How men freed their nipples
It used to be illegal for men to reveal their nipples in public — a shorts/tank top combo was the norm for togs back then. But in the 1930s things changed after Olympian Johnny Weissmuller wore nothing but a loincloth in 1932's Tarzan and the Apes.
And off screen, male swimmers at Coney Island began intentionally flouting the cover-up rule by going bare chested to the beach. After a series of fines, a judge overturned New York state's male shirtless bans in 1937.
But even after New York state lifted its male nipple ban, publicly shirtless men still risked arrest if they were perceived as gay. In 1947, for instance, Harvey Milk was among a group of shirtless men arrested for indecent exposure in Central Park, yet the bare-chested married men in the park weren't harassed. (Stuff Mom Never Told You.)
