It’s not only Facebook that has a problem with the female aureole, it seems.
Eva Judell thinks there’s still a long way to go before men and women are treated equally when it comes to baring their breasts.
On top of that, many women who have plucked up the courage to go topless on the beach have been ‘slut shamed’ or embarrassed by men who wouldn’t think twice about ripping off their own shirts.
Photo gallery by Jeff Dawson
So, on Saturday morning, Eva and about 50 bare-breasted followers took to the beach at Belongil and walked to Main Beach to protest the pointed lack of parity.
To Eva’s surprise, slightly more than half of the ‘protesters’ were in fact male.
‘To be honest I think it’s harder for women to be courageous enough to protest this,’ she told Echonetdaily.
‘It’s a lot easier to show support on the internet – we had more than 300 people who said they were coming and upwards of 50 shares.
Eva expressed gratitude for the presence of the men, who she said ‘were really willing just to come out and support’ but added ‘they obviously haven’t been subjected to the same sort of trauma that they have to work through’.
No police presence
‘A lot of people assumed the police would’ve come but in Australia as I understand it’s not illegal to be topless.
‘There’s also a lot of tension about the nudist beach thing – where people were fined for being completely naked.
‘When we finally got to Main Beach there was quite a crowd watching a busker and he allowed us to take over the microphone and then there was suddenly an appreciative audience.’
Eva said she is considering holding the rally again ‘in the middle of summer when Byron is pumping and that stretch between Belongil and Main Beach has lots of people.
‘I do want people to know that it’s not going to be angry or negative and not protesting for legislative change or anything.’
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