Times Square's Topless Controversy Echoes Mermaid Parade Concern

In 2001, when artist Amy Gunderson was falsely arrested for going topless in Brooklyn’s much-beloved Coney Island Mermaid Parade, then-mayor Rudy Giuliani remarked, “It takes a lot of tough cops to cover tender breasts.”

This week, Brooklynites might have a sense of deja vu.

Topless protesters marched through the streets of New York on Sunday, participating in international “Go Topless Day.” The annual march comes at an inopportune moment for Mayor de Blasio, who’s recently spoken out in opposition of the dozen or so topless women who pose with tourists in Times Square — even going so far as to consider demolishing the Square’s much-lauded pedestrian plazas to stop them.

It’s been legal for people — specifically women — to go shirtless in NYC since 1992, though there is a law against doing so for commercial gain. Public opinion appears to be on the side of the topless, or in favor of imposing regulations such as requiring the performers to get licenses like street musicians.

Is de Blasio’s opposition a form of discrimination? A valid concern? Much ado about nothing?

Photos by John Cirillo