Only a few left their bikini tops at home in Siegen this summer. The new "topless bathing for everyone" attracted a lot of attention, but was only used sporadically in the swimming pools. A belly flop?
Siegen (dpa / lnw) - The "topless bathing for everyone" in Siegen swimming pools, which has also received national attention, has hardly been used since the summer. "Almost no use was made of the new option of leaving the bikini top at home," said a city spokeswoman when asked by dpa. In June, the city council decided for the five municipal swimming pools that all guests - regardless of gender - are allowed to swim shirtless.
In the two outdoor pools, "someone was seen at least once on the sunbathing lawn" with a bare female breast," reported the spokeswoman. And in the water - both in the outdoor pools and the indoor pools - nobody used the new regulation. Obviously, there were no - or not yet - there was a need. On the other hand, the municipality received "a large number of complaints, insults, threats by e-mail, letter, calls". "One threat was reported."
The request came from the Volt faction. The female breast has "always been sexualized and perceived accordingly," it said. A large part of society wants a change. The bathing regulations now state that swimwear must "only completely cover the primary sexual characteristics".
According to the local Volt faction leader, "individual people" have so far made use of the new regulation - how many exactly cannot be quantified. The main thing is to create awareness of the problem for more equality. "If you look at the Germany-wide discussion that resulted from this application, we have definitely achieved this goal," said Samuel Wittenburg. It can be assumed that "year by year more and more people decide for themselves whether they want to wear a bikini top or not."
The advance had "strongly polarized". A lot of criticism came from the "conservative and religious spectrum" - sometimes irrelevant or defamatory. But there was also a lot of positive feedback.
