Blizzard Beach ~ bathing suit requirement

[staceyatdisney]

There is not a single state in this country where it is legal for a woman to be topless in public.

Untrue as it's been legal in NY since 1992 - Read up on NY vs. SANTORELLI.

 

[Rip]

Maybe it's just me, but my kids never notice these things. They do notice violence, yelling, or just general b-hole-edness, but not what someone is or is not wearing. Seriously, we show people getting shot on the news but a yaybie is taboo.

 

[Eosphotog]

Untrue as it's been legal in NY since 1992 - Read up on NY vs. SANTORELLI.

Its legal in Texas - at least in Austin.

 

[sven1277]

We saw her too. While I wouldn't personally let my 7yo do that in public. To each their own. They were sitting st the next table to us at lunch. They were European.

 

[andeesings]

That's actually not true. There is not a single state in this country where it is legal for a woman to be topless in public. And, as in any offense, ignorance of the law is not a defense. It doesn't matter where you come from.

Actually, bigsteve, that's not true. I live in New York, where it is 100% legal for a woman to be topless. Though to be fair, even some police officers are ignorant of the law that ALLOWS women to be topless. A photographer I know did an entire photo series called "Uncovered" that explores this.

As for the topless little girl, I think the US is one of the few countries that's really so uptight about these things. I remember seeing little french girls topless at River Country when I was a kid and being surprised. This sort of thing doesn't surprise me now and I don't have a problem with it.

 

[HappyArtist]

There is very conservative Catholic church in my area that does not allow boys, girls and adults to show their torso while swimming.

 

[HappyArtist]

Oops, sorry I wasn't done before I hit the send button. lol
Well anyway, I think even within the US, there is a huge variation in what is acceptable.

 

[T1gger]

Last time I checked, Walt Disney World was in the UNITED STATES of AMERICA! ...just saying

And is a holiday destination where people from many countries and cultures go to, or live in. What one person finds socially acceptable may not be what the next person finds socially acceptable and cultural differences extends this further.

just saying

 

[mimmi]

I usually adapt to the social norms of the countries we are visiting but I can't be a 100% sure if I never offended anybody, we have travelled almost everywhere and it's possible that I overlooked one or another social rule despite proper preparation.
I have never let my daughter go topless in the US but pretty much everywhere else, as I know that it is a major problem for many people there.
Maybe the people you saw weren't aware that it wasn't acceptable, this can happen. I think a Disney employee should have told them quietly , they could have dressed the kid, no big deal.
Right now, I'm on vacation in Croatia and looking down on the beach I see that most of the little girls are topless and many of the smaller kids are naked. Many people are so used to this that it never occurs to them to do it any other way.

Believe me, coming from a country with a huge tourism industry, I've seen many things that seem at least weird, if it's not acceptable at all, you have to tell people but without being judgemental, as they are not worse than you, just different.
Inadvertantly breaking an unwritten rule in another country can happen to anybody, I would be thankful for friendly reminders.

 

[LaurenT]

That's actually not true. There is not a single state in this country where it is legal for a woman to be topless in public. And, as in any offense, ignorance of the law is not a defense. It doesn't matter where you come from.

Personally, I don't have a problem with it. However, I work in a profession where I see the worst in people. There are, of course, people who would look at that situation without the cleanest of thoughts. For that reason alone, I would NEVER allow my daughter to be topless in public like that, regardless of age.

Playing in the backyard in the sprinkler is a different story, but certainly not in public.

Sent from my Inspire 4G using DISBoards

Hmmm, perhaps the plural was inaccurate. I do not k ow about the other 49 states, I assumed we couldn't be the only ones in New York it is in fact legal for women to be topless. Look it up, or I can post a few article links for you. But google will provide plenty of info on it.

 

[Jedi_Galvatron]

Hmmm, perhaps the plural was inaccurate. I do not k ow about the other 49 states, I assumed we couldn't be the only ones in New York it is in fact legal for women to be topless. Look it up, or I can post a few article links for you. But google will provide plenty of info on it.

