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Going 'bare chested' refers to a man wearing no clothes above the waist, exposing the torso and arms. It is also known as "stripped to the waist", or "being 'shirtless'".

The term topless is usually only applied to women, since it is much more common for men to be bare chested than women, while the male pectoral muscles are considered to be either equally or less erogenic, in various homo- or heterosexual evaluations, as compared to the female breasts; yet technically both constitute partial nudity with quantitatively nearly identical skin exposure. Local decency rules rarely consider male ''barechestedness'' to be problematic, whereas female ''toplessness'' in public is often frowned upon or even proscribed.

Contents

Cultural attitudes

Barechested activities

Famous bare chesters

Musicians

Other Performers

Fictional bare chesters

References

See also

External links

Cultural attitudes

Throughout history, many men, especially labourers such as farmers and miners, have worked barechested. This still is particularly normal in warmer climates, with the exception of very hot climates where protection from sunlight becomes more important than ventilation. But various times and places have been more strict and uneasy about the practice.

During the Victorian period, polite society in Western cultures deplored nudity of any degree, even bare-chestedness, and people took great pains to cover themselves up.
In many societies so affected, attitudes began to relax in the 20th century. Going bare chested in public was again acceptable. At first, the rules relaxed only for men on beaches and swimming pools — in New York City, a man could be fined for removing his shirt in Central Park as late as 1960 — but permissiveness gradually grew and crossed gender lines. Most recently, it has become quite common for women on beaches in Europe, the Caribbean and Australia to go bare breasted, though it is by no means universal. It is still unusual on most beaches in North America. In Europe and North America, people who take offense at bare-chested men remain, and some firms refuse to serve bare chested people, having policies of "no shirt, no shoes, no service". In relatively permissive western societies, posing shirtless (or, the suggestive variation, with open shirt) is generally regarded as a very acceptable, 'innocent' degree of intentionally sexy display of the male physique, generically known as beefcake.

In rural South Asia, men traditionally wear a loincloth-type garment, often barechested. In some parts of Asia, bare-chestedness in either men or women is generally disapproved of, and may be highly offensive, even at the beach. In many of these regions, for example South Korea, most adults still swim almost fully clothed. Some countries, such as Thailand, though they disapprove of toplessness among women, condone it in order to keep attracting European tourists. In 2004, a British man carrying packs of ecstasy pills in his trousers was arrested in Thailand for not wearing a shirt.^[1] In Muslim countries, women are religiously encouraged (or required, as in the case of Iran) to cover nearly all of the body.

Barechested activities

In informal sporting matches, such as a game of football or soccer in the park or playing cricket on the beach, players will often be ill equipped regarding separate shirts or bibs for the two teams. In these situations, a common option, at least for male teams (e.g. in soccer and basketball), is to play ''Shirts and Skins'': one team goes bare chest and are hence said to be 'Skins', whereas for reasons of identification the other team keep their tops on and are called 'Shirts'.
Men are also seen bare chested when running or jogging.
In some sports, the male standard-attire is bare-chested, especially in most aquatic disciplines such as swimming, diving, surfing or water polo, and in the beach version of other sports, such as beach volleyball, and various activities in or on the water, as swimwear is generally appropriate.
This is also true of various combat sports, such as oil wrestling (where the grip is of crucial importance) and most boxing disciplines.
Another common activity done barechested is sleeping, done by males of virtually all ages.
Many boys and men go barechested when doing yardwork or when they are outside, e.g. cutting the lawn. Some just are honestly hot, some (especially young men in the adolescent or teenage years) mainly want to show off their body to impress other people.
Boys, notably of sexually unripe age, commonly go barechested (or even naked), especially around their homes, or less often with friends.

Famous bare chesters

Famous bare chesters include:

Musicians

Many male artists perform bare chested. This may add to the visual attractiveness of the musicians and their performance, and is also practical because of the intense heat from the studio/arena lights. Tattoos and body art such as nipple piercings are often displayed by bare chested rock musicians.

★ Peter Andre, Australian-English pop singer, appeared bare chested in all his early music videos and during concerts

★ Travis Barker, current drummer of Alternative Rock band +44 and the previous drummer of the disbanded bands Blink-182, Box Car Racer, The Transplants, The Aquabats, Expensive Taste and The Suicide Machines

★ Jon Bon Jovi used to perform barechested. At the beginning of his career, he was sporting hair on his chest, but recently, he can be seen waxed.

★ Brandon Boyd, lead singer in rock group Incubus

★ Country & Western singer Kenny Chesney usually appears without a shirt in his music videos and in his billboard and bus advertisements.

★ Eminem, the white rapper known as Slim Shady

★ Phil Collen, lead guitarist of the British band Def Leppard, prefers to drum topless

★ Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who, often performed in an open, fringed jacket throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, most famously at the Woodstock Festival.

★ Dave Douglas (drummer) of Relient K plays without a shirt at live concerts.

★ David Gahan, lead singer of Depeche Mode.

★ David Gilmour, Pink Floyd guitarist, performs topless in their concert film

★ Ian Grushka, bassist in punk group New Found Glory

★ Andy Hurley, drummmer of Fall Out Boy performs most of his shows shirtless

★ Keziah Jones, Nigerian guitarist and singer, he states "You have to be free, you have to be loose. I want nothing to restrict my body when I'm playin' music."

