The German city of Göttingen will become the first in the country to authorize the practice of bare breasts in its swimming pools, a measure intended for more equality between the sexes.
• Read also: Good luck getting your pool dug
This measure will be limited to weekends and must come into force from 1is May and until the end of August, we learned Thursday after the municipality.
With this decision, the city becomes a forerunner in the country concerning the debate on equal treatment between the sexes to be able to show one’s bare torso in aquatic leisure establishments, such as swimming pools.
In Germany, most saunas are already coed and require their customers to be naked for hygienic reasons.
This decision was motivated following an incident that occurred last fall in one of the city’s swimming pools.
An officer had asked a bather, whom he considered to be a woman, to cover his chest. But this person had refused, because he identified as being of male gender and had been denied access to the establishment.
This situation provoked a lively debate within the municipality which finally announced this week the opening of shirtless swimming, for all.
However, the debate on the subject is not closed. Some in the city, however, regret the decision to restrict this possibility to weekends only.
The municipality justified itself by indicating that this should not compromise school swimming lessons during the week.
The director of an aquatic center told a local newspaper that a compromise had to be found with “users from other cultures” for whom nudity can be disturbing.