The Bare Facts

The gawkers outnumbered the protest participants by a huge margin.  The topless protest in Asheville drew an estimated two thousand people to downtown's Pack Square Park.  A relatively small number of topless women marched to the square along with a dozen or so men wearing bras or bikini tops.  They were not protesting to have laws changed, since neither Asheville nor North Carolina prohibits women from being topless in public.  The protest was re-designed to make women aware that they can go topless if they so desire and should feel comfortable doing so.  I did not go to Asheville for the protest but the local paper had some interesting photographs in its Online version.  The following photographs were taken from their Internet site.

The weather was obligingly warm.

 Men and women joined together.  Many of the men wore bras.

I highly suspect that these young men strongly support women going topless.

 Young and old alike participated.

 I think this photograph explains exactly why so many people were gathered.

The event went without incident.  A few frustrated tourists were angry that the large crowd forced a closing of some of the downtown streets.

There was an interesting email to one of the newspaper's columnists.  A man who described himself as elderly, said he planned to attend the gathering.  As he said, it will be like a flower show...some will be budding, some will be in full blossom, and some will be hanging baskets.

I have no idea whether or not this protest will change the minds of many women.  On a personal note, I have no problem with people going topless unless they are preparing and serving my food.  (I know that might not make sense, but that's how I feel.)  But I can assure you that I will not be going topless, given that I am more closely aligned with the hanging baskets than the others.