BUZZ
‘We don’t believe that bodies are inherently sexual’
A student trio presented a resolution to the Pitzer College Student Senate earlier this month which calls for topless hours at the campus pool.
According to The Student Life, undergrads Emily Mitchell, Theo Cleary, and Aidan Evans sent out a survey regarding the topic via a school listserv, and as of mid-month 132 students are in favor while just 16 disagree.
The three said a “vague swimwear policy” and “instructions imposed from Campus Security and Gold Student Center staff” lead to “people with breasts” being unable to take their tops off.
Although current Pitzer policy states “Swimwear must be worn at the pool area” and that clothing “is required in public,” the students said it “does not specify stipulations according to sex or gender.”
Claremont Colleges Assistant Vice President for Communications and Community Relations Laura Muna-Landa said in a statement that no Campus Safety records indicate an instance of “students without clothing in the pool area.”
She added, however, that Campus Safety “is not aware of a policy that specifically regulates swimwear or nudity” at the school’s pool.
The trio’s proposal would allow any Claremont College student to be topless in the Gold Student Center’s pool and patio area from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.
“We don’t believe that bodies are inherently sexual,” said Cleary, who according to Linkedin was co-president of his high school’s Alliance of Queers and Non-Queers. “It’s not really your business what other people do with their bodies.”
Mitchell, who devotes time to Claremont Colleges’ Justice Education Center (which works to “deconstruct the prison industrial complex and all of its consequences”), claimed students have “expressed feeling uncomfortable” when school staff tells them to put their tops back on at pool time.
Cleary added such interactions then allow other students “to police people’s bodies and what they’re wearing.”
Mitchell’s and Cleary’s solution for those concerned about being “around topless people of all genders” and the possible presence of underage children was to limit toplessness to students during the noted Saturday timeframe.
Unfair that men and “people who don’t identify as women” can go topless
According to the report, Mitchell, Cleary, and Evans got their idea from Professor Thomas Kim’s “Intro to U.S. Politics” course in which “students were instructed to create a campaign that would result in measurable change.”
Several students offered support for the topless resolution, saying it will “help to release stigma about people’s bodies,” “make everyone more comfortable,” and won’t “regulate” women’s bodies at what is an historically women’s institution.
One student claimed it was a “double standard” that men and “people who don’t identify as women” are permitted to take their tops off … but women aren’t.
Two years ago, students challenged Scripps College’s (another Claremont institution) “anti-woman” topless policy in an effort to “desexualize breasts.”
While the Pitzer Student Senate is likely to pass Mitchell, et. al.’s resolution, the trio are skeptical the administration will actually make it policy.
MORE: Topless ‘nun’ performs sexualized burlesque at Dartmouth drag show
