New Hampshire.

The first of the British colonies to declare independence in 1776 and one of the original 13 states to form a nascent United States of America.

A state with very definite British links, evident in its name alone, named after the south coast county of Hampshire. A state with a large city called Manchester. Another city called Portsmouth (also to be found in the original Hampshire). And cities called Rochester-Dover (originals found in the English county of Kent) and Berlin (well, if you don’t know where the original is to that, perhaps you should be studying geography rather than a blog about pixel naturism).

There we are, then. New Hampshire. Old attitudes.

While the original English version can claim a couple of naturist beaches, it seems that the leaders in New Hampshire are rather vexed by the the fact that women have nipples. Just like men, in fact.

Consider this: there’s a proposal to change the public decency laws, which could come into effect as early as January 1st next, which sees Republican representative Brian Gallagher say

‘It’s a shame that some folks are more concerned with exposing their breasts in public places than they are concerned about how families and children may be impacted by being forced to experience this evolving societal behaviour.

This is about a movement to change the values of New Hampshire society.’

Impacted? Forced? They’re tits, Mr. Gallagher. But tits a damned sight less dangerous than those the Republican party elects to the House of Representatives, quite clearly.

A change in the law might make it a misdemeanour if a woman, and only a woman, ‘purposely exposes the areola or nipple of her breast or breasts in a public place and in the presence of another person with reckless disregard for whether a reasonable person would be offended or alarmed by such act.‘

I’ve read some shabby law making in my time. I do, after all, live in the country with the ‘mother of parliaments’, which has more boobies in it than the average titty-bar. I’m not a legal person, but this is pretty shambolic. Purposely? How do you define that, in the eyes of the law? A public place? What is, and what isn’t, public? In your own home with the curtains open? That’s not ‘public’. Alarmed? Grow up. It’s a tit. It’s not like it’s a gun, an item much more likely to cause alarm if waved around. But you Republican politicians will defend the ‘right to bear arms’. I don’t understand how guns will be defended by the gun-lobby and politicians while a bit of fat topped with a nipple causes your world to implode or, as the Huffington Post puts it, ‘Male Politicians Warn Exposed Boobs May Cause Society to Collapse’

Republican state representative Josh Moore, also apparently suggested in December that women who went partially nude in public should expect to be accosted.

“If it’s a woman’s natural inclination to pull her nipple out in public and you support that,” Moore wrote “than (sic) you should have no problem with a mans inclination (sic) to stare at it and grab it. After all… It’s ALL relative and natural, right?”

Just as an aside…you chucked the Brits out in 1776 (but kept the language). Is there any chance you could demand your elected politicians could demonstrate just a little bit of education by knowing how to spell and use proper punctuation?

It seems that the internet is rather amused, in a withering kind of way, with New Hampshire’s new legislation, The Frisky pointing out that social media maintains a double standard regarding nudity, with Instagram removing all female nipples almost instantaneously while comedian Eric Andre posted two full frontal photos that were left alone by Instagram for a minimum of 18 hours.

(Eric, if you’re reading, time to get your phone on the charger, mate).

It seems that there is a long way to go before equality becomes a reality in New Hampshire. It seems equally likely that the state will continue to be a laughing stock, in the eyes of the internet, due to this ridiculous, almost century-out-of-date legislation.

Of course, Second Life itself can often resemble New Hampshire. Nudity is not OK in some states sims.

These ‘Censored’ bars (just search for ‘Censored’) are available on the Marketplace for L$0

OK. I get that it may be inappropriate to be nude on many sims, and respect that, but on SL beaches???? Or, even worse in my eyes, in SL skin stores????? Why might I want to buy a skin that doesn’t show me ‘the full effect’, be it in terms of nipples or lady parts? It’s time to stop this charade of stupid RL attitudes carrying through to SL.

The only gross thing in this photo is a firearm.

Trine.