Every Monday night during the summer, HBO shows a free classic movie outdoors on the big screen in Bryant Park. We decided to stop by last week, when they were showing On the Town, the Frank Sinatra/Gene Kelly/Leonard Bernstein musical from 1949. Okay, the movie’s a bit sexist. (What movie from 1949 isn’t?) But that music! And Gene Kelly! Plus it was one of our members’ birthday, or close enough to warrant a celebration.
So we picked up pastries and strawberries and some fizzy peach beverage in a fancy bottle and joined the sea of humanity waiting for the movie to begin.
We were the only ones topless in the crowd — but no one seemed to mind much that we were there, except for one angry lady who picked her way across the lawn from some distance away to tell us that “nudity should only be for the bedroom.” Fortunately, not only were we more than happy to ignore her but the very nice woman in front of us leaped to our defense, pointing out that we weren’t the ones sexualizing our bodies, she was, and that her remarks were more problematic than anything we were doing. It felt like a scene in a movie, to be honest. Like that bit in Spider-Man, maybe, where all the ordinary people stand up to help the embattled hero. Not that anyone else stood up to defend us — but certainly no one stood up to take the other woman’s side. And one dissenting voice in a crowd of well over a thousand people? Not bad. Not bad at all.
We’re thinking we might go again some other Monday night before the summer ends — would you like to join us? If you’re a body-positive woman in the New York area, send a note to toplesspulpfiction@gmail.com. We’ll save a seat for you on the lawn.
When I first read your post I thought it said pasties… Oh no I said to myself…, and quickly checked the photos… Greatful to see natural sized and colored pasties with bumps in the middle of them… At least no one will know they’re not real nipples… Then I re-read the post and saw an ‘r’ where it wasn’t before… lol
Y’all were only enhancing the natural beauty of the park! Seems amazing there was but one impolite person in a crowd of 1,000 – no doubt she was merely jealous.
Oh, I don’t think she was jealous. She may have been frightened, because people who see society becoming free in certain unfamiliar ways are often scared. She may just have been outraged — for bad reasons, but still. That was the tone of it. But who knows, maybe you’re right; maybe on some level, unacknowledged even by herself, she wished she could do it. Anything’s possible.
I appreciate, support and applaud the efforts being made to equalize the standards between men and women. Your group seems to be in the forefront of a new understanding. For that I thank you!
However, a friend pointed out that she didn’t see any men without their shirt in the pictures.
Are there any situations where the O.C.T.P.F.A.S may not exercise your rights? I mean, since you are well identified with being OCTPFAS, does it feel that you have to make a point pretty much every time the group gets together? Kinda like Flavor-Flav (cannot go anywhere without his clock)
-No complaints here-
Are the members being able to exercise your rights in an individual settings throughout the city?
Just curious.
Keep up the effort to educate!
We can’t go topless anywhere men can’t go topless — so, for instance, if a restaurant has a “no shoes, no shirt, no service” policy, then anyone without a shirt won’t be served. But anywhere a man can go topless, a woman can as well, and Bryant Park (or any other park) is a perfect example. Imagine if you saw a photo of a crowd of people in Bryant Park, and none of the women were bare-chested, but a man had his shirt off. Can you imagine ever — EVER — saying to that man, “I notice I don’t see any women without their shirt in the picture. Are you sure you should be taking your shirt off?” That sounds pretty ridiculous, right? If you did say that, the man would surely reply, “What are you talking about? I know it’s okay for me to take my shirt off. It’s a public park; I’m sitting on the grass. Why would I have to wait until some women do it it before I’m free to do it?” And the same is true in reverse. We don’t have to wait for some men to do it before our rights “kick in.” Our right isn’t the right to go topless IF some men are already doing so. It’s the right to go topless anywhere men have the right to do so. (To put it another way, imagine if, for some reason, only women had shown up to watch the movie. Could none of the women take their shirt off because there weren’t any men there to do it first?)
Great answer! Changing the points of view is really eye-opening!
Believe it or not, we rarely set out to make a point on any given gathering. We usually end up making one anyway (one we’ll defend unto death), but we’re usually motivated by being friends and wanting to hang out, and what sounds like fun. Case in point, this was a semi-surprise birthday thing. It was supposed to be a fun and relaxing time with like-minded people, and it was. The pastries and pies, for example, were delicious.
I love the fact that in a crowd that size and close together it was found to be normal with the exception of one lady. Even then someone not connected to you came to your defense.