Would you go topless in public?

Gwen Jacob stands on Gordon Street where as a 19 year old in 1991 she walked without a shirt. She was charged with committing an indecent act but ultimately won a court victory. (Brent Foster/The Guelph Mercury )

Women who are suffering in the scorching heat this July may need to be reminded that, should the humidex reach unbearable heights, going topless is always an option.

It wasn't always legal to bare one's breasts in Ontario, but all that changed 20 years ago when Gwen Jacob decided to remove her top on a sweltering 33 C day in July 1991. Though Jacob didn't know it at the time, her topless walk home helped spearhead a movement.

Charged for committing an indecent act, the then-19-year-old Guelph, Ontario, student argued that women's breasts weren't indecent or sexual - they were just fatty tissue. A judge disagreed, and Jacob was found guilty.

Yet something about Jacob's argument made sense, and in 1996, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned her conviction.

Thanks to Jacob's willingness to speak up about the double standard around toplessness, women in Ontario now have a legal right to take their shirts off in public just as men do.

Do you remember Jacob's case? What were your feelings about it at the time? Would you ever go topless in public? Why or why not? Share your comments below.




(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers' responses.)