The Sexologist: Let women bare their chests in public

Yes, it was hot out there this weekend, but one man may have been a bit… ahem… too underdressed.

I was on a family bike ride this Saturday at a local park when a man on his bike sped past us wearing nothing but shorts and sneakers. No shirt.

I stopped and did a double take because I was in such shock. It's one thing to shed your clothes when it gets hot, but this guy was taking it to an entirely different level.

I could tell by the smirks, awkward laughs, and disgusted scowls that the other bikers, joggers, and dog walkers in the park were in shock as well. Some giggled. Some stared in disbelief. A few took out their phones and took pictures of him.

"Oh lord, look at this", said one woman with an eye roll when she saw the topless man ride by.

"Wow, it takes all kinds…" said another.

A third person said, "This is offensive. That shouldn't be ok, especially with all these little kids around here."

I approached him and inquired why he was doing this. He said he has the right to a bare chest, even in the middle of a crowded public area. I asked, "But is this something kids should see?"  He said he didn't think it was harmful.

Along with the attention this man received came some trouble with the law.

The police were called and he was detained and handcuffed. The police officer told him, "If you want to look like this, go dance at a Chippendales strip club."

He was given a citation for failure to disperse, not for nudity. Why? Because although he was topless, his nipples were covered and "technically" he was not nude. Nevertheless, the police and the district attorney's office are still looking into the legality of his topless bike ride.

Do you find this story ludicrous and inane? Are you perplexed by the trivial outrage?

It sounds ridiculous, but it's all true! Well, actually it is two parts of two true stories put together.

It is true that I went on a bike ride this weekend and saw a shirtless man. But I wasn't offended. And no one gawked, stared or called the police. No one told him that if he wanted to be shirtless, the only appropriate venue would be on a strip club stage.

Those elements of the story originally came from a Fox 29 news report about a shirtless woman in Rittenhouse Square. My modified version is nearly verbatim from the report. The only real difference is that in my writing you can't hear the condescending voice of the news anchors.

Now knowing that it was actually a woman who was bare chested in public, does the outrage still seem trivial? The story inane? If not, let me gently point out to you that you are a hypocrite.

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Dr. Jill McDevitt is a nationally recognized sexologist, and the only person in the world with a bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree in human sexuality, making her the most formally educated person about sex on the planet. Dr. Jill has reached a documented 8.1 million people in her relentless promotion of the idea that sex should be fun, and everyone has the right to enjoy their sexuality without fear of violence. She founded Feminique, her sex education business, at just 21 years old.