Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Young Swedish Boys Rejoice

Well the Swedish feminists did it. They won. They finally are allowed to bathe topless at an indoor swimming pool. It took months of protests and failed action but finally they won.

And 13 year old boys throughout Sweden have taken a sudden interest in swimming.

A feminist group called Bara Bröst has been campaigning to bare their breasts at indoor swimming halls. In a lovely double entendre (I took French in high school), Bara Bröst means not only Bare Breasts, but also, Just Breasts. Which strangely enough sounds quite sexist to me. Since I don’t have breasts. They are more like well defined pecs.

Anyway, the group, which has a whopping 40 members in a country that prides itself on liberalism and feminism, has been staging protests in various cities throughout Sweden, like Stockholm and Uppsala, where a few women go into a swimming pool and swim topless until someone kicks them out. And they have always been kicked out. Until they reached Sundsvall. As the article states, there they are “used to naked people. Nobody cares.” Except for 13 year old boys.

In November, it seemed as if the group may be left out naked in the cold. The sexual equality ombudsman had ruled that it was not sexual discrimination to require women to bathe with tops on. The group then decided that obviously if women had to bathe with tops on that men should also. And swimming wear companies from the early 1900s rejoiced as they dusted off their full body swimming suit designs and winked smugly at each other as if they knew it was just a matter of time.

Luckily, for companies such as Speedo, and middle schools boys, the group did not give up. They fought on. Valiantly I might add. And they won. And now, women in Sundsvall can bathe topless if they so choose. While some might take this for a victory for women throughout Sweden, I see it as a shrewd marketing ploy by the Sundsvall Tourism board. I mean, who has actually been to Sundsvall? Not me. But now…

Welcome to Sweden.

To subscribe to A Swedish American in Sweden for free enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

7 comments:

  1. Well, I know it sounds good. But have you seen the pictures of the women in that group? What can i say, it's never the beautiful women who fight for their rights... The group also said that they wanted women breasts to be as non-sexual as "men breasts". You hear me? That's just crazy...

    ReplyDelete
  2. i have no qualms about this new-found rights of women to swim top less. perhaps the best compromise would have been to require men with boobs (moobs, as properly called I heard) to put on bras instead. that levels the playing field quiet drastically. (hehe,,pun intended.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey I just found your blogg! I like it, Im the opposite, born in usm moved to sweden and spent 17 years there before returning back to the US!
    How sweden treatin' ya?

    ReplyDelete
  4. @ hoggen - some people are just crazy. feminists might fall into that group.

    @ mogli - I think you make a good point here. some men who suffer from moobs should be forced wear manssieres.

    @saskia - glad you're enjoying the blog. Swedens treating me pretty well. How's the US treating you?

    ReplyDelete
  5. That would really be great if, and only if, topless women consented to face the erotical consequences. The problem is that they want it to be "non-sexual" and therefore support desexualization of the society (just like in Arab and islam countries)
    There are yet (and hopefuly) some countries in Europe where topless is both allowed and eroticized.

    ReplyDelete
  6. max, I agree with you on this one, how the hell can they think that women boobs should be as de-sexualized as man-boobs? But, you're wrong about that Muslim- countries-statement you made. In Muslim-countries women aren't allowed to show even their hair because that will tempt the men. If she gets raped, hell, it's her own fault - she tempted the rapist, you see? Those feminists here in Sweden want to be allowed to show everything without the men getting all horny... It's the total opposite, you understand?

    ReplyDelete
  7. interesting comments by the both of you. I think the femiists would argue though that since both men and women have breasts and they serve a non-sexual biological purpose that the fact that they are sexualized is clearly sexist. but I'm not a feminist.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.