groteblad, a manager at the swimming facility in Uppsala, said it was a matter of security.

"We want to make sure that girls don't get subjected to sexual harassment," she was quoted as saying by tabloid Aftonbladet.

The women have filed a complaint against the facility to Sweden's Equal Opportunities Ombudsman.

Sad that these sick bastards get so much attention.. They're just doing it to provoke people, merely pretending to have a complaint.

well, if women were allowed to be topless just as men for a long time, then things would be different, and less sexualized.

I think that nudity in general is unfairly stigmatized - it's not just breasts.

True. However having bottoms is more sanitized in general. But swimming nude should be ok. It doesn't make a difference in that case. Breast don't carry any more disease that the rest of the skin.

True, but people shouldn't be afraid or ashamed of their own bodies.

I agree.

You might have a point there. An acquaintance of mine told me that her college aged son was in Southern Florida for Spring break. After being there a week, he called his mother to complain, "I'm so tired of looking at boobs." Apparently a lot of girls were flashing their goods around, and it quickly got old.

Boy, when I was in college, I never once called my mother to complain about all of the boobies that I saw.

Yeah, first try stopping perverted men from getting a rise from looking at them.

Why do people think that men looking at breasts is perverted? It's natural.

I have no idea. As hartzofspace pointed out, it's only special if you don't see it often, thus causing the problem. Think about some poor African towns. The women there don't wear tops or anything due to the heat, and yet nothing is complained about there. Because it's seen so often (and if you see it when you're a kid your whole life you don't develop the thoughts that Western cultures get) they're just nothing special.

Um, why would a woman even WANT to go shirtless?? I'm a woman, and keeping myself covered is VERY important to me. Not only does keeping myself covered help maintain my dignity as a woman, but it's important to me not to be guilty of making another person sin by the way I dress.

Good point, women should cover up their bodies completely and feel shameful because even bearing a little skin can 'cause lust in a guy, try a Burka. Who cares what the facts are? They're only "facts" after all, like the crazy "fact" that the captial of France is Paris! I'd like to see somebody prove that ! ! lolololololol

Deus........

I agree with you Susy, but I also believe that if women want to do that, they should be able to.

why?

Because it's about freedom of expression/speech, and it has nothing to do with sin. Dignity, yes, but sin? I don't see it as sinning. If women want to do that, and expose what God has given them, then let them. If you remember that in Genesis, that Adam and Eve were both naked and not ashamed of it, course until they ate knowledge and realized it, but that's beside the point...the point is, that women have always had to obey more strict laws on everything since then, and in the middle east, you can get stoned for not having the proper everything if you're a woman, which I find UTTERLY disgusting.

Lust, sexual thoughts/perversions, have nothing to do with it. It's all about natural impulses that we have been surpresing since the Fall.

This thread is useless without pictures!