Activists Go Topless in New York to ‘Make Reading Sexy’
Every year during spring, New York City gets to witness a unique campaign that asks people "make reading sexy." If the purpose of the campaign does not quite strike a chord, here are more details. A "topless" literary club of the city organises book reading session every year in New York with no thread covering the lady bosoms.
The Outdoor Co-Ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society made their demonstration in public on Friday, May 2, and on Saturday, May 3. Several women went topless and read books in the sun on the rooftop sundeck of a certain "nude-friendly, gay-friendly, everything-friendly boutique hotel," Huffington Post reported. As the name of the organisation suggested, the members are strong admirers of pulp fiction. The reading list of books showed similar taste as well. The members read certain books like Abraham Lincoln, Presidential Fu*k Machine, Borderline, Moby Dick as well as Hunt Through The Cradle of Fear.
OCETPFA came into existence a few years ago with a clear mission to make it "sexy" to read books. The digital age may have been hugely responsible for killing habits of reading real books. The smell of a new book may have been romanticised enough by reading enthusiasts, but in today's reality, real books are fast replaced by their digital counterparts. The apparent damage was not only done in the form of reading but "serious reading" may also have been affected. Less number of people read classics and longer novels. People may have become more interested in "shorter" stuff that meets their fleeting attention.
The group apparently wants to remind the people of New York that it is legal to be topless in the city. While the group is relatively unknown to many people, a Word press page throws light on the group and its purposes. Strategically subtitled as "Burn Bras, Not Books," the Web page says that it is a "a group of friends, and friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends, and complete strangers, who love good books and sunny days and enjoying both as nearly in the altogether as the law allows." The group invites like-minded people to join them on Twitter and asks people from other cities to collaborate on starting a branch of the club in those cities as well.
Check out the explicit photos from the campaign [warning: NSFW].