One woman is on a quest to make Nantucket beaches feel more European.
Dorothy Stover is fighting for all the beaches part of the tiny Massachusetts island to become topless, according to the Cape Cod Times.
“This past summer, I was at the beach and I wanted to lay out topless,” the 40-year-old recalled. “And I thought, ‘why can’t I do that?'”
According to Boston.com, Stover suggested a bylaw amendment, “Gender Equality on Beaches” back in November 2021.
The outlet reported that the law will “promote equality for all persons, any person shall be allowed to be topless on any public or private beach within the Town of Nantucket.”
In a recent profile for the Nantucket Current about the campaign, Stover explained that topless beaches are a way of life in other countries.
“In Europe, it’s completely normal to be topless, you don’t even think about it,” Stover said. “I’ve had more support than I thought I would. It’s been surprising seeing who supports it and who is pushing back. They say women’s breasts are sexual, and I said no, they’re sexualized, not sexual.”
“We have the exact same makeup — men have mammary glands and nipples — and so I started reaching more into it and men can go topless but we can’t,” she continued. “It blew my mind that we’re still in this space. But it’s turned into an equity issue, and I know I’m not the only one who thinks this.”
Nantucket locals are set to vote on amendment during their town meeting in May. The current law in the region states that only men are allowed to go topless when getting their suntan on at the beach.
The Cape Cod Times reported that not all of the residents of Nantucket are happy about the cause. Shantaw Bloise-Murphy, business manager at the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce, revealed to the outlet, “I personally haven’t heard grumbling about it.”
Stover also explained to the Times that the law currently in place that only allows males to be topless is a “really antiquated” idea and breeds on “inequality.”
“Some men have bigger breasts than I do,” Stover claimed.
Stover is also a sex educator and is head of the Nantucket Love School, the “only community for Nantucket women (and women that love Nantucket) to bring together love, spirit and pleasure for empowerment and embodiment in a judgment-free zone,” according to the website.
The School offers live courses and workshops for $26 a month and is for women to learn about self-love and pleasure.
“That is the ultimate goal of the Nantucket Love School: to bring more love into the world beginning with ourselves, then our community, then rippling out beyond our island to the world,” the site states.
