In modern American summer months, it’s a common occurrence to see men running down the sidewalks with their shirts off. After all, it is hot outside and exercising does nothing to help the heat.

A woman could never do this. Sure she could run in a sports bra, but if she had less than that she could be arrested for indecent exposure. Now, I am not saying that I would want to run without a sports bra on, but why isn’t it an option?

The fact of the matter is women’s breasts are not sexual organs, but they are constantly treated like they are. The one and only purpose for women’s breasts is for feeding babies. The way we treat breasts in society prevents mothers from feeding their babies in a natural and medically encouraged way in public. Once again, I’m not saying that I personally would like to walk around with my top off in the summer, but it should be an option.

But we see indecent exposure laws in more ways than just with women’s breasts. While this isn’t exactly a law, we all remember the dress code of high school. Teenage girls cannot wear tank tops in schools that don’t have air conditioning because it might be considered distracting to others trying to learn. Not to be rude, but I don’t think that anyone has been distracted by a bra strap since the 1950’s. We have progressed as a society.

There is one state that is making high school dress codes look tame. Missouri is trying to amend their indecent exposure law to make it so that yoga pants cannot be worn by women in public. We aren’t even talking about leggings. Yoga pants. It is absolutely ridiculous that an entire state wishes to ban an article of clothing that merely shows the shape of a woman’s body. This law goes even further to say that not even men can be shirtless in public. We are supposed to be progressing as a society, not regressing.

In this state if you are arrested for indecent exposure you can get up to five years in prison and be fined $5,000. There are worse things that a person can wear than yoga pants or leggings. Even if they do wear something more revealing, it is their choice what they wish to do with their bodies and how much of their bodies they want to show.

As long as a person isn’t going around completely naked, what place does the government have to say something about it?