Texans Can Bear Arms But Cannot Bare Titties

Texans Enjoy The Right To Bear Arms But Not Necessarily Bare Breasts
In the Lone Star State, it’s sun’s out, guns out, breasts safely covered up
Kristen Stewartby Allee Manning

Though conservative rhetoric frequently decries the liberal attack on gun owners’ right to bear arms, it turns out the public baring of the female breast may be even more heavily regulated.
The past couple years have been monumental for the social movement centered around ending the stigma that sexualizes a woman’s chest and thus confines it to its bra-shaped prison. The Free the Nipple movement went viral on social media with a hashtag campaign in 2014, and took to a local court to fight a charge of public toplessness in New Hampshire last month. Celebrities publicly protesting Instagram’s nipple-less policy continued to stir the pot:

the nipple has been temporarily silenced but she will be back, oh yes, she will be back

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) June 29, 2015

In fact, social media is a major battleground when it comes to bare breasts, with female nipple bans on both Facebook and Instagram inspiring controversy and clever artistic workarounds. (There are, however, thriving gun communities on both of the platforms, and comedian Eric Andre managed to keep multiple photos of his package up on his Instagram-verified account for about 18 hours; nearly 40 times as long as comedian Chelsea Handler was able have her Putin-mocking topless portrait up in February.)
Yet while the liberated female nipple remains controversial, the right to bearing arms openly and proudly is picking up traction. While the two issues may seem somewhat tangential, they’ve been long linked by feminist activists. Earlier this year, researcher Shreena Patel looked at the “bizarre dichotomy” on a global scale, pointing out 17 countries that found, as she states, “breasts are more dangerous than guns.” Those working for the advocacy organization GoTopless also found the ideologies to be contradictory, and used the following image to bring awareness to a march for toplessness in 2014:

According to Section 21.08 of Texas Penal Code, indecent exposure (a class B misdemeanor) is defined by an offense that occurs if a person “exposes his anus or any part of his genitals with intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person, and he is reckless about whether another is present who will be offended or alarmed by his act.” But while the state of Texas doesn’t outright ban breasts in public, like legislators have in Utah, Tennessee, and Indiana, local ordinances can dictate further laws on public indecency, and some do.
In Houston, the most populated city in Texas, local law forbids “any person to appear on any public street, sidewalk, alley, or other public thoroughfare…in such a manner of dress or of undress in a manner which exposes to the public view such person’s genitalia and/or buttocks, and in the case of a female, the female breasts.” San Antonio’s public nudity laws similarly outlaw bare breasts—specifically, “any portion of the female breast that is situated below a point immediately above the top of the areola.”
In other Texas cities, local law codifying female toplessness can be more ambiguous. For example, the sizable city of Grand Prairie has an ordinance that bans “disrob[ing] in public or…nudity in any city park.” While the language is vague, a definition of nudity within a chapter on Sexually Oriented Business (a common feature in state local codes and ordinances) includes the “female breast below the top of the nipple.”
Such ill-defined language, it would seem, is not a unique feature across municipalities—or even U.S. states in general. While GoTopless has determined a total of 47 states that have positive or ambiguous laws regarding female toplessness, the group is quick to note that such distinction doesn’t necessarily mean it’s impossible for women within those states to be arrested for their exposure there.
Much of the time, arresting officers have the purview to decide if exposure is “lewd or obscene” by virtue of intention and/or presumed public opinion. This can be seen in the vague legalese of states like Delaware, where law dictates “a female is guilty of indecent exposure in the second degree if she exposes her genitals, breast or buttocks under circumstances in which she knows her conduct is likely to cause affront or alarm to another person.” An analysis of data from the GoTopless organization and the Center to Prevent Gun Violence found that there are 25 percent more states that expressly allow the public possession of handguns than there are ones that do have clear laws permitting full-frontal female chests in public.
Differing public indecency and nudity laws, as well as public perceptions, can implicate women who choose to forsake the bra or bathing suit, sometimes under charges like “disorderly conduct.” Even in states like New York where it’s been legal for women to publicly bare their chests since the 1990s, arrests over female toplessness can still happen, causing Go Topless to advise consulting a local attorney before taking it all off. So sorry, ladies. Looks like your only real insurance in avoiding arrest might be keeping your top on.
Meanwhile, officers in Austin, TX, have already stated they intend to operate with the presumption that citizens openly carrying handguns are licensed and will not stop them to check without additional provocation.
Emma Watson showing off 

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Katy Perry

Emma Watson topless, removing shorts.

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Jenna Fischer