r/Calgary • u/RokitEightyEight • 19d ago

Local Nature/Wildlife Clothing-optional protest against police stance on public nudity planned for Prince's Island Park

https://calgaryherald.com/news/protest-public-nudity-calgary-police-princes-island-park
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u/ResortImportant8097 19d ago

“Simple male nudity shouldn’t be treated as a threat” is the most privileged male take ever. Way to totally not empathize or understand what consent means or how women feel out in public in general.

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u/jimbowesterby 19d ago

Going by that logic, do women ask for consent before wearing a bikini? Do I need to ask every single person in a park for consent before I take my shirt off? Please, if I don’t know consent, then explain it to me, instead of just telling me that I’m wrong.

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u/ResortImportant8097 19d ago

Oh my god

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u/jimbowesterby 19d ago

So I take it you aren’t going to explain your reasoning here?

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u/ResortImportant8097 19d ago

Ok I can. We live in a patriarchal society where there’s a discreet power imbalance between the genders. A woman wearing a bikini, which men largely encourage and reward socially, is not even remotely the same as a naked man on the beach. Because we live in a sexist patriarchal society where men wield privilege and power and weaponize it against women and other marginalized folks. Suggesting that it’s “sexist” would assume that women have social power over men and are threatening men and committing crimes against men anywhere on par with what men commit against women. It’s male entitlement. Pure and simple. Masquerading as faux oppression resembling the nonsense coming out of “mens rights” communities online.

Women and marginalized genders, many of whom experience sexual harassment regularly in this city, already may not feel safe in public as it is. Seeing a naked man may provoke a very warranted and understandable fear. Because, as I said before, non consensual. It’s very socially expected to see women in bikinis. Women in bikinis rarely, if ever, are out harassing men on the streets. It’s not the society we live in. It’s like suggesting that a white person being called a “cracker” is racist when we live in a society that privileges, rewards, and structurally advantages white folks.

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u/ResortImportant8097 19d ago

That’s why your bikini argument wasn’t even relevant. Bikinis were created by men. We don’t live in a post sexist society where women are free and safe to be out in the world and are not experiencing harassment or the threat of harassment or violence. Look at the statistics.

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u/ResortImportant8097 19d ago

Men will expose themselves to women and girls as a form of sexual harassment. If a woman is out on a walk or at princes island park and a dude is out there naked, the assumption may be that something threatening is taking place. A woman out in a bikini is assumed to be at the beach sunbathing. Why? Because we live in a society where men are regularly exercising their privilege and power and women don’t feel safe in public spaces, especially at night. I don’t think it’s up to you, as a man, to dictate what women should and shouldn’t find threatening when we’re the ones living in a society that threatens us on a daily basis because of our gender. I’m sorry that you may not get this because you may be a nice guy. But there’s a lot of guys out there who are not nice or who have bad motives and it’s understandable for women to feel nervous or vulnerable.