Psychoanalytic Baggage

"Should women be allowed to go topless in public?" https://www.debate.org/opinions/should-women-be-allowed-to-go-topless-in-public
No. But not for the reasons you may think, but for one you may not have considered—maybe. Read the above answers first. Though true, my more flippant opinion is highly qualifiable.   The human species is nothing if not a mess of contradictory cognitive and emotional complications, one of which is the male attachment to the mother (-object). I know you're going to refuse to believe this, nevertheless, it's true (at least in some alternate reality): When a man ogles a woman's breasts, necessarily, through a mostly unconscious series of transformations and transferences, he is remembering his mother. (A woman is most often a mother-substitute to a man.) So, when a man is attracted to a woman's breasts, he needs to get the message: "That's you're mother you're lusting after, you idiot! Is that what you really want to be doing?" Men are hopeless. (But, to be fair, so are women re men, though in a slightly different way.)

So, no, women should not flaunt their maternity in public. It is true, however, that it's not fair to women that there are laws against it. So, in the name of equality, I propose that laws be passed that men not be allowed to go topless either. Fair is fair. And, anyway, there is a similar argument to be made for why women lust after a man's bare chest. So, unless we consensually agree that it's okay to let all our psychoanalytic baggage hang out there for public viewing, keep it under your shirt.
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