Dylan Brogan
Most days around noon, you'll find Lili Luxe under the Forward statue outside the Wisconsin State Capitol.
Whether on Reddit, Facebook, or eavesdropping around downtown, Lili Luxe is creating a buzz by just sitting quietly on the steps of the Wisconsin state Capitol — sans shirt.
“I had a meltdown the Monday after [Roe v. Wade] was overturned. Everyone was just going to work like no one cares. It was just all too normal,” Luxe tells Isthmus. “So I decided to do this.”
For two weeks straight, Luxe has spent her lunch break topless outside the Capitol — which she points out wouldn’t turn heads if she were a man. She usually strolls around the Square and then sits underneath the Forward statue at the top of State Street. Luxe has also been biking around town topless and attending outdoors events like the recent Art Fair on the Square. Sometimes she’s joined by friends.
“A cis-gendered man wouldn’t think twice about what I’m doing and society wouldn’t shame him for it. But I have been raised to believe that my body is banned; my body is sexual; my body needs to be covered,” says Luxe. “We never question why. To me, this protest is about the bigger picture of what bodily autonomy actually means. The rules we impose upon ourselves.”
For about a decade, Luxe has been organizing topless bar crawls and other nipple equality events. But she was still a bit fearful about appearing topless outside of an organized gathering.
“Now that I’ve done this for more than a week, I can feel a difference in my brain and how I think about myself. It’s been so positive,” says Luxe. “At first I thought, ‘Is this going too far?’ But now I wonder why I didn’t do this years ago. I want to be part of the movement that normalizes this freedom for everyone, deprograms how we think about some people’s bodies and not others.”
Isthmus joined Luxe on one of her daily topless jaunts downtown and more than a few passersby did double takes. Some avoided eye contact, there were a few smirks. But in general, no one seemed bothered or fazed.
“I realize that I’m going to be glared at but I think that’s mostly because a topless woman is not something you see often,” says Luxe. “I definitely get some looks. I've gotten some questions. But I get more positive feedback than I get negative feedback. If the worst reaction is the stink eye from someone, I can live with that.”
Wisconsin law defines nudity as “any female human being who has less than a fully opaque covering over any portion of a breast below the top of the nipple.” But Madison police spokesperson Stephanie Fryer says there is no ordinance in the city regarding nudity.
“There is a public indecency ordinance. Public nudity in and of itself is not a violation of this order. Those involved would have to be committing a ‘lewd and lascivious’ behavior,” says Fryer. “The state statute on lewd and lascivious behavior indicates it would be a misdemeanor to publically and indecently expose one’s genitals or pubic area.”
Fryer says officers have been getting questions about Luxe but no formal complaints have been made to the department.
When Luxe started regularly appearing topless at the Capitol, the Wisconsin State Capitol Police confronted her.
“The first thing [the Capitol Police] always ask is if I would cover myself. I respond very politely but firmly, ‘Would you come up to a man and say that?’ I've been very purposeful in not making a spectacle of myself. I understand that just being topless is a lot of noise. So I don't need to scream about it,” says Luxe. “I think the police have acquiesced. Yes, I can do this and I’m really not bothering anyone.”
Tatyana Warrick, spokesperson for the Capitol Police, wouldn’t comment on whether Luxe is doing anything illegal. But she does tell Isthmus the agency hasn’t received any formal complaints.
Luxe says her protest isn’t about exhibitionism.
“I'm not actually pro-nudity. I get why we need coverings, otherwise it would be chaos and it’s not very sanitary. I’m also not just showing up topless at any restaurants or businesses,” says Luxe. “This all gets back to everything that’s happening with abortion and this crisis we are in over laws that tell me what I can and cannot do with my body. This is about equality.”
In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to legal abortion, “people were sharing and talking about how we are in The Handmaid’s Tale now,” notes Luxe, referring to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel where some women are forced to dress in red robes. “But we are already wearing robes and for some reason we enforce that on ourselves. At a waterpark, I’m told to wear a bikini while surrounded by hundreds of topless men.”
Luxe intends to continue her daily topless crusade. She says she enjoys it — especially on a hot summer day — and it’s been cathartic at a time when she fears what the loss of reproductive rights means for her two daughters.
“In the winter, obviously, this will get trickier,” says Luxe. “Unless someone can design me a see-through parka.”
