We must face this naked truth

Good morning, dear reader,

I am writing you this text as a man. That could still play a role, but it doesn’t have to. Feel free to decide for yourself after you have read it. Today we will deal with a topic that has so far been discussed primarily in cities such as Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne. If you are currently reading the daybreak in Meppen, Heidenheim or Bamberg, you may not have had any contact with it. But soon it could spill over to you too.

Because there are swimming pools everywhere. Or public places where people refresh themselves in cool water. There are unwritten laws there. For example, that it is proper to collect and dispose of your rubbish. But there are also established rules. Every swimming pool has house rules – and these often contain a passage that now seems to be wobbling in many places.

This passage reads, for example, like this in the case of the Berlin baths: “In the swimming pools, all bathers must wear standard bathing suits such as swimming trunks, swimming shorts, bikini, bathing suit, burkini.”

What is not explicitly stated there, but means for women: a standard bikini also includes a top. So they should cover their breasts. While men are allowed to splash about in simple swimming trunks, topless of course, for decades it was apparently the social consensus that women were not allowed to do so.

One asks oneself: why actually? Why are we men allowed to do something that women are denied? It’s acceptable to sweat together naked in the sauna, to roast shirtless on a lounger in the sun, but as soon as you get to the swimming area, the woman has to quickly put on a bikini top.

This logical inconsistency is crumbling. In cities like Göttingen, Siegen, Hanover and Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne, it is or will soon be permitted for women to go topless in indoor and outdoor pools. In the Cologne baths, the new regulation should come into force on April 1st. A spokeswoman for the baths explained the decision because of the nationwide topless discussion in recent years.

Do not get me wrong: No new dogma should (should) be derived from this. If women prefer to go swimming in a bikini top, that’s perfectly fine. But if they are more comfortable without it, why should they be forced to cover themselves? A female breast is not a public nuisance, provocation or offensive. She should be allowed to be shown just like her male counterpart.

For me it is a question of equality. Women should be allowed to enjoy exactly the same freedom as men. In this respect, the movement in the baths of the republic as a reaction to social developments is only logical. After all, whose freedom should be restricted by women jumping into the water shirtless?

Which brings us to the naked truth: Even today, when a woman undresses, many heads turn, staring and staring begins. The female breast is still considered a sexual object of desire, it attracts attention. So it’s also up to us men to de-sexualize the breast, to actively help shape this social development.

Because despite all the fixation on clothing in bathing establishments, there is so much more at stake than just a secondary sexual organ. It’s about tolerance and about granting women the same rights in everyday get-togethers. And what about people who identify as men but don’t look like men? They would have to cover themselves. That’s not up to date, it borders on discrimination.

Lotte Mies, for example, successfully campaigned for topless swimming in Berlin’s swimming pools and is now being attacked for it. She even reports death and abuse threats. That’s what happens here with us. In Germany. In the year 2023. As a society, we must not allow this aggressive intolerance.

This Friday, the traffic light coalition wants to decide on its electoral law reform in the Bundestag. It looks like she will be able to do this with her own majority. That would mean the up 736 MPs grown Bundestag would be up again at the next election 630 Mandate scaled down. This works because there should be no more overhang and compensation mandates in the future.

But the Union and the Left Party have already announced constitutional lawsuits. They are particularly angry because the so-called basic mandate clause is also to be abolished. It has the effect that a party also enters the Bundestag based on its second vote result if it has missed the five percent hurdle but has won at least three direct mandates. That’s the only reason why the Left are in the Bundestag at all and in the Union, the CSU in particular is worried about reaching the magic mark, after all, the sister party of the CDU only got 5.2 percent nationwide.

The Federal Chancellor and several ministers travel to the first German-Japanese intergovernmental consultations. In addition to Olaf Scholz, Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister will also be appointed Robert HabeckMinister of Finance Christian Lindner and foreign minister Annalena Baerbock be with you on the trip. Japan is chairing the G7 this year. The visit will focus on strategies for reducing dependencies for energy and raw material supplies – above all on China.

Which brings us directly to an explosive topic that came up last night in a report by the US magazine “Politico” and in all probability should not have gone unnoticed by the German-Japanese delegations either. This one turns around possible arms deliveries from China to Russia.