lol. I guess I should have stayed away from that topic as politics is not my strong point. I guess i just meant I didn't feel like the government was out to get me or choke my freedoms in anyway but I do live in Canada and have no interest in nude/topless beaches or nudity in general becoming common place. Not that I have anything against it I'm just neither for nor against. I will keep my nose and voice out of everything political from now on.

issac I understand that the pics taken were obviously for a reason by judging the main jist of the photo. I also understand its a risk you take like posting on this site as well, I was just saying that if it were true that it has nothing to do with a sexual nature than the pics wouldnt be taken not every person there is there for the right reasons.

I am also not ever worried of it happening in the states I wouldnt oppose it in the conditions I said but I dont see it ever happened.

Times are changing you will find many 13 and up girls that are blossoming early and under the wrong parental guidance being quite happy showing off there body.

As far as the sexual predators I know they are everywhere but I would take a wild guess that the ratio is greater here Per the amount of people.

Lynette with all due respect when wanting a discussion on the topic at hand be prepared for all types of discussion on it.

You do not know what is on the mind of every person at the beach, you also seem to love attention so your views on things going on might be differant than someone else simply wanting to tan without tan lines. The discussion was brought up about the beaches nothing was said about ONLY WOMAN so of course as a mother I am gonna worry about children.

As a child that was molested by three differant men by the time I was 11 and my ((non existent)) breasts were also fondled. I tend to be very aware of how sick people can be especially those you would least suspect. There are differant stages of children and what may be innocent and what might not be so innocent for others around. The great part of a discussion is to see the many views on a subject regardless if we agree or not.

Juicy I would tend to think that things are differant in other places where it has never been an issue.

It may not be a sexual arena (( I wouldnt even say arena for here in the states )) but anyway it is the norm there and has been for a long time so I doubt there is all the hype. But if one day it were to be allowed everywherre here I would bet the results would not be so innocent. Our people here have never had such. Not even on TV unless you are paying extra for the access.

Are there any topless beaches in England?

I thought Brighton Beach in England was supposed to be topless or nude.

No worries, Natalie! Although I responded to your post, Lynette said the exact same thing: "Majority rule in the states is completely at risk now..."

I'm just trying to get people to realize that "majority rule" is very seldom good for individuals.

Diane,
I am truly sorry to hear about your experiences as a young girl. That kind if thing can never be justified. From the sound of it, you've never been topless on a beach. However, I was talking about what people's notion of what effect seeing naked boobs on the beach might have on children. It's been my experience that children on the beach don't even notice a topless woman (they're usually too busy playing). And when they do, and call thier mother's attention to it, and she says something like "yes, there is isn't there" things go on as normal. It's only a big deal if the adults make it one. I guess I fail to see how women being topless on a beach directly puts children (of any age) in harms-way. This seems to just perpetuate some wierd kind of thought process that ties SEX into everything in modern society.
And, you are right. I certainly do like attention now and then. I'll admit it, even if some women won't. And, I DO prefer to not have tan lines, and always have (call it a cultural thing). But, like I said before on this thread... I was raised in a part of the world where being topless on the beach is a perfectly natural thing, where people generally don't even give it a second look. I'm just trying to get opinions here to clarify why people believe that being topless on the beach is such a bad thing. So far it sounds like America is totally infested with bad people, child molesters, pererts of all kinds, and deviant behaior. Sorry, but I lived in Los Angeles for quite a few years and I don't agree. America is a great place (with it's problems, it's true), but to a person from another country reading this thread, the United States would sound like a very unpleasent place to live.
Please try to keep in mind that anything said in this this (or any other) thread is just my own personal opinion. I'm not trying to preach to anyone, nor am I attempting to push my beliefs off on other people. So, "with all due respect", I'm just trying to get peoples opinions on this subject so that I can better understand what Americans are so uptight about this subject. And, judging by some of the responces here, there are some genuine and obvious personal feelings about it.

My main concern towards children on said beaches were of the young girls being topless not so much the kids seeing topless woman. I have three sons and I have had them in the shower with me many times I have no problem being nude around them in a cleanly sense?? Like showering changing allthough as they get older I try to be a bit more modest I am sure my son at now almost 10 wants the images of his naked mom in his head so as each one gets older I like to not be so free around them as much for there sake but my youngest who is 4 I still will shower with so I can wash him properly and we can get ready faster, Bleck way off track here but my worries are more the other way around.

