How many show them off?

[Rhonda333]

my age? I'm 22, but I also wasn't talking to you when I said "arnt you like 50"


I understand, I was just reacting for all of us women who are over 50- and still kicking.

[alex82]

Yea I really wouldn't go around with my boobs out. Maybe a low cut top or dress on a night out. Braless or naked on a beach would never happen. I like to keep it classy.

Well that's fine, for you. But the final short sentence isn't really fine.

Try telling the average European woman that she has no class for sunbathing in a way that avoids tan lines, doesn't require any extra fabric than the guys are wearing, and therefore doesn't prudishly presume any sexualisation of secondary characteristics.

Without wishing to stereotype, I think you'll find the response ranges from a raised eyebrow from the Frenchwoman, through hostility from the Italianwoman, to a 'mind your own business' from the Englishwoman. With the rest of the beach judging your manners rather than theirs.

These are just cultural differences, and there's nothing gross about it. I presume, despite the puritanical social streak that American women are allowed to openly breastfeed wherever they choose? With the full support of the law, and an expectation that other people (men included) will be adult enough not to look at their breast/s.

[alex82]

Situation and location dictates it. To be honest. If I'm in an adult-only location (like a night club; I would dress like Pamela Anderson/Jennifer Lopez). If it's in the public on a lazy Sunday afternoon in a downtown environment and it's like 75-80 degrees (temperature dictates what I would wear too), I would dress like post-2010s Paris Hilton *not night club environment*, it's flirty but not that revealing. I'm not going to go around showing a lot of cleavage, and if I do show cleavage, the rest of my outfit is going to be conservative.

If it's that hot, then legs out, arms out, but no-cleavage. It makes male friendships difficult... I know it's not our fault that men like what they like, but I prefer to keep it neutral.

I'm saying this from being a normal guy wearing a tight red shirt, or tight shirts in general. (and they're not gay; it's just human nature). If a beautiful scantily-clad woman walk in front of me, I would glance at her twice, but look away. It doesn't make me attracted to her, it just makes me aware of "beauty".

Kind of hard explain.... I like men don't get me wrong. lol

Yes, it culturally and location specific. I realise that the US is more puritanical about these things. I have never seen anyone walking around a city centre on any continent doing so.

No, it does not make friendships with men difficult - there is an expectation that they will see that at the beach, and that their mother might be going and might want to do so too. Any who are not mature enough to contain themselves would not be welcome on a European beach.

[alex82]

Not to be the devil's advocate, lol.

But maybe in her "culture" environment showing a lot of skin is unclassy. This is such a cultural-dependent thread, it's like if I dress like 1954 Marilyn Monroe I would be consider a "tramp/promiscuous", but if I dress like Marilyn Monroe *fashion-wise*, I would be consider "glamourous/classic/vintage".

I think it implies a negative judgement.

And if this person travels, and shares that judgement, with those from a continent noted for being very well dressed and often elaborately mannered, they'll make no friends at best, and probably be told explicitly that unless she's from Manhattan, there is very little interest in having a discussion with an American woman about what she considers gross or lacking in class.

[alex82]

It does... I'm not going to lie here. I remember this one girl who dressed more provocative around her "male" friends while drinking, and she was flirted with a lot more than when she dress in huge bulky clothing.... she didn't like it because she consider them her friends, (she told me because I never flirted with her lol).

That's one example, it probably happens a lot more.

It doesn't... I'm not going to lie here. There's no inbuilt reason why Amerixan men do that and European men don't. That's cultural.

As you yourself said - cultural and location context is everything. I said nothing about being someone wearing revealing clothes and drinking with other drunk people on a night out. I specifically kept it to sunbathing on family beaches, or indeed, breastfeeding a baby in any location at all.

For objecting to the former, (or if you're male, openly sexualizing and staring) both the other women and men on the beach (lifeguards and all) would expect you to leave, rather than however many hundred women not fully covered up in line with what the prudes consider modest enough. And for objecting to the second, you could be arrested and charged.

Actually for reacting to the first, you could also be charged, for sexual harassment and discriminating between gender.

I think you hit the nail on the end in the use of the word provocative. What is provocative in a nightclub where alcohol is flowing, is not provocative while sunbathing.

[AnneK]

I have never seen anyone walking around a city centre on any continent doing so.

Several years ago, a woman named Gwen Jacob, in Guelph, Ontario, Canada did just that and helped establish that it was legal to do so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topfreedom

[alex82]

Several years ago, a woman named Gwen Jacob, in Guelph, Ontario, Canada did just that and helped establish that it was legal to do so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topfreedom

It is very uncommon, and I personally haven't seen it. But good for her I say. These precedents are important.

[alex82]

Not to be the devil's advocate, lol.

But maybe in her "culture" environment showing a lot of skin is unclassy. This is such a cultural-dependent thread, it's like if I dress like 1954 Marilyn Monroe I would be consider a "tramp/promiscuous", but if I dress like Marilyn Monroe *fashion-wise*, I would be consider "glamourous/classic/vintage".

It's like the 1910s versus the 1920s, the flappers were consider the wild women of their times... but looking back they look quite tame. Back in the 1850s, dying your hair, and wearing too much rogue was consider "promiscuous". Back in Egyptian times, not wearing a lot of make-up mean that your were poor, and they dress scantily, but that was do to heat and all that, and the makeup help ward away disease and infections... it protected them from the elements, that's why their eyeliner was so extreme.

