Yesterday afternoon, while a friend and I were walking home from dinner, we saw, to our utter amazement, a young woman jogging down Congress Street. Topless. We were speechless, of course. What a tactless display of indecency! I sternly said to my friend, stomping my feet and averting my eyes.
I would have confronted the heathen, but, along with being shameless, she was a notably fast runner. Disgusted, we continued on our walk home, trying to remove the embarrassing incident from our memory. Imagine our collective surprise when, upon arriving at the lobby of Home Sweet Home, we saw three female members of the custodial staff standing around a mop bucket. Topless. Topless. Topless. I was horrified.
This is supposed to be a civilized society
people! I shouted. Centuries of living together has mandated that we refrain from doing this! You're breaking all the rules!
The three topless custodians lazily gazed at me and shrugged their shoulders. I stormed up the stairs to my room.
... What I have just described is completely false. Not only have I never seen a topless female custodian at work, I don't think traditional mop buckets are still in use on this campus.
However.
There is a lesson to be learned here, and it is directed at males of this campus. The lesson is this: In this golden age of buzz words like double standard there is no justice in the acceptance of a trend which allows males to cut the sides of their t-shirts to such an extreme degree that innocent people find themselves inadvertently face-to-face with the wearer's nipples. At the basketball court is one thing. Behind a desk, in the classroom, in a place of business ... all very different stories.
The bottom line is this: Until female joggers and custodians can go about their business topless without being criticized or arrested, it should remain a given that public nipple display by any means is off limits.
Kent Clements is a sophomore studying journalism.
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