The shock of the new.

That's how the lawyer who helped make it legal for women to go topless characterizes the current debate over bare-breasted women on Ontario's streets and beaches.

``This decision constitutes a major change in our social life, our social status here in Canada,'' said Margaret Buist, who represented Gwen Jacob, a strong-minded University of Guelph student, in her fight to go topless legally.

``And whenever a major shift like this takes place in society, there's always a flurry of reaction at the beginning. And then the change becomes more accepted, more commonplace, and it's not an issue any more.''

But for now, an issue it is, and with the arrival of summer weather it's reached a rolling boil in many parts of the province.

In Metro, topless women working as squeegee kids have upset many people, as have bare-breasted women outside a Queen St. club. And a topless woman raised eyebrows when she joined seniors at the Memories of You dance in Nathan Phillips Square last week.

Elsewhere in the province, the sight of topless women mowing lawns - or, as in Ottawa, topless streetwalkers strutting their stuff - has led to new demands that laws be rewritten to ban such behavior.

Alex McKay, associate professor of the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, believes the fuss will die down as people become accustomed to the new reality.

``People may be scandalized now, but they will become less so as time goes by,'' he said. ``Women who break the taboo (on exposing their breasts) are getting a lot of attention right now, but after a while things will settle down.

``They'll go topless and few will pay much atten tion.''

That's been the case in other western jurisdictions - a handful of American States, many European countries and Australia - where topless women attract little more than a ho hum, observers say.

But it's still a patchwork affair, with many local jurisdictions arguing they have the right to spell out dress codes, especially in such places as municipal parks and swimming pools.

``When law officers realized that topless women were here to stay and stopped laying charges, there were the predictable whiffles of outrage,'' said Alicia Chan, a New York city sociologist who remembers the fuss there a decade ago when women first tested the law.

``It's gone from being a question of free speech - self-expression, if you will - to one of equal rights, and no one is prepared to say that women can't do what men may do.

``The fight's over; women have made their point. And, to be quite frank, we see very few topless women outside of sunbathing areas. They're at the beach, in parks, in their own back yards.

``There are very few women walking topless down Fifth Ave. or in Times Square these days. They know they can if they want to, and that's enough.''

Sergeant Rene Gil, a Buffalo police watch commander, said police still have options if they perceive a problem.

``If it causes the public annoyance, inconvenience or alarm,'' women going topless could be charged with disorderly conduct, he said.

``It's got to be in a public place. There's got to be people around. And it's got to cause public annoyance,'' he added.

In Europe, where women have legally been able to go topless for decades - mostly in designated areas - the fuss has long since died down, said a German sociologist.

``Women go topless mostly where it's appropriate,'' Hans Dieter Gunther said. ``We see it at the beaches, or in parks, but not so much anywhere else.

``For the most part, wherever you go in Europe, you see women getting comfortable in the same places where men do - and that is when they're sunbathing at the beach.''

European police can lay charges, but they mostly deal with behavior, not decency, Gunther said.

``It's what they do, not how they appear. If their dress, or the lack of it, leads to a commotion, then yes, police could step in.

``Of course,'' he added, ``when the weather turns unbearable, everyone strips down to as little as is decent - and then you may see men and women both, bare from the waist up, catching the cool breeze from a fountain, say.''

That will eventually turn out to be the case here, said Buist, a London, Ont., lawyer who was retained by Jacob after she took her topless stroll down a Guelph street in 1991.

Jacob, then 19, didn't strip down to make a point - she simply wanted to be comfortable.

``It was hot, sticky, disgusting and gross,'' she said after her arrest, recalling her spontaneous gesture.

A student of philosophy and women's studies, Jacob had carefully thought through the issue that men - but not women - could legally go barechested.

``Sexualization and objectifying of our breasts is purely a cultural phenomenon,'' she said, calling the prohibition keeping women from going topless ``something somebody dreamed up - men defining women's bodies.

``Why should we restrict our behavior?'' she wondered.

Initially convicted of indecency and fined $75, Jacob appealed. Last December, the Ontario Court of Appeal struck down the conviction, setting the stage for the current debate.

Jacob, who has since withdrawn from the limelight, said then she wasn't sure if she'd be baring her breasts this summer.

``I probably will, to some degree,'' she said.

It's that fear - that women will bare their breasts in so-called ``inopportune'' places - that has prompted calls for limits on the right to go topless.

``There's going to have to be something (done) about sunbathing on the beach, where everybody understands the rules, versus in-your-face (top- lessness) in downtown Toronto,'' Premier Mike Harris said earlier this month, calling on the federal government to impose restrictions.

``I think we're going to have to do something. I think this summer will point out that we're going to have to find out where the line is.''

Attorney-General Charles Harnick asked Ottawa months ago to change the Criminal Code, but so far he's had no response.

``No one knows what is acceptable or not,'' said David Moran, Harnick's executive assistant, adding that the government ``wants changes to guarantee community standards, to give the community to dictate what is acceptable.

``We need some clarification of what is acceptable and what are the options for police to take action to uphold standards.''

Time alone, Buist argues, will settle the controversy.

Women should be free to bare their breasts wherever men do, she said.

``Where do men do it? Anywhere they want. And now it's the same for women. That is the law.''

Buist, who is opposed to limiting a woman's right to go topless, argued that there's nothing wrong with women baring their breasts, even in places where children are present.

``The point is, there's nothing scary or frightening or sick about a woman's breasts,'' she said. ``I don't understand why children should be terrified of women's breasts. They fed from them. They're a natural part of the body. And the more children see them, the more normal they'll become."