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The topless protest returns to downtown Boston next week
Co-sponsored by the controversial Raëlian movement, organizers hope the protest helps the cause take off.
The Raëlian movement — co-organizer of next week’s Top Freedom topless protest in Boston — has raised eyebrows over the years for a number of reasons, among them its belief that humanity originated among a race of extraterrestrials called the Elohim. Their logo, which at one point featured interconnected images of a swastika and a Star of David, also probably didn’t do them any favors.
But recently the Raëlians seem to have found a cause that is catching on, namely challenging laws they say discriminate against the female breast. At next Tuesday’s protest — organized in partnership between the Raëlians’ GoTopless movement and the organization Equalititty — organizers say they’ll go topless in the hope that they can “encourage state lawmakers to end the oppression of women’s bodies by the government.”
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“This is not about sexuality, it is about oppression,” said Katrina Brees, founder of Equalititty and a co-organizer of the protest, in a release. “Whether it is the oppression of the female breast or where Rosa Parks has to sit on a bus, Americans must never stop fighting against oppression. Most importantly, the unconstitutional oppression perpetrated by our government upon its own citizens.”
Multiple bills have been filed in the Massachusetts Legislature this year that would allow women to go topless in public. While currently not legal statewide, in the winter of 2022, Nantucket successfully advocated for a bylaw change to allow anyone, regardless of gender, to go topless on beaches on the island.
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Rael, the uni-named founder of GoTopless.org and spiritual leader of the Raëlian movement, commented in the announcement that, “As long as men are allowed to be topless in public, women should have the same constitutional right. Or else, men should have to wear something to hide their chests.”
GOING TOPLESS:
Many Boston.com readers agree on both counts: In a survey conducted to coincide with last year’s protest, 69% said that women should be allowed to go topless wherever men can. (As we noted, though, 85% of those respondents identified themselves as men.) And while only 9% said men should have to cover up just like women do, 61% of the readers who said that identified as women. “Men’s chests aren’t sexualized the same way, but look awful in public without a top on,” noted Randy Sue of Canton at the time.
On Tuesday, organizers are encouraging participants of all genders to go bare-chested. (Although current law forbids women from exposing their breasts while not breastfeeding, police have typically not enforced those regulations during similar events.) Participants who would like to keep their tops on are also welcome, organizers noted.
The protest kicks off on Boston Common at noon on Tuesday, Aug. 26. Participants will gather at The Embrace statue and then make their way along parts of the Freedom Trail to the State House.
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“The grotesquely out of proportion punishment a woman can expect if she attempts to do exactly as a man, child, dog, or public statue [does] should be unacceptable to all Americans,” Brees said. ”Women face jail, fines, and violence. No American should be faced with such inequality and oppression held up by a government threat of total loss of every freedom they have.”
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