According to the Village Voice, it's perfectly legal for women to walk around the city half naked. Yesterday, The Voice reported that a woman was spotted strolling the Bowery topless... and later in the day, was spotted later by various sources in Midtown and also at Central Park. Yes, full-on topless, no bra, no shirt, just boobs hanging out for all the world to admire. It wasn't a performance art, apparently the lady was trying to beat the heat in the buff.
The Voice emailed NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Paul Browne asking whether or not this woman was breaking the law. He replied: "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."
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.
More than 10 years later, Jill Coccaro was arrested in 2005 on Delancey Street for going topless, but sued the city and received $29,000 in a settlement.
So ladies, if you're in the Big Apple, feel free to bare it all on top, and if you want some solidarity, August 21 is National Go-Topless Day!
And if that isn't enough...
There was a row about a guy watching porn on a Brooklyn Public Library computer and so the Voice wrote the library about its policy on porn...
According to the friendly library spokesperson we talked to, not only are adult customers able to view whatever they wish on public library computers, the library actually provides privacy screens - dark covers for monitors that the user can see through but those next to him cannot - for customers who wish to view "questionable material." There's a separate area for children and teens, which is the youth wing (where questionable material is not allowed).
In other words, you can watch porn as long as you're not toting a kid's library card. So how often does this happen? A librarian answered, because they have all the answers, "It comes up. I would say every so often. It's an issue in so much as making sure we're doing our best to provide a good environment for everyone, and managing those situations from the floor. Staff has asked people to move or relocate so a situation doesn't escalate. We do have a lot of families and kids and want to make sure everyone has an opportunity for their own library experience. It's the sort of thing where we provide the access and environment. We're constantly working on and trying to figure out best ways to provide access." And no, no one has ever been caught masturbating in the library while watching porn.
FYI, sessions are about 30 minutes per computer, and there are 1,000-plus computers in the Brooklyn Public Library system!
Source: The Village Voice