★ Maynard James Keenan, lead singer of rock band Tool, performs topless covered in blue body paint

★ Fela Kuti, Nigerian musician and outspoken rebel figure

★ Marilyn Manson, performed shirtless in most live performances until 2003, where he wore shirts more often.

★ Nick Lachey, was often seen shirtless in music videos with his band 98 Degrees, and during his MTV reality show, , with then-wife Jessica Simpson

★ Till Lindemann, can often be seen topless in many of Rammstein's shows

★ LL Cool J, Rapper

★ English rock band Mcfly has been known to remove their shirts during concert and music videos.

★ Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen

★ Moby, the electro musician used to come back on stage for the encore shirtless and perform 1000K standing on his keyboard

★ Jim Morrison, singer of The Doors. While he did not perform bare chested often, his shirtless appearance in publicity photos accompanying the Doors' 1967 debut album cover was extremely influential in male fashion

★ Ted Nugent, was shirtless while performing in concert and on his album covers.

★ Bradley Nowell, late Sublime frontman, performed concerts barechested more often than not.

★ Shavo Odadjian, bassist of rock group System of a Down

★ Nick Oliveri, ex-bassist in rock group Queens of the Stone Age

★ Joe Perry, lead guitarist for Aerosmith

★ Robert Plant, lead singer in legendary rock band Led Zeppelin

★ Iggy Pop, punk rock singer

★ Every band member in the rock group Red Hot Chili Peppers is somewhat known for playing bare chested in music videos/concerts.

★ Gavin Rossdale, lead singer of Bush removed his shirt halfway through each live

★ Bon Scott, late singer of AC/DC

★ Jake Shears, lead singer of Scissor Sisters, often performs in outlandish clothes with no top, including at the 2006 T in the Park festival when he performed nude.

★ Grace Slick performed topless as lead singer of the Jefferson Airplane at outdoor concerts in the late 1960s.

★ Jon Theodore of The Mars Volta removes his shirt during each live show.

★ Lars Ulrich, drummer from Metallica, is frequently seen shirtless while performing.

★ Angus Young, lead guitarist for ACDC, although also known for his school bag and uniform, strips down at least to the waist most of ACDC's shows

★ Mcfly performs shirtless in many concerts, and in some, they may remove all clothes.

★ Andy "The Butcher" Mrotek, the drummer for The Academy Is... commonly drums barechested.

Other Performers

Other performers, such as actors, models (both genders) and sportsmen, such as most (kick)box discipline-practicioners and some wrestlers, also often appear barechested.
The majority of actors who have gained a reputation as either a matinee idol, teen idol, sex symbol or 'hunk', generally have gone bare chested at some point.
A 2002 documentary entitled Hollywood's Sexiest Men (IMDb link) on the American Movie Classics (AMC) cable channel, surveyed Hollywood's leading men from silent film star Rudolph Valentino to today's young stars.
On television, shirtlessness in drama is often associated with soap opera (with large female audiences). There have been extensive shirtless scenes in series such as ''Sunset Beach'', ''The Bold and the Beautiful'' and ''The Young and the Restless''. Other series have included ''Baywatch'', ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and the teen comedy ''Malibu, CA''. The former reality television celebrity Eric Nies frequently presented the music show ''The Grind'' shirtless, virtually the only television presenter to do so.
In most of his earlier movies, Alec Baldwin was seen bare-chested for one reason or another.

Fictional bare chesters

Some characters in TV shows or films are well known for their shirtlessness.

★ Tarzan is usually featured shirtless, in a loincloth.

★ Mowgli is completely naked in the books, but in the movies usually wears tight briefs, a very plain loincloth or even a butt-flap.)

★ Bonehead (Keith Allen) and Foyle (Peter Richardson) from '' worked shirtless all the time.

★ Randy (Patrick Roach) in ''Trailer Park Boys'' is always shirtless.

★ Obelix in the ''Asterix'' series is always shirtless, although his trousers come up to half way up his chest, so he is not entirely bare chested.

★ John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone), often fought shirtless.

★ Johnny Bravo loves to show his muscled chest at ''Cartoon Network''.

★ Angel (David Boreanaz) appeared without a shirt throughout the third season of ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''.

★ ''Samurai Jack'' has the top of (and indeed usually the whole) of his clothes ripped off in almost every episode.

★ Male Smurfs never wore shirts.

★ Malfurion Stormrage of Warcraft. Many male Night Elves are shirtless. Tauren were also shown to be bare chested.

★ Namor the Sub-Mariner is often shirtless in his comic strips.

★ None of the male ''Gargoyles'' (apart from Hudson) usually wore shirts.

★ Murdoc Niccals, of the band Gorillaz, was often seen without a shirt.

★ Bruno, from ''Pokemon'', of the Elite Four.

★ Lenny Loosejocks the main character of the ezone.com ''Lenny Loosejocks'' series of online games.

★ Sideshow Mel on ''The Simpsons'' never wears a shirt.

★ Bonnie Lanier (Brian Wimmer) on ''China Beach'' rarely wore a shirt.

★ Clark Kent, as portrayed by Tom Welling on ''Smallville'', often appears without a shirt.

References

1. Thais stop topless drug smuggler - BBC News

See also

★ Handbra

★ Sociology of clothing

★ Topless

External links

★ Shirtless Men World A site about bare chested men, with article on why to go bare chested, where to do it, and famous people who do it.

★ Shirtless Lifestyle This group provides a forum in which members can discuss the shirt-free lifestyle, assist others in gaining the confidence they need to lose the shirt, and exchange stories of their shirtless experiences.