Proposition number 12: It is a violation of Community Standards for a female child to be topless at a public beach.

Summary: {‘against’ wins}

            Therefore, it is not a violation of Community Standards for a female child to be topless at a public beach. The Average suggested age of such a child is 6½. If we exclude the ‘no rule’ category, of the 75 Eligible Voters who voted agreement or disagreement, 68% voted for topless female children on an undesignated public beach (±11.3%, 19 times out of 20).

Details:

Graph 12A

Graph 12B

How did Voters who favoured topless female children define ‘child’?

Graph 12C [Voters defined ‘child’ as being under the age indicated in graph 12C.  This graph only includes those voters who voted ‘disagree’ or strongly disagree with the proposition’ which indicated they were in favour of a female child being topless on an undesignated area on a public beach. This implies that these voters are in favour of topless female children under the age indicated. Also included in this graph, are 6 voters who wrote “pre-pubescent” instead of giving a number for the age, (3 females, 3males) so this author assigned the age of 9-years-old to those six voters; nine years old, being the most conservative and widely accepted estimate of the average beginning age of puberty. For the category ‘All Eligible Voters: median=7.5, average= 6.6; n=28.]

Table of: How Voters, who favoured topless female children on a public beach, defined ‘child’

Table 12A (Summary of Results of Data from Graph 12C plus other data for ‘Teen Females’ and ‘non-residents’ not shown in Graph 12C.)

If 68% of Voters favour a 6½ year-old female child being topless on a public beach, at what age would a simple majority vote (50% plus one), be favoured?

Graph 12D

Calculation of Margin of Error:

Results:

            For a female child being topless on a beach:  51 votes

            No Rule:                                                          20 votes

            Against a female child being topless:              24 votes

Comparing ‘for’ and ‘against’ votes:

For:                 51 votes±11.3%= 51 votes±5.8 votes =  a range of 45.2 to 56.8

Against:           24 votes±11.3%= 24 votes±2.7 votes = a range of 21.3  to 26.7

            Because the two ranges do not overlap, the difference between the two numbers is statistically significant.

Discussion of Results for Proposition 12: topless female child:

          The people enacted that female children are allowed to be topless on an undesignated public beach by a margin of slightly more than 2:1.

            Eligible males had a larger majority than eligible females (2.4:1 vs. 2:1 respectively).

            Teen females had a slightly larger majority (2.7:1) than eligible males or eligible females.

            Non-resident voters had an even larger majority of 8:0

            Twenty eight eligible voters indicated a maximum age that a female child may be topless on an undesignated beach. The average age of the twenty eight responses was six and a half years old.

            We can conclude that eligible voters in Alberta agree, by a margin of about 2:1, that a female child of six and a half years old can be topless at an undesignated beach or other recreational area in Alberta according to the present (2008) Community Standards.

          Graph 12D attempts to discover the age of a topless female child on a beach that would find a simple majority among voters of 50% plus one. This age would be the upper age limit that voters would allow on a public beach. Excluding the ‘no rule’ category, 68% of voters favour a girl of 6.6 years-old being topless on a public beach. The question I am trying to answer is: How old would she be for merely 60% in favour?

            Graph 12D is the percentage of voters who favour a female child being topless on a public beach vs. the age of such a girl. There are only three data point pairs on the graph. Each pair of data points are the upper and lower error boundary for of the three age categories: 2, 7 and 18 years old. The data point pair on the left is taken from proposition number 11 and corresponds to the percentage of voters who approve of a two year old baby being nude on a public beach. This data point pair will also do for a topless girl, because a nude baby is also topless and it applies to female babies. The data point pair on the right is taken from proposition number 16 and corresponds to the percentage of voters who approve of an adult being nude on a public beach. This data point pair will also do for an eighteen year old topless female. I assigned the age of eighteen to this data point pair, even though this point applies to the entire adult population. The middle data point pair is taken from proposition number twelve and corresponds to the percentage of voters who approve of a six point six-year-old female child being topless on a public beach. The curve is concave to the downside. Generally, the percentage of voters who approve of a girl being topless on a public beach exhibits an inverse relationship with the girl’s age. As the age of the girl increases, the percentage approval decreases. The curve crosses the 50% support line at a point that corresponds to a girl of approximately 13 years-old. From graph 3C, we can conclude that the maximum age of a girl that can be topless on an undesignated area of a public beach is approximately 13. Up to this age, a majority of voters would be in favour of a girl being topless according to this graph. Since proposition number 15 forbids a female with breasts from being topless on a public beach, the above discussion would have to be modified to stipulate that such a female child must not have breasts. In practice, there would be few females that would fit in this category – perhaps a few late-developers.

            This method of calculation agrees with the observation that throughout all the seventeen propositions in this vote, it is a general rule that females are treated with less concern and with less severity on every level. Please refer to the discussion of results from proposition fourteen for a more complete list of examples of how male exposure is much more severely dealt with than the equivalent female exposure.

            The general principle appears to emerge: that it is not so much the age of the person that determines when the female top must be covered, but rather a stage of development. Rather than specifying an age, the guideline should be, ‘a female child must start wearing a bathing suit top on the first appearance of breast-buds’.

            Looking at Graph 13C again, we can see that there is a wide range of ages, below which, voters favoured topless female children. It appears that there are two or three distinct subgroups (especially evident among the female voters): one at 2, indicating babies only, another at 5(the preschool age), and yet another at 8 to 9 years old (the beginning of puberty). The calculations above with an upper limit of age 13 would correspond to late-onset puberty. Perhaps the age of toplessness in female children (along with the age of child nudity) would be one of the primary factors to consider when defining ‘designated areas’ on a public beach.
Voter Comments Section for Proposition 12: topless female child:

Community Standards Vote 2008

Ifs/ands/buts/comments on the following proposition: 12. It is a violation of  Community Standards for a female child to be topless at a public beach. Define ‘child’ in the above question:________.

[Comments are typed as the various authors wrote them with no correction of spelling or editing.  Editors notes are placed within square brackets.]

[legend: M=male, F=female, number is age, X=not specified.]

-end of proposition 12-

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