205ARGUE

82. By refusing to accept the need to "protect" themselves from men by covering their bodies, women gain
power, and shift the burden of responsible behavior to men, where it rightfully belongs.
Reena Glazer notes that "male power is perpetuated by regarding women as objects that men act and react
to rather than as actors themselves. . . . their entire worth is derived from the reaction they can induce from men. In
order to maintain the patriarchal system, men must determine when and where this arousal is allowed to take place.
In this way, the (heterosexual) male myth of a woman's breasts has been codified into law. Because women are the
sexual objects and property of men, it follows that what might arouse men can only be displayed when men want to
be aroused." This emphasis on women as temptresses "shifts the burden of responsibility from men to women;
because women provoke uncontrollable urges in males, society excuses male behavior and blames the victim for
whatever happens. . . . To sanction the concept that men have uncontrollable urges implies that violence against
women is inevitable." 115
83. Patriarchal laws strip women of the right to control their own bodies, but there have always been
"exceptions" to obscenity laws which permit the use of women's bodies in consumer seduction. Thus female nudity
is considered inappropriate on the beach, but is ubiquitous in advertising and pornography.
84. By enforcing arbitrary clothing requirements for women (requiring them to cover their tops), the
government acts in loco parentis, in the role of a parent. This is demeaning to women. Like children, they aren't
conceded the ability or right to decide how to dress, much as they formerly weren't allowed to vote, own property, or
exercise other rights. 116
85. The repression of healthy female nudity fuels pornography.
Herbert Muschamp observes: "To object to the nude figure in a general interest magazine while allowing it
to remain in men's skin magazines is one way of keeping women in their place." 117
86. Pornography, in turn, limits women's ability to participate in healthy nude recreation, and to be casually
nude in other ways. Naturism breaks the power of pornography over women.
As mentioned earlier, in many places it is legal to display Penthouse on drug-store magazine racks, yet it is
illegal for a woman to publicly bare her breasts to feed an infant.
Pornography seeks "freedom," particularly "freedom of expression." But an acceptance of pornography
restricts women's capacity to go topfree or nude for their own enjoyment. It limits the freedom to control their own
bodies, and silences their own freedom of self-expression. Our pornographic culture has contributed to attitudes
which often discourage women from even trying clothing-optional recreation, even though Naturism is in many
ways the antithesis of pornography.
87. The fight for freedom should mean civil rights for women--not license for pornographers.
88. Clothing fashions and legal requirements have historically contributed to the repression of women. 118
For example, in the mid-nineteenth century, a tiny waist was considered a sign of beauty, and, in order to
achieve this standard, women bound themselves into corsets designed to constrict the stomach (and other internal
organs) inward and upward, creating the appearance of a tiny middle. In addition, women wore up to fifteen layers
of petticoats and crinolines under their floor-length skirts. In the latter half of the century the wire hoop and springlike
bustle were also added for the appearance of fullness. The weight of this assemblage came close to 20 pounds.
We now know that many of the physical characteristics associated with the "frail sex" resulted from such restrictive
clothing, including "bird-like" appetites, a tendency to fainting spells, and reduced physical activity. Thorstein
Veblen has observed that "the corset is in economic theory substantially [an instrument of] mu tilation for the
purpose of lowering the subject's vitality and rendering her personally and obviously unfit for work." A variety of
respiratory and reproductive ailments (including frequent miscarriages) from which women once suffered have been
directly linked to the unhealthy dictates of the "hourglass" fashion. Many of the associations of female frailty which
have their roots in the nineteenth century remain with us today, though they are now unsubstantiated. 119
Corsets and, in modern times, cosmetic breast surgery also damage the internal physiology of the breasts,
often eliminating the capacity to breast-feed. 120