June 24, 1997
SIGHT OF BARE BREASTS SHAKES UP DOWNTOWN
A WOMAN SAT TOPLESS ON A BENCH FOR TWO HOURS BECAUSE SHE WANTS
PEOPLE `TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEMSELVES.'
By Natalia Williams
Free Press Reporter
Some didn't notice. Others glanced from the corners of their eyes. And a few stopped
to stare in disbelief.
Reactions varied as a London woman bared her breasts at the corner of Dundas
Street and Richmond Street for about two hours Monday afternoon.
With a sign reading, "Spare change for a T-shirt," on the sidewalk
in front of her, 23-year-old Christine (who refused to provide her last name) called
out afternoon greetings to passersby from a bench outside the Canadian Imperial
Bank of Commerce on Dundas Street.
FEEL GOOD:
"I want people to feel good about themselves," said Christine,
who also recently went topless at a local bar. "I don't want people to feel
insecure about their bodies."
She said she was not soliciting money with the sign -- it was simply a way
of getting people to talk to her.
"There's too much pornography and not enough beauty," she said.
"I want positive reactions from people. I'll stay until I get a positive reaction."
Christine, who is unemployed, said some people did exchange greetings, but
most were "scared to look."
"She's nuts, crazy," said an elderly woman who had stopped to read
the sign, then glanced up. "Certainly it's inappropriate. I don't know what
she's trying to prove."
Off-duty OPP officer Ken Zamostny said he did a double-take as he walked
into an 11 a.m. appointment at CIBC. "It's totally inappropriate," he
said.
"The moral standard of the community was lowered the day that (court)
decision was made," Zamostny said.
One mother pushing a stroller covered the eyes of her pre-school child walking
beside her, then pushed the child's face into her leg.
"That's what upsets me the most," said Christine, reacting to the
mother's action. "She giving kids the wrong message. It's the parents that
say this is disgusting."
But not everyone was disturbed by the incident.
"It doesn't bug me," said 17-year-old student Shauna Burke. "It's
up to the individual if they want to do it. But I would never do it."