2023-07-30 11:26:59
The location in the Brentanobad in Frankfurt is quiet, the turquoise of the pool floor glows almost tropically in the afternoon sun, on the lawn around it a few hundred bathers are lying like prettily arranged splashes of color. There was a lot of discussion about outdoor pools these days, it was about young men who cause trouble, some of them with a migration background.
In the Brentanobad, at least on this Tuesday afternoon, no one causes trouble. There are a few young men, but they just lie around and occasionally go into the water.
The testosterone of these men was also the core topic of heated discussions last summer: Some asked whether the young people would have themselves under control if women went swimming without tops. Whether sexual harassment by teenagers and young men with a migration background is almost programmed.
They feel that the hormones are an insult
A group of five or six hooligans in the countryside, some of them don’t have a beard yet, most of them have dark hair. Have you heard anything about the topless debate? “I read that it’s allowed in Berlin,” says one. So far they haven’t seen a woman bathing topless, but it wouldn’t bother her either. “It’s the same for me as it is for a man,” says one bravely.
They take it as an insult that they are accused of having so little control over their hormones that breasts could trigger something. You wouldn’t dream of bothering someone about it. One blinks in disbelief and pushes the black curls out of his forehead: “That wouldn’t be ok at all.”
Last year, women who bathed topless in Berlin and Goettingen were thrown out of baths, and in Berlin a court had also declared this to be legal, as it was an administrative offence. As a result, feminists across the country were outraged. The “Same Breasts for All” alliance campaigned on social media for women to be allowed to swim without tops in municipal pools in the future.
Discussions broke out in many communities in Germany, which can be roughly summarized as follows: The AfD was against topless bathing because women had to be protected from immigrants. Women are “not fair game,” said the AfD faction in Mainz. SPD, Greens, Left and FDP, on the other hand, spoke of equality and freedom. Why should the female breast be an object of sexual desire, but not the male? Strictly speaking, female breasts and wide hips are considered secondary sexual characteristics, in men it is a beard and chest hair. Covering up, according to the advocates of topless bathing, would therefore be pointless.
The debates were mostly initiated by small parties. In Dresden, for example, the Pirate Party brought the motion for topless bathing in the city’s outdoor pools to the city council. The CDU was against it in some cities – but not everywhere. In Hanover, the parliamentary group supported the push undertaken by the Volt party.
In Siegen, on the other hand, the Christian Democrats castigated the debate about topless bathing as “overly ideological, completely exaggerated and wrong”. In Wiesbaden, the parliamentary manager of the CDU explained that a relaxation of the dress code would have “a certain potential for conflict” because of the high proportion of immigrants.
#topless