‘We shouldn’t be introducing new legislation that only applies to women.’
Image of Amanda Bouldin via (cc) Flickr user Rich Girard
A recently proposed bill in New Hampshire requires that women can be cited for a misdemeanor if they don’t keep their nipples covered:
“if a woman, purposely exposes the areola or nipple of her breast or breasts in a public place and in the presence of another person with reckless disregard for whether a reasonable person would be offended or alarmed by such act.”
There is no mention of an exposed man’s nipple being lewd or indecent. New Hampshire state Rep. Amanda Bouldin took to Facebook to voice her anger and intent to fight the bill, saying that she couldn’t believe the Republican Party, espousing freedom and small government, would so blatantly single out a woman’s body.
“Don’t give me the liberal talking points Amanda,” wrote her colleague, Republican Rep. Josh Moore in a comment on her post. “If it’s a woman’s inclination to pull her nipple out in public and you support that, than [sic] you should have no problem with a man’s inclination to stare at it and grab it.”
Then another colleague, Republican Rep. Al Baldasaro chimed in. “Amanada, [sic] No disrespect, but your nipple would be the last one I would want to see.” He then goes on to talk about how Libertarians want to ruin beaches with nudity.
Bouldin is unfazed. “We shouldn’t be introducing new legislation that only applies to women,” she told Slate in an interview. “If we had any laws that started with the sentence ‘women should not,’ they should have been repealed by now.”
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