Being gay in Ancient Roman society wasn't a big deal either....

On homosexuality in Ancient Rome - no it was not ok, it definitely was a big deal.

You're thinking of Ancient Greece, where it wasn't a big deal if you took the active rather than the passive role. And the Romans did not approve of 'Greek practices'.

[RobynD]

I dress pretty age appropriate if not a bit on the urban/biker sort of vibe. I don't show cleavage a lot but today for instance, i am wearing a white button up shirt and there is a bit showing.

I do go braless from time to time and i've actually had girlfriends chastise me a bit for that (ok maybe just one girlfriend), and i get it i guess but they are pretty darn firm, i guess it is just that little is left to the imagination at times.

I definitely believe in top freedom for both men and women and would not hesitate to go topless at the beaches here that allow that or lay in the sun attired that way. (actually they are mainly nude)

[noleen111]

arnt you like 50?

err no... I am 28

[Angélique LaCava]

err no... I am 28

oh ok. Idk why I thought you was 50. Anyway, I still don't think it's right for you to go topless;  to my knowledge you have a fiancé or a boyfriend not sure which one it is, but since your not single you shouldn't be showing off body parts like that,  your body should be for your significant others eyes only.

[Fresas con Nata]

your body should be for your significant others eyes only.

Your body is your body, it belongs to you only and you do whatever you want to do with it.

And I might add: regardless your age

[SadieBlake]

Your body is your body, it belongs to you only and you do whatever you want to do with it.

And I might add: regardless your age

Indeed sister :-) the only time I'm really trying to show off my sexy is at clothing - optional parties we go to a couple of times a year.

For now and the foreseeable future showing cleavage isn't a great option as I'm blessed with abundant chest hair. Maybe if I eventually sport a large B or C cup breasts I'll think about it but for now the only affect I could put out would still be pretty flat. Then again, one of the newest high tech contraptions could tip the scales on that.

[Harley Quinn]

I like to hint that it's there, but not actually reveal anything. I like to leave some to the imagination... I think the allure of not knowing is sexy.

[I Am Jess]

I'm almost 56 and I have no problem sharing views of my girls with the people of the world.  You only live once and I didn't trade one closet for another. I am me not someone who needs to be pigeonholed into a new closet because I'm a certain age. So yes, I have no problem sharing.

Has Mel Brooks wrote in the movie The Producers "That's it, baby. If you've got it, flaunt it."













I may be in my 50's but I ain't dead.....

[Angélique LaCava]

Your body is your body, it belongs to you only and you do whatever you want to do with it.

And I might add: regardless your age

its called respect. If you can flaunt your body like that in front of guys while having a significant other then that show you don't actually care about them because if you cared you would respect them enough to not do that.

[Angélique LaCava]

I'm almost 56 and I have no problem sharing views of my girls with the people of the world.  You only live once and I didn't trade one closet for another. I am me not someone who needs to be pigeonholed into a new closet because I'm a certain age. So yes, I have no problem sharing.

Has Mel Brooks wrote in the movie The Producers "That's it, baby. If you've got it, flaunt it."













I may be in my 50's but I ain't dead.....

would you still be doing that if you hadn't gotten implants?

[I Am Jess]

would you still be doing that if you hadn't gotten implants?

Well they probably would look different wouldn't they.  You're asking a question that I really can't answer because I did get implants and I got them 6 months after I started HRT. And like ANY woman who gets implants that look good I don't mind showing them off. Everyone has different comfort levels about how they feel about their bodies and how they want to look in public. I am very comfortable, and have been from the very beginning of my transition, with who I am. Yes I have been fortunate to have resources and to live in an area that is very trans accepting so that my transition has gone very smoothly. I wish everyone could have the same experience I have had.

[alex82]

err no... I am 28

It's sad that you have to defend that anyway. Even if you were 50, or 100, your tan lines are your own business. Anyone who can't help themselves for staring at a strangers body part, or acting further on whatever message they perceive they've been 'given', that's their business. And depending on what action they take, a crime in most jurisdictions.

Personally I'm uncomfortable with the implication that the male body is the private property of its owner, while the female body is a public shared commodity that extra demands and expectations are made of.

And that failure to observe those extra demands results in a free for all on everything from how grotesque you are to how much class you have to how little respect you have for your partner (and by societal implication, what you can expect to have done to you in response - ranging from public comment to much much worse, all of which, by that line of thinking, you invited). That's not a progressive idea that should be indulged any longer. Thankfully it isn't by the law at least, outside places like Saudi Arabia.

That anybody should be called gross or lacking in class for doing what they are comfortable with doing with or to their own body is not idea I expected to see here. It beggars belief that women are judged as lacking respect for their partner for how much non genital flesh is sometimes seen by others - that's lifted straight out of Saudi. You may as well go the full hog and buy a burka for all public places if you really believe that.

If American men have a problem with equality, the problem is with American men.

[kaitylynn]

I ride my MC in tight skimpy clothes in summer heat all the time and at nearly 50, no-one seems to complain about the view.  Granted, the winter was tough this year and I have to work off some excess weight for summer now...

There are no hard rules anymore.  If you wish to be an old maid, by all means...but that is the exception anymore.  It is important to understand the rules so one can more effectively break them!