Right to go shirtless/topless in public?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This is something people make a far bigger deal about than it is. It's actually not illegal in most places in the US for women to be topless in public.



(Also Minnesota should be light blue as well.)

It's actually been legal in all of Canada for almost 30 years because of a Canadian Supreme Court decision...and guess how often women are seen topless in public in Canada. It also seems the majority of Canadians aren't even aware of this.

So it's almost entirely a social expectations thing than a legal thing.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This is something people make a far bigger deal about than it is. It's actually not illegal in most places in the US for women to be topless in public.

It's actually been legal in all of Canada for almost 30 years because of a Canadian Supreme Court decision...and guess how often women are seen topless in public in Canada. It also seems the majority of Canadians aren't even aware of this.

So it's almost entirely a social expectations thing than a legal thing.

it's the same with underage drinking laws, it's legal in most states (if done with parents) or cousin marriage (legal in half the states to marry your first cousin, legal in all to marry second cousin)

True, but that's not really the issue here, 18-20 year olds often live away from their parents and plenty of scenarios where they thus can't drink that seem really unfair, and I'm not talking about raging college keggers but a 20-year old wanting to have a beer while watching football on a Sunday afternoon like is such a common thing. Although to be fair the odds of a 20-year old having a beer while watching football at home being caught and charged is near zero.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Men are just naturally far more sexually aroused by seeing a woman’s bare breasts than women are by seeing a man’s chest. That’s why women going topless is far more discouraged

If women regularly went topless then men would be desensitized to it and it would be no more sexual than a topless man. 

Women walk around in public barefoot all the time so no.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

At least public breastfeeding should be permited.

This is universally legal in the United States. All 50 states and DC have laws protecting it, the last state to pass one was Idaho in 2018: https://www.ncsl.org/health/breastfeeding-state-laws

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This is something people make a far bigger deal about than it is. It's actually not illegal in most places in the US for women to be topless in public.



(Also Minnesota should be light blue as well.)

It's actually been legal in all of Canada for almost 30 years because of a Canadian Supreme Court decision...and guess how often women are seen topless in public in Canada. It also seems the majority of Canadians aren't even aware of this.

So it's almost entirely a social expectations thing than a legal thing.

I find it interesting how little correlation this map has with evangelical populations or whether a state is red or blue.

Probably because in mainstream politics it’s a non-issue; many of these laws were likely enacted 50 or 100+ years ago and no one has bothered to change them.

Some of it also probably has to do with court decisions that nobody bothered to punt up to SCOTUS, since women do sue about this occasionally even though it's not a high-salience issue. I think Utah is in yellow rather than dark red because of a Tenth Circuit decision, for instance.

On that note I was slightly incorrect about Canada, the 1991 decision came from the Canadian Court of Appeal (they apparently only have one), and never reached the Supreme Court of Canada. So if any province or municipality wanted to challenge this to the Supreme Court of Canada, they could in theory, but it's such a minor low-salience issue this has not occurred in the 30+ years.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Also the most surprising thing about that map in my opinion is the maroon color of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as I was under the impression the culture in both the Caribbean and Latin America was far more relaxed about this. Maybe there's an exemption for beaches or something.