Encounter With a Nude Bather

The Washington Times has a column by Marybeth Hicks about a family vacation in Southern Florida that involved a topless swimmer.

Not only is Marybeth indignant from her own point of view, she is angry because a woman bared her breasts in the presence of her 11 year old son.

Now Marybeth wonders if she is being a "prude". Yes, Marybeth, you are. Not only are you a prude, your attitude towards the naked human body is unnatural and unhealthy, and you are passing this ignorant point of view on to your kids.

I'll bet Marybeth was shell shocked when Janet Jackson's nipple flashed on the TV screen for a nanosecond.

Marybeth's 11 year old son is wiser than she. When confronted with the topless swimmer, he asked if they were going to get ice cream. Good for him, the sight of a nude body did not traumatize him in the least, but Marybeth, in making a huge issue out of the encounter by writing a newspaper column and getting all self-righteous, is going to make him think that something "dirty" happened.

People are born to swim naked. The whole idea of a swimsuit is the most ridiculous fabrication known to mankind. It serves absolutely no purpose but to cover up body parts that a) others might find offensive or b) are deemed off-limits to the eyes of others due to modesty. Neither of these reasons make any sense at all.

Marybeth calls the swimmer an "exhibitionist". I highly doubt that this is the case at all. Topless swimming is "normal" in most overseas countries and is catching on here. Why on earth should the site of a woman's nipples be any more offensive than those of a man? Men have nipples, too. Is it because the female breast has been over-sexualized by popular culture, or is there really something dirty or shameful about it? Topfree equality in the United States is just a matter of time.

So, Marybeth, your 11 year old son will now learn about the female anatomy from porn on the internet or in magazines because of your wrongheaded prudishness. I'm sure he's never seen you naked (God forbid), except perhaps when he was too young to remember the nourishment he got from your breasts, or was he bottle fed because you felt shame at exposing your nipples to him?

How sad that the sight of a healthy young woman enjoying body freedom on the beach can be turned into something dirty and disgusting by small minded people like Marybeth.