Op-Ed: Hey, Scout Willis: Why Not Try Your Topless Walk in L.A.?

NEW YORK CITY—Scout Willis appears to be a normal 22-year-old young adult—or at least as normal as she can be with Bruce Willis and Demi Moore as her parents. Bruce Willis, besides being an actor, is a New Jersey rocker from way back, even having recorded three albums including The Return of Bruno, while Demi Moore has appeared topless in at least seven movies, including Striptease, and when she was 19 she did a photo spread containing full nudity for the January 1981 issue of Oui—so in terms of body freedom, Scout had a lot to live up to. And live up to it she did. Scout spent the end of May walking around New York City shirtless and braless, ostensibly as a protest for having been kicked off Instagram for having posted a photo of two friends topless, Instagram having instituted a ban on any photos that show any part of a woman's areola. "What began as a challenge to Instagram and its prejudiced community guidelines became an opportunity for dialogue," Willis wrote in an article for XOJane. "Matters like the taboo of the nipple in the 21st century, public breastfeeding, slut shaming, fat shaming, breast cancer awareness, body positivity, gender inequality, and censorship have found their way into mainstream discussion. But unfortunately the emphasis in the press has been on sensationalizing my breasts, chiefly in terms of my family." Of course, news stories tend to emphasize personalities over events pretty much whenever possible, since readers can generally relate better to people involved in events than to the events themselves—and this article isn't so much about Scout Willis herself as why New York City's topless laws differ so radically from those of Los Angeles, the "porn capital of the world." Indeed, Angelenos on the whole are a rather conservative bunch when it comes to anything having to do with sex—check out that recent "moratorium" on adult businesses in the San Fernando Valley—and especially when it comes to nudity. For example, a city parks ordinance passed in 1979 makes it illegal for any person to "appear, bathe, sunbathe, walk or be in any public park, playground, beach or the waters adjacent thereto, in such a manner that the genitals, vulva, pubis, pubic symphysis, pubic hair, buttock, natal cleft, perineum, anus, anal region, or pubic hair region of any such person, or any portion of the breast at or below the upper edge of the areola thereof of any such female person, is exposed to public view or is not covered by an opaque covering." Similarly, L.A. County has its own anti-nudity law, Ordinance 17.12.360, although it only applies to beach areas and contains essentially the same prohibitions as the city ordinance—and the same definitions, leaving one to wonder how many cops (or pols) know what a "pubic symphysis" is? (Looks like they're trying to talk about the clitoris but can't bring themselves to use that word.) And then of course there's the state law, Penal Code Sec. 314, which prohibits any person from "wilfully and lewdly ... 1) Expos[ing] his person, or the private parts thereof, in any public place, or in any place where there are present other persons to be offended or annoyed thereby; or, 2) Procur[ing], counsel[ing], or assist[ing] any person so to expose himself or take part in any model artist exhibition, or to make any other exhibition of himself to public view, or the view of any number of persons, such as is offensive to decency, or is adapted to excite to vicious or lewd thoughts or acts." (We're guessing that the "him" and "himself" in the law is that pseudogeneric form politicians often use to include both men and women, though we can't help but wonder if a woman could use that particular wording to her advantage?) New York, on the other hand, got sane about toplessness in 1992, as a result of state Court of Appeals Judge Vito Titone ("tit-one" - get it?) having ruled in People v. Santorelli (80 N.Y. 2d 875) that the "underlying legislative assumption that the sight of a female’s uncovered breast in a public place is offensive to the average person in a way that the sight of a male’s uncovered breast is not" is an assumption that simply reaffirmed gender bias rather than confronting and eradicating the sex inequality of "men's bare nipples okay, women's not." Of course, topless women (but, of course, not men) in New York City still sometimes get hassled by the cops, like Jessica Krigsman in 2013—but it's nothing like the mish-mash enforcement of L.A.'s ordinance by our local constabulary. For instance, in February 2012, a naked man climbed a communications tower in downtown L.A., but rather than the cops locking the guy up, they released him to a hospital instead. "LAPD Officer Karen Rayner said the naked man would have been more likely to be charged with trespassing than public nudity," wrote blogger/reporter Andrew Lopez. "It's not common for a person to be naked on the streets, Rayner said, but if they are they can still be brought into custody." Lopez also talked to LAPD Sgt. Gary Leffew, who had a more definite view: "If you're walking down the street naked, you're going to be arrested," Leffew said. "Use some common sense." On the third hand, there's L.A. City Attorney spokesman Frank Mateljian, who told Lopez that there are "several variables officers consider when dealing with a naked person in public." "Does the suspect resist arrest? Is he disturbing the peace?" Mateljan said. "It is possible for an officer to arrest if these misdemeanors are committed in their presence but they could also cite and release." So, despite the city, county and even state ordinances/laws that prohibit public exposure of "any portion of the breast at or below the upper edge of the areola thereof of any such female person," a (female) person who succeeds in doing so could either be arrested, be issued a ticket, or simply ignored, depending on the particular cop on the scene. And that's a problem, not only because the cops seem to feel that they get to decide which action to take on a "case-by-case" basis—Is the woman "flaunting" her tits? Is she engaged in a form of street art? Is she black? Hispanic? White?—but also because, as Judge Titone stated, the law appears to assume that women's breasts are "offensive to the average person in a way that the sight of a male’s uncovered breast is not." So COME ON DOWN, SCOUT WILLIS! If you're concerned about whether Instagram allows you to post photos of your friends' bare tits, how much more important is it that Hollywood, the "entertainment capital of the world," and the rest of Los Angeles let your mom appear topless in a number of films shown in the city, not to mention on the cover of the August, 1991 Vanity Fair when she was seven months pregnant with you, but if you walked down Sunset Boulevard the way you walked down Eighth Avenue in New York, you would stand a chance of spending a night in the county lockup? If you do it, the entire adult entertainment community—not to mention a fair segment of L.A.'s nightlife—would be in your debt.