The Nipple Party protesters got exactly what they wanted.

They laughed with friends, cruised through Victoria Park checking out the food booths and listened to live music.

Around a half dozen topless women — along with a handful of shirtless men — blended in with the thousands of people flooding the downtown park for the second day of TD Sunfest on Friday night.

Organizers of the demonstration said they were taking a stand against the shame of going shirtless in public.

“Why do we have to be sexualized? Why can’t we just be?” said event organizer Emily Monchamp, 19.

Protester Ilana Walker, 21, said it felt liberating to walk through the crowded park bare chested.

Television, movies and magazines show too many women with breast implants, leaving youngsters with a warped impression of breasts, she said.

“Young women should grow up knowing what real boobs look like," Walker said.

The demonstrators attracted a few gawkers along the way, though most people walked by without even noticing — or caring.

Some parents, however, shielded their children’ eyes as the topless women approached.

“I’m a married woman so I really think there’s only one place to take off your shirt,” said one mother, who declined to give her name.

Two security guards watched the demonstration from a distance, but said they weren’t planning on breaking it up.

Women have been legally allowed to go topless in Ontario thanks to a Guelph University student who removed her top on a hot day in 1991. Gwen Jacobs was arrested and the case wound its way through the courts until the student’s conviction was overturned in 1996.

dale.carruthers@sunmedia.ca

Twitter.com/DaleatLFPress