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Berlin signs off on law allowing women to swim topless

 

The fight for equality and female rights just took an interesting turn (a win for some women) after the city of Berlin announced that women in the state are now permitted to swim topless just like their male counterparts.

Yes, you read that correctly and that applied to public swimming spots.

The declaration was made in response to a complaint for discrimination filed by a lady identified as Lotte Mies. The 33-year-old had filed the complaint against a pool in the German city in December.

According to the German news organizations Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Tagesspiegel, she claimed that the pool forbade her from entering because she was topless.

Berlin's Senate Department for Justice, Diversity, and Anti-Discrimination adopted a rule that permits everyone to swim topless despite the fact that it was not officially prohibited in the city.

According to a news release from the department on Thursday, the pool that forbade Mies from using had no "gender-specific requirements" and just required that visitors wear "commercial swimwear."

Swimmers in Berlin are currently required to wear "standard swimwear," such as "swimming trunks, swimming shorts, bikini, swimsuit, burkini," per the Berliner Bäder, the city's swimming association. But these guidelines had a loophole and did not specify that women must cover their chests. It also did not expressly prevent women from just wearing swimming shorts to the pool, like men.

Honestly, I don't know I feel about this... I get the whole modesty thing but I also get the need to have the freedom to choose what you want and not have other people have a say over your body, especially when those roles are made by men given the long history we have we patriarchy.

The city's proposal to allow topless swimming regardless of gender is aimed to create "equal rights for all Berliners, whether male, female or non-binary", said Doris Liebscher, head of the city's ombudsman's office for equal treatment against discrimination, in the press release.

She said that this decision will give "legal stability for the staff" working at pools.

The city's government's clarification is a nod to Germany's "Freikörperkultur," or "free body culture," which, according to CNN, promotes the health advantages of being naked when exercising or being in nature.

Interestingly Berlin is not the first German city to permit topless swimming. In May of last year, Goettingen, a city in central Germany, permitted swimmers of all sexes to use the public pools topless on weekends.

What are your thoughts in regard to this topless rule?   

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