Women sue for right to go topless

There are all sorts of reasons why a woman might like to go topless wherever a man can, Jan Larson Frandsen said. There`s the comfort, the convenience and even just the fact that if it`s OK for men, then why not for women? Those are only some of the reasons Frandsen and her friends filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday in Orlando. "It`s really hot, and I`m working out in the garden, and I`m not supposed to take off my shirt, but my husband can," said Frandsen, who lives in Melbourne. "That happens to you enough times and it starts to have an emotional impact. It makes you angry." It makes her even angrier that her 14-year-old daughter is treated differently now that she has breasts, and that women everywhere suffer from sexual abuse and harassment due in part to their breasts. The very laws that demand women cover their breasts in fabric, she said, help eroticize body parts not all that different from their male counterpart. So Frandsen, 46, her daughter and eight friends, one in her 70s, are suing Brevard County to overturn its antinudity ordinance, as well as two state statutes that ban displaying the female breast in public. They`re not strippers or nudists or thrill seekers. They`re just convinced the laws violate their FourteenthAmendment guarantees of due process and equal protection. "Because of having to cover their breasts in places and at times when men do not cover their breasts," the suit states, "plaintiffs and all other women and girls are afflicted with a badge of second-class citizenship." Brevard County Attorney Scott Knox would not comment. His office had yet to be served with the suit Wednesday afternoon, an employee said. The county ordinance was passed, in part, in response to nude sunbathing at Playalinda Beach in the Canaveral National Seashore. That`s where Frandsen`s husband, Marvin Frandsen, was arrested during a 1995 nude protest of the ordinance. Jan Frandsen said her group tried unsuccessfully to get the laws overturned in state courts before turning to the federal system. Asked whether she expects to win the suit, she said, "If I didn`t believe that, I wouldn`t be trying. A change has to start somewhere, and this is a very good place to start. Most of us will never give up until the day we die." If they do win, she said, they won`t be looking for any damages beyond legal fees. "Look," she said, "over half of our population are women. But some people are so conservative, they`re afraid of themselves. They don`t know what they might do if they see a naked breast."