It's legal in Ontario and probabbly some other provinces in Canada as well. The fact is the rules of societal norms and the actual laws we have do not always mesh up.

 

[Holstar]

It's sort of legal in the UK... providing it's not deemed to be 'publicly indecent'. What is deemed publicly indecent is of course, as always, to the discretion of a legal enforcement officer and as such varies markedly depending on where you are, and the personal ideals of the police officer.

However, I think the argument of whether it's legal for a woman to be topless is entirely irrelevant. A female, prepubescent child is not a woman. It's a child!

 

[cutegirlsmomma]

I was at blizzard beach yesterday in the wave pool and saw the same little girl you wrote about....I thought it was very odd for her to have no top on....your post made me register..lol. I am a long time lurker.....that will have to change now!

 

[Pills]

Untrue as it's been legal in NY since 1992 - Read up on NY vs. SANTORELLI.

I was going to say... I was 18 and working at a very well known beach on Long Island when this law passed. Plenty of topless women that summer and beyond. Most of them would be out of the way of the main crowds.

 

[michsig]

When we were at CSR last month, there was a huge Brazilian group of girls 14-15 years old. Many of them were wearing thong bikinis!

 

[Lolsmum]

I think this is just kind of bizarre... why wouldnt she just wear the top that came with her suit? By the time your 7 I think I was old enough to be embaressed to not have a swim top on

It's possible the suit was purchased in a country where this is the norm and didn't come with a top.

Really, I can't see the issue with a little girl being topless. I find that less sexualised than a little girl with a bra top style bikini myself. My 5 year old daughter prefers a one piece, but I wouldn't freak out if she wanted to wear just a bikini bottom like her big brother. Having grown up in the US myself, I'd likely dissuade her in public there but only because I wouldn't want anyone coming up to her telling her she was bad or wrong for not wearing a top.

I also really don't see the skin coverage from your average bikini top as making a huge difference from a health point of view.

 

[pbrim]

That's actually not true. There is not a single state in this country where it is legal for a woman to be topless in public.

Hate to break it to you, but in Texas, not only is it legal for a woman to go topless in public, as long as she doesn't shave her pubes, she can legally go totally naked in public.

Now, that doesn't mean that, in most instances, she isn't likely to get arrested for "disorderly conduct" or "creating a traffic hazard", but she won't get arrested for indecent exposure. And in some areas, women can do it quite peacefully and have been doing so for decades. I know women commonly go topless at the Barton Springs pool in Austin. Over the years there has been a consensus that small children are kept at the shallow end of the pool and the topless women stay at the other end.

In Austin, there's also Hippie Hollow, the only state sanctioned nude beach in Texas (hundreds of miles from the ocean). I will admit, from time to time, some of the fundamentalist churches get groups together to march down to the Hollow, past 3 layers of signs warning of nudity, for the purpose of getting all offended by seeing Nakid People. They try to get people arrested, as the men are technically violating the public nudity law, but they never do.

 

[Suellen]

I don't know even being foreign - if I got to BB with my topless daughter and realized every other girl her age there had a top on - I'd probably be clued in that it wasn't the social norm.

Just saying.

 

[MinnieMSue]

My dd and I also saw a 7-8 yr old girl at a water park last month without a top and I just told her that was probably normal in the country where she lived. (By that time my dd realized that there are an awful lot of foreigners at disney LOL). The strange thing was at POFQ a mom stripped her daughter of the same age completely naked and gave her a towel which she did not wrap herself in. She walked around the whole pool area completely naked and was headed out of the pool main exit toward the main hotel area. That did freak us out a bit. My dd said "foreign huh mom". I did say probably but that was much more inapporpriate to me.

 

[JennyDrake]

I think this is just kind of bizarre... why wouldnt she just wear the top that came with her suit? By the time your 7 I think I was old enough to be embaressed to not have a swim top on

I may have an answer to that- IF she is from a different country, tops are not always or even usually sold with bottoms. My of my best friends is from Sweden. She had never seen tops sold with bottoms until she visited the USA at age 13.