Topless women walking around New York City’s Times Square have found themselves at the center of controversy over the past few weeks. Adorned only in patriotic body paint, headdresses, heels, and thongs, these women–known as “desnudas” or “the naked ones”–offer to pose for pictures with gawking tourists in exchange for tips. But New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, doesn’t find their gimmick appealing in the slightest, and is already hatching plans to regulate their aggressive panhandling.

Times Square’s topless women should be regulated, NYC’s mayor says http://t.co/emWQnHmudV pic.twitter.com/yAA6ufG3ob

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 22, 2015

In a news conference last week De Blasio was quoted saying,

We are going to look for every appropriate way to regulate all activity that involves either begging, or asking people for a contribution based on, you know, the opportunity to take a picture, for example.

I don’t like the situation in Times Square, and we’re going to address it in a very aggressive manner.

Unfortunately for De Blasio, attacking this issue “aggressively” may not be so easy, especially since legally these women are doing nothing wrong. The Constitution’s First Amendment protects these performers’ rights to artistic expression, and in 1992 toplessness was ruled legal in New York City. Panhandling is protected as a form of free speech, but when it turns aggressive police can legally intervene.

This kind of hostile solicitation has indeed become a major issue for the city, due to some performers pressuring or even verbally accosting tourists for larger tips.

As a result, instead of trying to ban street performers altogether, De Blasio is currently considering ripping out the pedestrian plazas where these topless tip-seekers and their fellow characters congregate. But reintroducing more traffic back into the crowded tourist destination wouldn’t be without its own challenges. The concrete islands were only installed six years ago, and after some initial criticism they have been praised as an innovation in urban design.

The Times Square Alliance, a business group that helped revitalize the tourist destination, is already speaking out against De Blasio’s proposal. The group’s president Tim Tompkins told the New York Times,

Sure, let’s tear up Broadway. We can’t govern, manage or police our public spaces so we should just tear them up. That’s not a solution. It’s a surrender.

New York City Council member Corey Johnson has a different option. He and fellow councilman Daniel R. Garodnick are working on a bill that would limit when and where the desnudas and other costumed characters could operate. By limiting them to designated areas, Johnson hopes to rein in the performers, while allowing tourists the option of interacting with them or not.

The real question is whether or not the “desnudas” are being targeted unfairly in their own right. Hundreds of topless female and male protestors marching in New York on Sunday in honor of National Go Topless Day showed their support for the bare-breasted performers and expressed disapproval over De Blasio’s attempt to disband them. But if the mayor’s proposal targets the issue of aggressive panhandling rather than an issue with nudity, he may end up gaining more support as time goes on.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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