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A Minnesota woman who has been proudly swimming topless for two years is challenging her state’s indecent exposure law.

Michelle Bennett, a photographer in Duluth, was tanning topless at Park Point beach at Lake Superior on June 26 with friends when a concerned parent approached her and asked her to cover up saying her kids, sitting about 60 feet away, were uncomfortable.

She refused and about a half hour later a Duluth police officer arrived on the scene to ask her to put her top back on.

'He told me it wasn’t a nude beach. I said no one here is nude,' a defiant Bennett said to the Post Bulletin.

Minnesota photographer Michelle Bennett says she's been sunbathing topless for two years and is challenging her state's indecent exposure law after a cop told her to put her shirt on last month

She bickered with the officer for 45 minutes saying that Minnesota law, which states a person is guilty of indecent exposure when he or she 'willfully and lewdly exposes the person's body, or the private parts thereof', doesn't specify if breasts are 'private parts' 

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'I wasn’t being lewd, I was just laying in the sun, minding my own business,' she added to Fox21. 

What followed was a 45-minute discussion of Minnesota's vague indecent exposure law where Bennett argued that women's bodies were being sexualized in public places and debated the terms of 'private parts' and 'lewd behavior'.   

In the end, she covered up and wasn’t arrested, insisting that it’s not illegal to be topless on the beach. 

'They really couldn’t establish if I was breaking a law because of that ambiguous language [in the law],' she said.    

Under Minnesota's state statue, a person is guilty of indecent exposure when he or she 'willfully and lewdly exposes the person's body, or the private parts thereof.' If someone under the age of 16 is present, the crime is a gross misdemeanor.

But the law doesn't give specifics on what is considered 'private parts'. But it does include a specific exception for breastfeeding mothers. 

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Bennett says she's been swimming topless in Lake Superior for two years and finds it sexist that she has to cover up when men don't have to. Bennett pictured above at the beach

Now Bennett is trying to reach out to Duluth mayor Emily Larson and the city attorney to change the vague law

However, there is a separate Minnesota law that says nudity includes a woman’s breasts, but nudity is only defined as illegal if one is presenting it to an audience. 

Bennett says she's been swimming topless in Lake Superior for two years and finds it sexist that she has to cover up when men don't have to. 

'Men are allowed to do it, so I feel entitled to it as well,' she said to the Star Tribune. 

And Bennett says she's not changing her lifestyle any time soon and she's trying to reach out to Mayor Emily Larson and a city attorney to try to change the vague laws. 

They're yet to return her calls.  

'I’ve had multiple conversations with people who weren’t even fazed by the fact my chest was out,' she said. 'Just, "Oh, you look like you’re having a nice day. Are you finding any agates?"'

'I have a beautiful life and I know my truth,' she said. 'And I don’t like being told what to do, so I will be back.'

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