A while back, I wrote about communities in the UK that were considering banning men going shirtless. One way to make what is typically a double standard turn into fair play. What isn’t good for the goose shouldn’t be okay for the gander, I guess.

If chicks can’t go topless than why should every beer-bellied ape be allowed to whip off his shirt at the first sign of mercury rising? Nevertheless, personally, I’d prefer if folks of either gender who feel the need for a breeze against their skin were free to be nude.

Nudity might not be for everybody, aesthetically speaking. However, I’ve always felt that just as with TV where one should change the channel if offended, with naked flesh the onus is on the viewers to avert their eyes not the shameless and shirtless to cover up.

Nevertheless, indecency laws persist, although at least now in Florida, a judge has agreed that if women don’t like the laws telling them to cover up, they can protest by going topless. Sounds almost like a classic Catch 22 that only calling it a protest against the very law that you’re breaking protects your right to be topless in public.

NBC 6 of South Florida reports (10/13/06) that the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court of Appeals on October 5, 2006 upheld a Volusia County judge’s opinion that Elizabeth Book could protest while topless on the City of Orlando’s Main Street Bridge.

Ms. Book of Ormond Beach was arrested and fined $253 by Daytona Beach police during Bike Week in March 2004, City officials claimed she violated a 2002 ordinance banning public nudity designed to curb indecency at special events.

Book’s attorney says his client sees the ruling as one victory in her personal fight against laws she feels are unfairly applied to women but not men. Meanwhile, Deputy City Attorney Marie Hartman said the city “respectfully disagrees with the opinion.”

Hartman said the city is looking into an appeal to the Fifth District Court of Appeal. I wonder if her city’s taxpayers feel it’s worth it. Why lose your shirt over a legal battle you can’t win?