When I headed down to Miami this past weekend for a last-minute summer getaway, I figured that an afternoon at South Beach would provide for some excellent people watching.   There’s something about the smoldering heat, vibrant culture, and crazy cast of characters that combines to make the city a “see-and-be-seen” kind of place.  But when I stepped out onto the beach, armed with flip-flops, sunglasses, and SPF 500000, my eyes were met with a little more than I had counted on seeing: breasts.  Tan boobs, small boobs, round boobs, wrinkly boobs – they were dotted along the beach on full display, perched atop happily sunbathing women whose relaxed posture seemed to suggest that topless sunbathing was the most natural thing in the world.  For me, however, it required some further thought.

“Can they just do that?”  I whispered to my boyfriend, a Florida native, as we lay down our towels between other partially-clad sunbathers.

“Sure,” he shrugged, “why not?  People do it here all the time.”  And then, with a little smirk, “You could do it too.”

Could I?  Of course I could, but another question loomed larger in my mind:  Would I?  And if not, why?  I certainly don’t consider myself an adherent of extreme modesty, and my tiny blue bikini was evidence of my comfort with bearing skin to the world.  Furthermore, it was hot, and the idea of exposing more skin to the cool ocean breeze seemed pretty tempting under the mid-July sun.  But although my hand drifted up several times to the string around my neck, I never quite got up the nerve to untie the knot and bare my breasts to the beach.

Why?  This question danced in my head as I lay (quite happily, I might add) on the warm sand and listened to the pounding of the waves.  What is it about women’s breasts that elicits such intense emotional reactions in America?  It seems that most women are unsatisfied with the pair they’ve got, and most men are satisfied to be within 20 ft of just about any pair at all.  Men go topless all the time, displaying their chests (fit, flabby, and everything in between) without a second thought.  But when women do the same, they risk ridicule and unwanted attention, and in many cases even arrest for “indecent exposure.”  Indecent?  Really?  When did the upper ventral regions of our torsos, the combination of fat, tissue, and mammary gland, become so sexualized and scandalous that they were deemed indecent for public exposure?

It wasn’t always this way, and in many regions of the world today it still isn’t.  Prior to the arrival of Christian missionaries, female toplessness was the norm in traditional cultures of North America, Africa, Australia and the Pacific Islands.   In some European societies, an exposed breast was a status symbol for aristocratic women because it implied that they could afford a wet nurse to breastfeed their children and thus could maintain youthful breasts.  In the mid-fifteenth century, respected French painter Jean Fouquet painted the Virgin Mary with her left breast uncovered, a critically acclaimed piece of art.   A topless virgin?  Oh, how times have changed.

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Even today, there is a sharp contrast in the way topless women are perceived in America versus in other parts of the world.  When I brought this up the other day with a friend who recently moved here from France, she agreed that the French have a different attitude towards the whole business of bosoms.  “For years, it’s just been more acceptable.  [A topless women] is not something to stare at.”  Even in France, however, there may a be a cultural shift underway against bare breasts:  a recent French poll found that 24 percent of women were perturbed by toplessness on beaches, and this is increasingly true among younger women.  As the number of French females between 18 and 30 who are against topless suntanning grows, elderly women – participants in the original women’s liberation movement – make up the majority of those who  bare their breasts.  In this article, a swimsuit saleswoman speculated that toplessness is no longer seen as a feminist act, since young women are now devoting their energy to the struggle for equal pay and work-family balance.  A French historian adds his perspective, asserting that going topless used to be about liberation and a return to nature, but now is linked to a harsh, intolerant emphasis on perfect, sexualized bodies.

Whatever position you take on this age-old matter, it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.  A new wave of pro-topless advocates is taking root in the United States, with organizations such as GoTopless.org speaking out for a woman’s constitutional right to publicly bear her chest alongside men, and organizing national topless days across the country.  If you live in New York, Chicago, Venice Beach, Austin, San Francisco or a host of other cities, you may want to check out one of many scheduled top-free rallies on August 26, 2009 (the 89^th anniversary of women’s suffrage).  On the other hand, you may decide that toplessness is not for you and choose instead to cover up this summer with a tank top, bathing suit, sundress, or whatever it is that makes you feel your best.

As for me, I guess I’d say that my beliefs are a work in progress.  I know for sure that I would not feel comfortable going topless on my way to a college lecture, picking up groceries, or strolling around my neighborhood – even on a hot summer’s day.  Like it or not, I am a product of my society, and I know that bearing my chest in such a public way would take me far outside my comfort zone, making me feel vulnerable and uneasy.  Just as there are some skirts that I deem too short, some shirts that I feel are too low cut, there is a limit to how much skin I feel comfortable sharing with the world – and I’m working on figuring out exactly where mine is.  The beach is different story, however, and I think that it could be the perfect environment for me to break free of everyday boundaries and conventions, and dare myself to bare.  I’m going down to Florida again in a few weeks, and this time I just might give those bikini strings a tug.  If so, I’ll be sure to remember this valuable advice from GoTopless.org: “DON’T FORGET TO PROTECT YOUR BREASTS WITH SUNCREEN !!!!”