Rio: Topless rights protest in Brazil attracts few women, many photographers
A group of topless women gather on December 21, 2013 at Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to protest against the criminalization of toplessness on the city’s beaches.
A topless protest in support of the right of women to be topless on the beaches of the Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro flopped Saturday.
Between three and four women joined the topless protest, while over a hundred photographers took pictures, in what looked more like a erotic magazine shoot than a demonstration against injustice.
"A breast isn't dangerous!" said Olga Salon, a 73-year-old Rio native, removing her tank top, according to the Associated Press.
"It's a false-Puritanism and indicative of our macho culture that we have a law forbidding that a woman can go topless."
Toplessness is illegal in Brazil. On its famed beaches where women often wear extremely small bikinis, being topless can land you a fine.
It can also attract stares from other beachgoers.
Topless protesting is not uncommon in Brazil. Recently, Afro-Brazilian models staged a topless protest during Rio's fashion week against the lack of diversity on the catwalks.
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