Going Topless or "Bare chested" refers to the state of not wearing any clothes above the waist, exposing the entire torso. It is also known as "stripped to the waist", or "being shirtless". The term "topless" is usually only applied to women. It is much more common for men to be bare chested than women, since in many cultures it is considered inappropriate (and in many places it is illegal) for a woman to reveal the breasts. The movement in Northern America to remove these restrictions is known as topfree equality.

Attitudes to bare chesters

For centuries many men, such as farmers and miners, worked bare chested. This was, and is, particularly true in hot climates. During the Victorian period, nudity or partial nudity such as being bare chested was seen as wrong, and people took great pains to cover themselves up. During the 20th Century, attitudes began to relax, and going bare chested in public was no longer seen as shocking. Originally men were bare chested only at the beach, swimming pools, etc. In New York City, removing one's shirt in Central Park was an occasion for a ticket as late as 1960. More recently, it has become quite common for women on beaches in Europe, the Caribbean, and Australia to go bare breasted as well, although it is by no means universal and it is still unusual on most beaches in North America.

Throughout much of Asia, bare-chestedness in either men or women is generally disapproved of, and may be highly offensive, even at the beach. In many of these areas, for example South Korea, most adults still swim almost fully clothed. In some areas, such as Thailand toplessness among women is disapproved of, but is still widely present due to large numbers of European tourists. In Muslim countries, people, women in particular, are encouraged (or in some cases, such as Afghanistan while under the rule of the Taliban, required) to cover up, and shoulders and thighs must not be shown. Even in Europe and North America, there are some people who do take offence at bare-chested men, and many shops will refuse to serve bare chested people, having policies of "no shirt, no shoes, no service".

Going bare chested

There is not necessarily anything sexual about going bare chested in public. Most bare chesters do it because they want to, or because it is hot and they find wearing a shirt is uncomfortable.

Apart from social aspects and temperature, reasons for wearing a shirt include:

• protection against sunburn, plants, animals, etc.
• pockets

Famous bare chesters

A lot of musicians go bare chested whilst performing, this may add to the visual attractiveness of the musicians and their performance, and is also practical due to the intense heat from the studio/arena lights. Actors and wrestlers also appear bare chested. Tattoos and body art such as nipple piercings are often displayed by bare chested rock musicians. Famous bare chesters include:

• Brandon Boyd, singer in rock group Incubus (there is at least one shirtless scene in each chorus in the video for their 2001 hit Drive)
• Phil Collen, lead guitarist of the British band Def Leppard, will often take the stage in the beginning with a shirt on, however, as the show progresses, he removes it and will play the rest of show shirtless.
• Clark Gable. Gable's bare chested scene in the movie It Happened One Night is widely believed to have caused a drop in the sale of undershirts
• Ian Grushka, bassist in punk group New Found Glory
• Salman Khan, Indian Bollywood actor
• Shavo Odadjian, bassist of rock group System of a Down
• FlГЎvio and Gustavo MendonГ§a, stars of Brazilian soap operas
• Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen
• Jim Morrison, singer of The Doors. While he did not perform bare chested often, his shirtless appearance in publicity photos accompanying the Door's 1967 debut album cover was extremely influential in male fashion
• Nick Oliveri, ex-bassist in rock group Queens of the Stone Age
• Red Hot Chili Peppers, rock group who frequently perform shirtless (hence the terminology doing a Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
• Robert Plant, lead singer of Led Zeppelin would often perform in a small, unbuttoned shirt, thus appearing mostly bare chested.
• Iggy Pop, singer
• Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC
• Frank Sepe, bodybuilder
• Phil Collins prefers to drum topless.

Fictional bare chesters

Some characters in TV shows or films are well known for their shirtlessness.

• Adam Cartwright (Pernell Roberts) in Bonanza was often seeing shirtless working as a blacksmith.
• Bonehead (Keith Allen) and Foyle (Peter Richardson) from The Bullshitters: Roll Out The Gunbarrel worked shirtless all the time.
• Randy (Patrick Roach) in Trailer Park Boys is always shirtless.
• The Smurfs never wore shirts.
• Obelix in the Asterix series is always shirtless, although his trousers come up to half way up his chest, so he is not entirely bare chested.
• John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone), often fought shirtless.
• Johnny Bravo loves to show his muscled chest at Cartoon Network.
• Ned Flanders, while usually wearing a green sweater, is often show shirtless in various situtations, exposing an uncharacteristically muscular body.
• James T. Kirk from Star Trek is often without a shirt or with a torn one in any sort of battle situation.
• Alex Louis Armstrong, of the anime series Fullmetal Alchemist, is extremely proud of his well-muscled upper body, and periodically throws his shirt off to showcase it.

See also

• Sociology of clothing
• Topfree equalityals:Oben ohne