I do not think Americans are all these bad people and this and that but we do have a lot of sickos we are a very populated country and comparred to other FREE countries we have a lot of "bad guys". Again when raised a certain way it is differant than all of a sudden throwing it out there, but even so if it were adult beaches I myself would have no problems with it whats so ever.

I am far from an uptight person and yes there are many uptight people here but as someone violated by these pedophiles I will always be on the defense for the children. It's nice to think these kind of people arent in our back yards and stuff but the truth is they are.

d26... love ya to death but how many 10 year old boys do u think log onto rmm and check out the beautiful boobs here?
seeing naked boobs on a public beach is not a huge issue if you do not make a big deal out of it to your children it would never become one.. I have a 14 year son who has been (dare I say) exposed to nude beach's since he was 6 and believe me it never ever caused any concerns, he was told that is just the way some people are and that it is not polite to stare He has never said a thing about it I am sure he enjoys the scenery as much as any red blooded boy would

I would be way more concerned with other influences than nude beach's in our society

Buck,

I just went on and on to say my concerns were not so much the kids seeing topless woman but if girls were also topless?? Like if it wasnt for adults and there are young girls running around topless.

Point taken
I also have a 10 year old daughter which I know I not tolerate guys are oggling her. I think children should be age of majority before they think of going toppless and personaly I have never seen adolesant girls topless , just doesnt seem to be done and which I feel is not proper or responsible of the childs parents

DING DING DING GIVE THE MAN A PRIZE J/K

Buck this is exactly what I was saying. I also know of a lot of teen girls that want to think they are older and act so and flaunt and a lot is the age but you also have those men that feel justified to take something they shouldnt in these situations. Whole other topic anyway.

Like I said love ya to death d26..but (not again) I support the right of a "woman" to choose if she wants to to go topless

Key word WOMAN.

I also support the right to choose what I allow my kids to see and what I don't

the point i am trying to make is that topless or not topless the beach is the same, in uk only full nudist beaches are different. I have sunbathed topless since i was 11-12 years old and never had a weird experince. It is a natural thing in europe.
I have to say fully dressed in an arcade in miami- collins ave at 12 a guy tried to take my sister and i home aged 12 and 9, nudity is not the really the issue, if someone is sick they are sick.

different things for different people .

[B]Ditto! What I said. There deffinitely IS a difference between topless and nude beaches too.

Lynette,

Have you ever just tried to do some topless sunbathing at a beach in the US?

I'm assuming that it would be technically against some law or another, but I'm wondering if its enforcement is lax, etc. Anyway, do you have any experiences with that sort of thing? What about people you know?

(I haven't read the entire thread here that carefully, so apologies in advance if this covers old ground).

When I first arived in the states I DID. But I wasn't aware of the laws and picked a public beach in Santa Monica to sunbath. Needless-to-say, I was immediately notified by several women that it was not acceptable. You can be arrested or ticketed, or both. Andm yes, the laws even at "nude" beaches are enforced on a regular basis. You take your chances of acquiring a criminal record if you are one of the unlucky ones caught.

Did they "notify" you in a friendly way? Did they assume you were a foreigner and didn't know better?

On the whole, I have to agree with you that these laws seem pretty silly. What or whom will it harm to have your breasts showing at the beach?

I've lived a while in Europe, so I'm familiar with the norms at beaches over there. I can't explain why the norms are different over there. However, I think that attributing the differences to our "Puritan heritage" is flimsy. Those deeply religious people were only a tiny fraction of those who settled this country, and it was 300 years ago! Too much has changed, and I would think that the millions of immigrants that followed them would have swamped out the whatever cultural influence the Puritans might have had.

Moreover, the vast majority of Americans are ex-Europeans. For this reason, Americans don't truly have a cultural origin separate from Europe.

Personally, I think the difference in attitude toward topless sunbathing had to occur within relatively recent history -- maybe somewhere in the mid 20th century. First of all, up to the 1910s or so, women's clothing in America and Western Europe was still from head to toe. Even men wore pajama-like bathing suits and had full body coverage. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just can't imagine women going to the beach in a bikini (let alone topless) before or during the Edwardian time period.

Similarly, it was not desirable back then to be tan. Women were proud of their lily white skin and took great precautions to protect themselves. As this attitude changed, so did bathing suits. For this reason, I have to assume that the first topless sunbathing had to occur somewhere during this transitional period. Maybe the 1940s at earliest, and I'd guess it would have become most popular during the countercultural movements of the late 1960s - 1970s.

At any rate, 2006 is just too far past the Puritans for me to buy into that theory.