'Topless' Protest Falls Flat on Brazil Beach

(AP) ‘Topless’ protest falls flat on Brazil beach
By JENNY BARCHFIELD
Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO
A much-hyped protest for the right to go topless on Rio de Janeiro’s beaches fell flat Saturday when only a handful of women bared their chests for the movement.

More than 100 photojournalists stampeded across the golden sands of Ipanema beach when the first woman took off her bikini top to flout Brazilian law. Just three or four other women joined in.

Internationally, Brazil has a reputation as a nation of liberal sexual mores, where nudity is not only tolerated but enthusiastically embraced during Carnival parades.

The hundreds of thousands of foreigners who’ll descend on Brazil for next year’s World Cup and the Olympics two years later will indeed see the famed “dental floss” bikinis that expose the wearer’s rear end.

But under Brazil’s penal code, which dates back to the 1940s, female toplessness is an “obscene act,” punishable by three months to a year in prison, or fines. Even the law’s critics admit few are prosecuted.

Women going topless on any of the city’s beaches are almost guaranteed to a quick response, both from the patrolling municipal guards and fellow beachgoers.

Saturday’s protest is the latest chapter in a debate over just how much skin is too much on Rio’s beaches. Protest organizers told media they were responding to a November incident in which actress Cristina Flores was set upon by municipal guards after she removed her shirt during a photo shoot on Ipanema beach.

Flores immediately complied but said she was shocked by the violent reaction and threat of jail time.

___

Associated Press writer Bradley Brooks in contributed to this report from Rio.