Twentieth anniversary of historic topless walk commemorated this summer in Guelph

The fight for the right of absolutely everyone in Ontario to walk around without a shirt started 20 years ago.

But has the public perception of female breasts really changed as a result?

Gwen Jacob was charged with committing an indecent act on July 19, 1991, the hottest day of that year in Guelph. The $75 fine was overturned at the end of 1996.

Top Freedom Day of Pride, a second annual commemoration of the verdict, has been scheduled for the city's Riverside Park on Aug. 20.

While the first such event took place last summer in the downtown St. George's Square, organizers decided to change the location after some women who wanted to participate expressed a preference for a more secluded spot.

University of Guelph students Lindsay Webb and Andrea Crinklaw were initially motivated to promote the event on Facebook after they felt liberated by a swim in the river with limited textiles.

Still, they were apprehensive about following through in a crowd after they found themselves surrounded by a group of camera-wielding men. The pair painted their chests to feel less vulnerable. Eventually, they were joined by "20 or 25" other women.

"After about two hours, the men standing around outside of the square and just watching us realized it wasn't a sexual event," explained Webb in a recent online interview with Federation of Canadian Nudists president Stéphane Deschênes. "It was just a bunch of average women just walking around without shirts. It really wasn't anything too special."

A discussion with Jacob, as part of the same podcast, reviewed the circumstances surrounding the landmark battle that began with a walk across a field at the university.

Both she and a female friend were annoyed by the fact men able to catch a breeze without a shirt on. Yet, since her friend was wearing overall-style shorts, only Jacob was able to follow through. No one on campus cared.

The charge only came after the 19-year-old walked topless on her own. After stopping at a porch to chat about potential summer work with a man who happened to be a naturist himself, a male neighbour pulled up his lawn chair and made some lewd comments.

Police were then called by the neighbour's wife.

Jacob noted the years of attention gave her considerable insight into how the mass media worked. Often, she was portrayed as an exhibitionist, despite doing hundreds of interviews to counter that view.

Yet, she set a legal precedent in the end.

"Looking back I think, wow, I don't know how I did that," she said. "I did it without Twitter, I did it without Facebook, I did it without any social networking. For the most part, I did most of it myself."