Mark Megahan
It isn’t actually possible to swim from Miami to Berlin but a whole bunch of people in those places who swim prefer to do it topless, or with less. From nude beaches in Florida to every public pool in Berlin, it’s okay to show your skin.
Topless sun bathers on every coast
A lot of folks are into topless sunbathing and nobody likes surprises. In Florida, tourists are advised that after severe weather events, the nude beach warning signs don’t always get replaced as fast as they should.
The local Fox channel in Miami started getting calls about “unexpected interactions with nudists.”
Reporters soon learned that the sunbathers aren’t happy with the missing signs either. They really don’t want kids around.
While the phrases topless sunbathing and nude beach conjure images of nubile young girls scampering around with a volleyball, the reality can burst your bubble. There are lots of women, young and old but they don’t come alone.
“There’s big fat guys laying there like this,” one lady complained to the news crew. “I don’t want to see that kind of stuff!” A “popular stretch of sand in Brevard County” has sections assigned to the Canaveral National Seashore.
The state has nudity laws preventing women from going topless in public but the federal stretches of beach are wide open to full nudity. “The lack of signage has some people wandering onto stretches of beach they normally would not go to.”
More relaxed in Europe
While here in America, authorities grudgingly allow exhibitionists a selection of nature preserves to pursue their nude proclivities, in Europe, they simply shrug it off. While Fox was getting calls about nude sunbathers in Miami, Berlin had the opposite problem.
The city had to put out an official declaration reminding everyone that “women are free to swim topless in municipal pools, as are those who identify as nonbinary, if that’s what they want.” Some of their nature lovers were being discriminated against.
“Topless swimming in public pools wasn’t forbidden in the German capital anyway, but a woman recently lodged a complaint alleging discrimination after a pool prevented her from swimming without covering her chest, a restriction that wasn’t applied to the male swimmers.”
They had a trans person issue the same complaint so made sure to add “nonbinary” to the public service announcement.
They issued a press release on March 9 declaring “the city and its public pools operator will now ensure that men and women are treated equally when it comes to swimming topless.” They also made crystal clear that pools don’t have any “gender-specific rules.”
The sign suggesting “standard swimwear should be worn,” it’s really only a suggestion. “While the rules do mention swimming shorts, bikinis, swimsuits and burkinis as acceptable attire, they do not specify who must wear what.” That’s because, Germans “are generally quite relaxed about” nudity. Also known as “free body culture,” bare skin is not seen as sexual.
