Laws that discriminate against women on the basis of their anatomy are regressive

Liberal attitudes take a while coming. They have to first swim against the tide of tradition and dogma. One such attitude is the male, ‘friendly paternal’ instinct to decree thatwomen remain chaste and modest. What is worse is the Government borrowing this attitude to justify the need for laws to protect a woman from a man’s gaze. The result, ironically, victimises the woman as the laws declare, for example, that it is a crime for a woman to move topless in public. That simply showshow centuries of struggles later women still have a lot many glass ceilings to conquer. One of them, relating to the woman’s inalienable right to her body and already a movement in the West, is female toplessness. That is women’s next frontier in gender equality in some European countries. Germany cracked it first. Göttingen becomes the first German city to allow bathers to swim topless in public polls over the weekends from May Day. The bathers can be male and female.

The city council’s decision is being hailed as a further step towards gender equality. Some residents are disappointed the liberation is only for weekends. Incidentally, Germany has a popular nudist movement. It is not about sexualising the body but promoting naturism, freeing people from shame, and social inequality and encouraging body culture. However, bans on public nudity and naked swimming led to a decline in nudism. The Gottingen experiment may just revive that culture. It simply tells us that it is as cool for a woman to jump into a pool topless as it is for a man to take off his shirt on a hot summer day. The problem with most of the world is nobody will bat an eyelid upon gazing at a hairy chest, but a woman doing the same thing will drag her to the nearest police station for violating ‘public decency’. One by one, we are revoking outdated traditions that subjected women to a second-grade citizen’s status. Even the armed forces, which are the slowest in amending traditions, currently allow women into their ranks and even give them combat roles. Then why insist on laws that discriminate based on a woman’s anatomy? The principle in question is not about topless bathing but understanding a woman’s right, and need, to cool off in public.