[winston optic beer]

It is remarkable how much things have changed.

Going back to my youth it was still rare. In the late seventies, I went to the south of France with my then girlfriend. On our first visit, I remember her excitedly telling me that I'd missed seeing a woman getting her tits out on the beach while I was off getting something from the car.

Just a few years later, it seemed every woman was doing it. In the nineties, my ex and her teenage daughter thought nothing of sunbathing topless together by a busy hotel pool in Greece.

The women I've known have liked go take off as much as they felt they could get away with while sun bathing. However, few of them were brave enough to be the only woman who is exposed. They take their cue from what other women are doing.

These days, it's far less common yet still acceptable. My wife tends to wear a full one piece costume unless we are on an official nude beach. Last year we were on a quiet beach in the Maldives. As soon as my wife saw a young woman walking by topless, she got her own boobs out. Yet later when another couple sat down nearby, she covered up again.

She just doesn't want to be the odd one out. A far cry from my hippy-like first girlfriend back in day, who'd happily get naked on all but the most crowded of family beaches. She didn't care.