Canadian Attitudes Toward Female Topless Behaviour: A National Survey‪.‬

ABSTRACT: This study examined Canadian attitudes toward the acceptability of women being topless in three different contexts: at public beaches, in public parks, and on city streets. It evaluated the predictive value of several demographic variables (gender, age, education, religiosity, marital status, and region of Canada) in explaining attitudes toward topless behaviour. The data were obtained from a Compas Polling survey that asked Canadian adults (N = 1479) questions about relationships and sexuality. While Canadians differed in their views about legal acceptance of toplessness in public, context played a major role with acceptance greatest for toplessness at public beaches and least on city streets. Logistic regression models predicted a significant but modest amount of variance for each of the three topless contexts with gender and religiosity consistently being the most significant predictors of attitudes. Key words: Female toplessness Sexual attitudes National Canadian survey