Men going topless in Public

[Cayenne]

If there was a scale of pointless threads, this topic would get 8/10.

 

The wearing of clothes at all is a throwback to when we used to go out hunting mammoths. It was a bit cold back then so slinging a bear-skin round your shoulders was a good idea. Since then, what you wore and when was used to show your status in society and what sort of person you were.

 

What you exposed and what you covered up was dictated by the morals of the time. It has swung from being totally covered to (as now) wearing as little as possible. Starlets turning up for a film premiere in wellies dungarees and anoraks would raise more eyebrows than if they turned up in a g-string and nothing else.

 

Thank your lucky stars, ladies, that you live in the 2000's and you are not in the 1900's when even showing a bit of your neck in daytime was looked down on in high society. Oh, and if you happened to show a glimpse of ankle, you were branded almost a harlot. It must have been hell in a heatwave. Imagine going round Tesco's in Victorian or Edwardian fashons, pushing your trolley and getting your petticoats caught up in the wheels. Men's fashions were equally enclosing.

 

Society decided throughout the ages what was acceptable and what was not. They did not have a vote on it, it generally worked itself out. At some points in the past, young ladies were not allowed to go anywhere unless accompanied by an older female. That is considered outrageous these days. But other behaviour has generally been always considered unacceptable such as taking things which are not yours.

 

What is considered decent varies both for what you are doing and when. If enough people think a certain dress code is (un)acceptable, it is. Comparing it to something else (such as breast-feeding in public) is pointless as each behaviour is judged on it's own merits.

 

How often when you were young did your parents tell you not to do something and your only argument was "well so and so's Mum lets them"? If everyone else poked their own eyes out, would you?

 

Whether you should go into Tesco's wearing just shorts and sandals in the present weather is pushing the boundaries of what's acceptable along another notch. It's not that difficult to throw a top on before you set off.

If you think it wrong to toddle round the supermarket without a top on (which I am inclined to think is my view as well), when you spot the next one, you could always think to yourself "dear oh dear oh dear, another one showing he's got no class" or other self-righteous thoughts. It'll make you feel better. Going up to him and telling him might not be such a good idea.

 

Who knows? Perhaps said person when walking round Tesco's noted the looks of disapproval and thought "I won't do that again"? Perhaps, or perhaps not. I'd rather customers wandered around half-dressed than be like those discussed on http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=126656&highlight=smelly.

[sarah1]

As I said earlier in the thread, I work in Tesco's and a man walking around without a top on is definatly not the worst thing I've seen..I've seen alot of other folks fully clothed looking alot lot worse...

[Cayenne]

As I said earlier in the thread, I work in Tesco's and a man walking around without a top on is definatly not the worst thing I've seen..I've seen alot of other folks fully clothed looking alot lot worse...

 

 

Like.................???

[sarah1]

Like.................???

 

I'll spare you the details.. trust me, you don't want to know :D

[beansforyou]

There - I've quoted the whole thing - is that enough for you?

 

I think you're getting me confused with someone else - as far as I recall, I don't believe anywhere on this thread have I said anything about being 'appalled' or 'offended' by other other people's choice of clothing (or lack of).

 

I do believe that shopping half-naked in a place where there are food products around is very bad-mannered and chavvish, and shows a disregard for other people's sensibilities that borders on disrespect.

 

Personally, I don't find concepts like 'decency' and 'respect' to be old-fashioned values - and if you do, Beansforyou, perhaps you might want to have a good think about what that says about you.

 

StarSparkle

 

Star, I'm not getting you confused with anyone else, as that paragraph of my post wasn't directed at you, it was a generalisation. The only point I made personally to you was regarding you mis-quoting me

 

Decency and Respect have no relevance to what somewhere wears, as far as I am concerned, I tend to have more important priorities.

[Cyclone]

Cayenne - a very well thought out post.

[Betty1]

Cayenne - for someone who considers this thread to be pointless you have an awful lot to say about it !

[artisan]

So... you have homosexual thoughts that you're afraid of and have to constantly repress that could be brought to the surface by seminaked men, and you think that all Italians are gay?

 

Interesting post.

The assumption you are making here is that I am male.

Where in any of my posts have you gained this impression?

[plekhanov]

Whilst I might not particularly like to see guys wondering around topless that’s simply an irrational prejudice on my part and I see no reason why they should be expected to alter their behaviour simply to fit in with my (or anyone elses) arbitrary personal preferences.

 

It’s rather telling that people opposed to topless guys roaming the isles at Tesco can’t come up with a coherent rationale as to why this shouldn’t be stood for but are reduced to appeals to tradition and popularity, both of which are of course fallacies. When they’re all you’ve got to support your position it’s a pretty good sign that you’ve lost the argument.

[plekhanov]

The assumption you are making here is that I am male.

Where in any of my posts have you gained this impression?

Well I got the impression you were a male who was having difficulties dealing with homosexual desires after reading these posts:

The male body is not designed for display.

It is a sign of latent homosexuality to parade around in a half naked state.

The only people who do this are adolescent either physically or mentally.

Yes I am being deliberatly daft.

But seriously the only people I want to see half naked are sexy women.

They brighten the day up.

I do not want dark lurking thoughts being brought up by seeing the naked male torso.

Just imagine if you had Italian blood what the sight of a half naked man would do !

In my experience people with such an absurd fear of behaviour they perceive as indicating homosexuality in others, who are obviously troubled by ‘dark thoughts’ when confronted with attractive men and who feel the need to point out that they fancy women are without fail repressed male homosexuals.

 

After all most lesbians don’t seem all that bothered by male homosexuals and tend not to worry about the effect topless Italian stallions might have on them.