Some two dozen topless women protested in a New York City park on a hot, sweaty Sunday as part of what they called "National Go-Topless Day" to draw attention to inequality in topless rights between men and women.
There were topless men in the park, too, but nobody paid them much attention, a disparity, organizers said, that demonstrated the need for the event.
The topless women drew crowds of onlookers who took pictures and video with their cell phones.
"We say there is nothing wrong with the female nipple," Karen Heaven, an organizer of the event, told the crowd that quickly formed around her in Manhattan's Bryant Park. She was wearing white pants and not much else besides a purse over her shoulder. "My dog has six, I have two, but I can be put in jail for showing my nipples. It's 2012 -- what are we thinking?"
It is legal for women to go topless in public in New York City but laws vary widely across the United States. Heaven and her colleagues say discrimination is unconstitutional and they want full equality.
Similar protests were scheduled in about 30 US cities and 10 around the world, organizers said.
The annual Go-Topless Day was established in 2007 by a former sports car journalist called Rael, who founded a religion called the Raelian Movement after he said he was visited by a space alien in a French volcano park who told him life on Earth was created by extraterrestrial scientists, according to an account on his website.
Occasional references to alien creators did not seem to register with the crowd, which focused mostly on the breasts.
"I'll show these to a few friends and then delete them after a few days," Rudy Sison, a New Yorker who happened to visit the park on Sunday, said as he thumbed through photographs and video he had just taken on his phone. "They're topless."
Several women waved signs saying: "Equal Topless Rights For All."
After the speeches, a guitarist led the crowd in a reworking of The Beatles' song "Let It Be."
"Let 'em breathe," people sang. "Let 'em breathe."
(Read by CJ Henderson. CJ Henderson is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)
(Agencies)在熱得讓人直冒汗的周日這天,四十多個裸露胸部的女性在紐約的一個公園宣傳“全國裸胸日”,抗議裸胸權利方面的男女不平等。
組織者稱,在公園里也有裸露上身的男性,但幾乎沒人注意他們,這種不平等表明有必要開展這一抗議活動。
這些裸胸女吸引了一大群圍觀者,他們用手機給這些裸胸女拍照、拍視頻。
在曼哈頓的布賴恩特公園,該活動的一位組織者凱倫•海芬告訴她身邊迅速聚集起來的人群說:“我們覺得女人的乳頭并沒有錯。”她全身只穿著一條白色的褲子,上身一絲不掛,除了肩上背著的手提包。她告訴大家:“我的狗有六個乳頭,我有兩個,但是我展示自己的乳頭卻要被關進監(jiān)獄?,F(xiàn)在已經(jīng)是2012年了 ——人們都在想些什么呀?”
在紐約市,女性在公共場合裸胸是合法的,但是在全美各地,關于裸胸的法規(guī)卻有很大差異。海芬和她的同事說,這種歧視是違反憲法的,她們想要完全的平等。
組織者稱,同樣的抗議計劃在30個美國城市及世界各地的10個城市進行。
一年一度的裸胸日是2007年由一個名叫雷爾的人設立的。雷爾曾經(jīng)是一名賽車記者,他創(chuàng)建了一個名為“雷爾運動”的宗教組織。根據(jù)他網(wǎng)站上的描述,他在一個法國火山公園遭遇過外星人,那個外星人告訴他地球上的生命是由外星球的科學家創(chuàng)造的。在那之后他就創(chuàng)辦了這一宗教。
活動過程中會不時提到外星人造物主,但是圍觀人群似乎并沒聽進去,他們的注意力主要都集中在乳房上了。
一位碰巧周日到這個公園游玩的紐約人魯?shù)?bull;希森一邊瀏覽自己手機拍下的照片和視頻,一邊說:“我會把這些照片和視頻給幾個朋友看看,然后過幾天把它們刪掉。她們都袒胸露乳耶!”
幾名揮舞告示牌的女性說道:“所有人都應享有平等的裸胸權。”
在演講結束后,一名吉他手帶領眾人即興改編演唱甲殼蟲樂隊的歌曲《順其自然》。
“讓它們呼吸,”人們唱道,“讓它們呼吸。”