[Note in 2024: original post contained a lewd image here I can no longer find, just imagine some naked bodies]
Noooo!!!!! Not full frontal nudity! We musn’t forget that breasts, penises and pubic hair must be kept out of the public eye at all costs. After all, they’re dirty and sinful and obscene. No good can come from them and for them to be seen in the public arena in any way is to encourage moral decay and sexual deviancy in our children.
But wait, everybody has them – how can they be obscene?
The fact that we refer to things like breasts and penises as “private parts” and do our damndest to keep them from all but the most familiar eyes (sometimes only our own) and yet maintain a media that constantly displays images of graphic violence during prime time suggests a rather twisted state of values.
Watch prime-time television for a few hours and you’re likely to see scenes of assault, murder, domestic abuse, and possibly even rape portrayed in the the course of normal programming. Watch popular films you’ll see violence that’s more plentiful and more graphic by a good margin. Play video games much and it’s even worse.
And nobody even blinks. But the point here isn’t to talk about violence. The discussion of violence here is merely to set the stage. With all this in mind, consider the recent media frenzy regarding Janet Jackson’s nipple, which as I’m sure all of you have heard ad nauseum was broadcast in real time to all of America and beyond during the halftime show at the Superbowl. With all the hubbub, you’d think that Justin Timberlake had stripped off both her clothes and his own, bent her over a stage prop and fucked her doggy style for some three hours. But no, it was just a nipple. And it was on screen for less than a second.
Does this strike anyone else as being just a little, well, moronic?
On the one hand, we are constantly buffetted with graphic images displaying violent crimes – things that in real life lead to death, severe bodily harm, and long-term physical and emotional damage and disabilities. On the other hand, half of the population of the United States gets up in arms when something even vaguely suggestive is broadcast on network television, with or without large-print warnings before-hand to let morally-sensitive parents know it’s time to send Junior out of the room.
It was a nipple. Just a nipple. Everybody has ’em. I’ve got two, actually. But it’s ok of I go on television without a shirt and show mine to the world. If a woman does that, though, people’s morals have been violtated. But why? Are XX nipples inherently offensive whereas XY chromosomes are not? Do nipples become offensive and obscene when perched at the apex of naturally-occurring mounds of fat?
And how is it that someone getting shot in the face is acceptable fodder for network television dramas, but a millisecond of out-of-focus pubic hair at 3:00 AM on a shitty station in the middle of nowhere being watched by no more than five people would be instantaneously met with several thousand angry calls to the FCC demanding that something be done? Oh, that’s right, the human nether regions are collectively where the devil resides.
What I’mm driving at here is the point that our value system is completely out of whack. This isn’t news, of course, but as our nation becomes more and more polarized, it becomes more and more dangerous and generally absurd.
Of course, we could just solve the problem by outlawing penises and breasts and things like that. Given the outrage that usually seens to accompany their public display, only a few people have them, right? Hmmm….this just in – EVERYBODY HAS THEM! Are you a girl? Guess what – you have breasts, a clitoris, vagina, and not one but two sets of labia. Are you a boy? Surprise! You have testicles, a penis, and oh-so-cool publicly-accepted nipples!
So let’s review:
OK:
Guy nipples
Graphic images of rape, murder, assault, etc
Incredibly distorted images of human sexuality in general (everything but nudity)
Not OK:
Girl nipples
Boy parts
Girl parts
Honest depictions of human sexuality for what it is
WHAT THE FUCK?
Oh yeah, and I swear it’s impossible to find decent straightfoward frontal nudity shots on porn sites. Didn’t see that one coming…
