Women march topless to protest gender bias

A couple dozen men and women made a topless march to protest the societal norm that men can take their shirts off in public and women can't. The walk attracted enough advanced attention that there was a pretty good crowd of spectators there to take pictures, too.

There is no law in Portland prohbiting women from going topless in public.

Police said there were no incidents and no arrests – nudity is illegal in Maine only if genitals are displayed.

Ty McDowell, who organized the march, said she was "enraged" by the turnout of men attracted to the demonstration. The purpose, she said, was for society to have the same reaction to a woman walking around topless as it does to men without shirts on.

However, McDowell said she plans to organize similar demonstrations in the future and said she would be more "aggressive" in discouraging oglers.

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=116208&catid=2