Editor's Note: This story utilizes the Daily Lobo's policy of using the gender-neutral pronouns of ze/zirself, at the request of a source to identify as non-binary.
On Sunday evening, advocates of gender equality gathered at the Duck Pond on campus in solidarity with International Go Topless Day, an international event that occurs on the Sunday nearest to Women's Equality Day (August 26).
Event organizer Tucker Adlersflügel said last year’s iteration of the event attracted around 100 people, while a much smaller number gathered on Sunday -- about a dozen.
The message of the Go Topless movement is to raise awareness of the societal norm that requires females to cover their chest, he said, while society is comparatively comfortable with men appearing shirtless in public. It is legal in Albuquerque for women and those with female bodies to be topless in public spaces, but it is required that the nipples must be covered.
MORE: Read our 2015 story on last year's Go Topless event here.
“The lack of gender equality started this event,” Adlersflügel said. "The fact that only some people are allowed to go topless in public, and that’s just one example of gender inequality, but it’s the one we’re focusing on today.”
In the early 1900s, men and women alike were required to cover their chests, but in 1936 men obtained the right to public toplessness after numerous protests and arrests, according to GoTopless.org. As of 2016, 33 states allow for public toplessness, with 14 states having ambiguous laws for toplessness. Furthermore, exposure of the female breast is illegal in Utah, Indiana and Tennessee.
“As a trans guy it would cost me my entire annual income to cut (my breasts) off,” Adlersflügel said. “I don’t think i should have to do that just so I can have equal rights."
Another person in attendance, Selina Villa, said ze also believes in gender equality and the importance of equal rights.
“I identify as queer, and I do believe in gender equality, meaning that just because I have fat tissue in my breasts doesn’t necessarily mean that I can’t show them in public,” Villa, a junior linguistics major, said. "It’s the same thing as a guy’s nipple, it’s the same anatomy -- the fat, the areola, the nipple. So I’m just out here to support the cause and say that I’m a person who is here to fight for gender equality.”
Villa said being female-presenting results in sexism towards zirself, and results in the perception that ze is lower than men who have more power, which led Villa to identify as non-binary, meaning that ze doesn't identify as male or female. That allows ze to avoid the experience of inequality between the two genders of male and female.
“I want to break that spectrum and notify people that there are people like me who exist that don’t follow the male-female binary,” Villa said.
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The event attracted bystanders and passersby alike, including Douglas Brandt, a sophomore theatre major who said he has experience in fighting for equality.
“I’m from Las Cruces, so a lot of this stuff doesn’t happen down there. It’s a lot more conservative (in that) part of the state,” Brandt said. “But that’s one thing I’ve tried to explore as much as I can while I’ve been in Albuquerque. There’s such a bigger movement toward equality that I think is really important, and though I’m kind of the face of everything wrong with the gender equality deal -- I’m a big, tall white man -- I like to be there and be an ally as much as I can.”
Brandt said he has been involved in equality movements with certain governmental programs that push for the legalization of female nudity around the state.
“My mother has always been a feminist, so every time there was something going on in Las Cruces I’ve usually been by there,” Brandt said.
Brandt said he was involved in Las Cruces pride parades and movements for equal rights in general since his childhood.
“It’s not just about going topless,” Adlersflügel said. “It’s about the idea that people can’t tell other people what to do with their bodies.”
