Will it ever really be OK for a woman to go topless?

Alysha Mohamed, who goes by the stage name Alysha Brilla, and her sister Tameera (Photo via Facebook)

For almost twenty years (a.k.a. two decades, a.k.a. the age of many pop stars), it’s been legal for women in Ontario to go topless. In 1996, the Ontario Court of Appeal reversed the conviction of a woman named Gwen Jacobs who’d gone topless on a hot summer day, and since then, regardless of whether or not they’ve (we’ve?) exercised the right, women can totally take their tops off when out.

So imagine the surprise of you, me and everybody when sisters Tameera, Nadia and Alysha Mohamed (a Juno-nominated singer who goes by the stage name Alysha Brilla) were stopped last week in Kitchener-Waterloo by police and told to put on a shirt while riding topless on her bike. Because of this, she and her sisters (who also exercise their right to toplessness) are staging a protest, and have also launched a protest on Change.org.

Which is great and important. But regardless of the message Mohamed and her family are trying to send, will topless rights for women ever be something we socially accept?

And of course I don’t mean “we,” as in you or I, because we know that whether a woman goes braless or shirtless has nothing to do with us. Every human being has breasts (as we can see from the array of dudes who take their tops off every summer). They are not a controversial or an even necessarily sexual thing. But yet despite the fact, they’re still seen as taboo – whether on social media, out in public, or as part of celebrity culture. (Because lest we forget Janet Jackson’s Nipplegate during that Super Bowl show, 6,000 years back.) And the reason they’re taboo is because women are still being sexualized.

So ultimately, the question isn’t whether or not we should all forego tops (I personally enjoy shirts and will keep wearing them because that’s the way I choose to roll). The question of when will women stop being subjected to another double standard that’s rooted in their objectification. Women are still seen as sexual objects. And because breasts continue to be sexualized, commodified and objectified, any woman who shows her off will be routinely shamed.

And we should know better. First, because from a biological standpoint, we should understand that breasts are just breasts. (Remember: their literal purpose is to feed offspring, FYI.) Second, because we’re the ones who decide whether or not shame culture will sustain itself, we get to decide that topless women can keep doing them.

Sadly, as of right now, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a woman who exercises her right to go topless without being subjected to shade and/or side-eye. (Or harassment or a conversation with police, evidently.) But if we start to educate ourselves (see: Mohamed’s rally), we can at least have the backs of women who exercise their right to go shirt-free. We can remind the naysayers of Amy Poehler’s words of wisdom, “Good for her, not for me.”

Because I think that’s what the fear surrounding toplessness boils down to. While “think of the children!” can seem like a talking point, remember that most kids understand what breasts are and don’t really care. (It’s usually us who pass our hang-ups down to the next generation.) And what better lesson to teach kids anyway than “equal rights?” If a man takes off his shirt, a woman should be able to do the same thing. Nobody has to do it, nobody should feel pressured to do it, but everybody should have the option of doing it.

And not just the option, but the comfort of doing so stigma-free. Especially when we’ve got so much more important things to worry about.

What do you think? Will it ever be OK for a woman to go topless in public? Let us know by tweeting @YahooStyleCA.