Who is to blame for this conundrum?

Ahhh. Halloween. The only night where you can walk up to any attractive woman and ask to take her picture. And expect her to say yes. No matter the fact of whether she is clad in a ballroom gown or so scantily clad that she might as well as not have worn anything.

I am not sure where I am going with this post, except to say that after watching the NYC Halloween parade, I am certain that it is a reason for nearly every woman to wear something that they wouldn't wear in public on any other day of the year. Though I have to say that the pickup truck full of topless women certainly drew many eyeballs, in shock, amusement, or some other reaction.

I had an opportunity to talk to one of those women after their part of the parade ended. Somehow I managed to stand in that exact perfect spot where no camera toting paparazzi could elbow in front of me. The short conversation I managed with her left me with the impression that this one woman was confident and proud of herself. She was fully aware of what she was getting into.

I also learned that these women were models who were paid to display themselves. Some of these models when not being asked to take pictures tried to modestly cover themselves with their arms. Others seemed very tired, just sitting there and were oblivious (or is that accustomed) to the numerous flashes going off in their faces. Others tried to stand behind some of the other models to avoid having anything but their faces in the pictures. One teenager who couldn't have been more than 15 turned around with his cel phone and snapped an up-close shot of one model's chest before he happily walked away.

Later on as I wandered around the city seeing the various costumes that people wore, I came across a woman wearing nothing but a pair of overalls. She had a semi-circle of photographers taking her picture. I'm not sure if she wants to have her half naked picture in so many private photo archives, but she won't have much of a choice.

It's at times like this where I wonder if the cultural taboo about showing breasts in public was a bad idea. If, as in Europe, it is such a common occurrence that no one remarks on it, would these women be surrounded like famous people? I had heard one of the models remark that there were going to be a lot of pictures of her and her breasts. The person she spoke to emphatically agreed that there would be thousands of pictures.

Or is it that those who take the pictures are the ones doing wrong? I know that there were women and men in the crowds taking the pictures of the models in the parade. Is that teenager wrong? I would have said that for these people, it was only remarkable because it was a cultural taboo.