A judge has ruled that women may jog naked in the Pine Tree State. Apparently the law concerning public nudeness and lewdness is quite specific in stating that the genitals must show.

Now I'm not now, nor have I ever been (Shirley MacLaine's weird beliefs notwithstanding) a woman, but I can't imagine how one could display female genitals while jogging, at least not without slowing down progress considerably. And even if I could imagine it, I don't want to.

The trial was short:

Female Defendant: Did you see my genitals?

Arresting Officer: Not that I recall

Female Defendant: No further questions, your honor. Defense rests.

Clearly this is a law that discriminates against (most) men. It will have to be rewritten. One wonders just how they'll handle it. They can't go after bare chests, because then the women could still jog wearing nothing but bikini tops. Maybe they can look for guidance to the Olympic ice skating competition.

What about all those warmup stretching exercises runners like to do?

The real problem is that there is that general inverse correlation between willingness to expose skin and desirability of seeing that skin exposed. The best solution is to forget the whole business of what constitutes "nudity", and concentrate on defining and outlawing "ugliness".

Actually the DSMIV (the shrink's bible) definition of exhibitionism likewise specifies genital exposure as the criteria. It has long been held that by definition only men could have a paraphelia and thus the technical definitions in both law and psychology have been written to reflect this. It was not all that long ago that a male child could not, by legal definition, be raped or sexually assaulted and in many instances there were no statutes that covered the crime.

Myria

It is a marvel that the state even feels it has a legitimate role in such matters. Amazing.

free-market.net carried a link yesterday to an article about Locust, Pa passing an ordinance re "the showing of covered male genitals in a discernible turgid state." (http://www.pressenterpriseonline.com/cgi-bin/liveique.acgi$rec=17009?frontpage3