Support for woman prosecuted for walking topless in street in France
She said she was only doing what ‘half of men do’ and that she was overheating. A woman previously prosecuted for doing the same said the current law is unfair
The feminist movement Femen often holds protests against issues of patriarchy
Matteo Chinellato / Shutterstock
Thousands of people demonstrated in a centre-France town last weekend in solidarity with a woman who was summoned to court for walking topless in public during the heatwave.
Festival-goer Marina (whose surname has not been released) received a court summons after she refused to cover her nipples in Aurillac (Cantal) last week, reported local newspaper La Montagne.
She argued that she was simply doing what “half of men do”, and did so as she was overheating.
The issuing of a court summons prompted thousands of feminist activists and festival-goers to congregate in front of the Aurillac mairie on Saturday (August 26).
“The movement is non-violent [and] in favour of equal treatment for both genders,” Marina was reported to have said to a crowd of supporters. “I would like everybody to fall in line with a single message: The patriarchy must be abolished.”
Many women demonstrated topless and chanted feminist and anti-police slogans.
Read more: Bra-less movement takes hold among liberated under-25s in France
“Aurillac topless, la police en PLS” (Aurillac topless, the police in recovery position) read several banners.
The demonstration has sparked protests from feminist associations, which denounce what they see as a double standard between genders.
French journalist Éloïse Bouton, who was sentenced to one month of suspended jail time and ordered to pay compensation after protesting topless in front of the La Madeleine church in Paris in 2013, said Marina’s case was “staggering”.
French law includes a crime termed ‘sexual exhibition’, under article 222-32 of the penal code. It is punishable with one year of jail time and a fine of up to €15,000. In 2013, Ms Bouton tried to get MPs to request a change to this law, but no action was taken.
“How can it still be an issue in 2023 and no change to this law has been made?” said Ms Bouton, a former member of the feminist movement Femen, to The Connexion.
“This law is useless,” she said. “They should specify what ‘sexual exhibition’ is. What is a sexual organ? There is no mention of words such as penis or vulva.
“This should not scare us. Let’s call a spade a spade,” she added.
Charges against Marina in Aurillac were later dismissed, La Montagne reported.
What does the law say?
Article 222-32 does not specify which part of the human body needs to be covered (or if not covered should be seen as a crime), nor does the law state that nipples shown in public should be considered as ‘sexual exhibition’.
“The law was written by men for men,” said Ms Bouton, in reference to the double standard.
“In men’s view, women's nipples are considered to be more erotic than those of men.”
“We have been told that the bodies of women are sexual, when in reality, the issue is the same as men,” she said. “If a man is overheating, if a woman is overheating, what’s the difference?”
France has previously sentenced several French women to suspended prison time for being topless in public, which feminist associations have repeatedly denounced.
Iana Zhdanova, one of the earliest members of the feminist group Femen, was sentenced in court in 2018 on a charge of sexual exhibition, after she protested topless and stabbed Putin’s wax statue at Musée Grévin in Paris.
The European Court of Human Rights has said in a previous case that France had violated article 10 of its constitution, which states that everyone has the right to freedom of expression.
However, the story in Aurillac later developed into a different issue when several demonstrators vandalised the town’s court. This prompted condamnation from government officials and politicians, including Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti.
“I condemn with the strongest firmness the violence and degradation that occurred at Aurillac’s court,” said Mr Dupond-Moretti in a tweet. “To attack the Republic’s justice [institution] and those who serve it is unacceptable.”
Elsewhere in France, several coastal mairies - including La Grande-Motte in Hérault - have imposed decrees to forbid people from walking topless in public.
The decrees apply to both men and women in theory, but are intended mainly to reduce what some see as too many men walking around without shirts.
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