The Topless For Equality Project

I’m helping to create a book about equality, featuring boobs

The other day, I had a conversation with New York photographer Haley Ballard about her Topless for Equality Project, a series of pictures of women, men, and non-binary people of all ages and races with their shirts off. She had read a recent story of mine and wanted to talk about a collaboration. When I saw Haley’s pictures and heard about her vision for a book featuring her photos and my words, I did not hesitate to say yes and it’s something that I’m really excited about.

The Topless For Equality Project has been on-going since June 2017, and since then Haley has taken photographs in both London and New York of more than 75 subjects. Her stated goal is “to capture the raw honesty of what it means to be human,” by showcasing the beauty and vulnerability of individuals, couples, and small groups topless in a city setting.

Both New York and London legally allow public toplessness, although Haley said that it was often quite awkward to ask people to pose for her. Some of her subjects are friends or acquaintances, but many were strangers that she approached in the subway. Having a flyer to explain the project helped, but it’s still its own act of vulnerability to ask people you don’t know if they’d like to pose for you topless in public.

A few days before we talked, Haley had been sent my recent piece on the 10th Circuit’s overturning of the ban on women being topless in public in Fort Collins, Colorado called Women Win The Right To Go Topless In 6 States. The person who sent it to her was one of Haley’s subjects, a 74-year-old woman. It caught her eye because my story was also about toplessness as an expression of equality. “Hey, my body is not indecent if his is not indecent,” Brit Hoagland, one of the original plaintiffs in the Fort Collins case had said, and I agreed.

The time seems to be ripe for this topic. Haley would like to get a few more photos from subjects in New York, but she is nearing the time when she is ready to present this project to the world with commentary to go alongside her photographs — something that brings the larger vision more fully to life and explores the topic of equality, with an emphasis on gender equality.

So far my story has been read by more than 11.6K people, many of whom are not on Medium. In other words, we’ve got both indications of widespread interest in this subject as well as available content. I’ve written several other stories this year about the history of gender equality in the United States, patriarchy as a social system, and about finding healing and empowerment in public nudity. It seems a great synchronicity that Haley and I met each other.

My next steps will be to watch the video clips of the interviews that Haley did with most of her subjects and to begin to make an outline. I haven’t outlined a writing project in 30 years, so I’ll need to dust off some skills, but I’m excited to get going. Once the words and images come together, the next step will be figuring out how to get this published. A gallery show in New York is a definite possibility.

I believe in this project and am smitten with Haley’s fabulous, real human beings displayed in a way that we rarely get to see them photographed — without shirts in a non-sexual context. Seeing those images really brought home to me how sexualized most photos of women are. I haven’t seen all of the pictures yet, but I can’t wait to do so.

I want this project to be seen and have success because I think it’s an important topic brought forth in an interesting way, but I’m also just truly looking forward to the journey. Thanks to all those who have already expressed interest and support. I’ll be posting updates from time to time as things progress.

© Copyright Elle Beau 2020 Elle Beau writes on Medium about sex, life, relationships, society, anthropology, spirituality, and love. If this story is appearing anywhere other than Medium.com, it appears without my consent and has been stolen.