Did you know that women in New York are allowed to walk around the city topless? Â Well they are and a few have! Â There are a few reasons why this law is in place. Â Check out why walking around with no bra,no shirt is possible!
According to NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Paul Browne when asked about a topless woman strolling in New York topless :
The state’s highest court established long ago that women have the same right as men to appear topless in public. Absent a link to some commercial enterprise or promotion, the woman’s lack of certain attire in this instance does not appear to be a police matter.
Browne added in a later email that there was no evidence that he was aware of to suggest that the woman was in fact ticketed. Topless Bowery lady, get in touch, we want to hear your story!
A woman’s right to go topless in New York has a long history. The defendants in the 1992 case People v. Ramona Santorelli and Mary Lou Schloss were arrested along with five others in a Rochester park for violating a law which prohibited women from showing “that portion of the breast which is below the top of the areola.” (Areola = coloring around the nipple). Santorelli and Schloss argued that the law was “discriminatory on its face since it defines ‘private or intimate parts’ of a woman’s but not a man’s body as including a specific part of the breast.” The New York Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the two women.
