Naked morals
Published:Wednesday | June 16, 2010 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
SECTION 9(B) of the Towns and Communities Act, as amended in 1995, provides that "every person who shall, in any thoroughfare or public place, indecently expose his or her person" shall, upon the second or subsequent summary conviction, be liable to a fine of $1000 or imprisonment for not more than 30 days.
The statute in question does not specifically define "indecent exposure", however, Blacks Law Dictionary defines the term as "[a]n offensive display of one's body in public, especially of the genitals." 'Offensive' is defined as something "[c]ausing displeasure .... especially repugnant to the prevailing sense of what is decent or moral."
Having regards to these definitions, it would appear that the exposure of one's intimate body parts and/or the article of clothing designed to protect same from public display would amount to indecent exposure and should result in the person so caught being prosecuted.
Despite this law, presumably still valid, our people continue to 'indecently' expose themselves in public. Men display, to the chagrin of some like me, their underwear, which is anything but being worn under their clothes. In a society that is supposedly homophobic, it is ironic that we tolerate men exposing themselves in this manner.
Inappropriate exposure
Women walk around with sections of their intimate body parts protruding from their clothes, freely advertising their 'beauties' to all and sundry. There is, in my view, nothing wrong with a woman wearing something elegant sexy, leaving me to romanticise. However, her being almost naked or essentially showing me publicly just what she is made of is rather disturbing, however satisfying one could reasonably make it.
That articles of clothing are now being made specifically to provide for the partial display of intimate body parts publicly is rather telling. Perhaps, as a society, we have lost our moral fibre so much so that we have come to accept, willingly or otherwise, this new behaviour as normal.
I am, etc.,
KEVIN K.O. SANGSTER