scary nudity

[Eirik]

As a matter of fact, JohnL, America does have public nude beaches.  Don't believe me?  There's one at Sandy Hook, NJ.  I stumbled across it accidentally once.  That experience - and my experience at a nude beach in Germany - convinced me that America is right on in limiting nudity because 85% or more of the people in the world you do NOT want to see naked.  

Personally, I am all for limited nudity in a society because it helps preserve the magic and mysteriousness of it.  I think a society that looks at a woman's breast with the same bored detachment it might have in looking at her ear has really lost something.  Just my opinion, but I don't think "prudish" is the right word to describe that opinion.

I haven't seen the page in question yet, Andrew, but I support you 100%.

[Eirik]

"I understand your point of view, but the question was more about the censor of breast vs. showing very raw violence. How come sex is less acceptable than violence for you. "

It isn't!  We don't show nudity on TV (generally), but we also don't show decapitations or entrails either.  Is a guy getting beat up on a cop show somehow more violent than Britney Spears' pantless magazine cover is sexual??  That's nuts.  We limit sex and violence in our media and we do so - I think - pretty equally.  As for violence, the French film "Irreversible" is more violent than ANY American movie I can think of (I'm not criticizing it - I think it's a very powerful film).  The contention that Americans are prudes is as silly as the contention that we're somehow more violent.  I think the limitations are in good taste and I am in the majority that thinks such limitations are best for kids (I understand and respect the opposing viewpoint here, however).

I also mentioned in a post above that limiting nudity has the positive effect of not desensitzing us to it.  I'd rather get a kick out of seeing some boobies (and the women get theirs out of seeing Mel Gibson's (or whoever's) ass) than to see boobies and yawn and think - yeah, those are all over the place.

[Shounen Kakumei Pikachu]

> Very true....also strange how in Japanese films you CAN have
> nudity, but you CAN'T show pubes. Go figure....

Watch Perfect Blue.  And read something like Urotsukidoji.  unless it was skewed in translation, those are some very uncensored pics there.

[JohnL]

>As a matter of fact, JohnL, America does have public nude beaches. Don't
>believe me? There's one at Sandy Hook, NJ. I stumbled across it accidentally
>once.

I believe you, but I'd be willing to bet that they have way more rules than their European counterparts. I'll bet that the beach is required to be isolated so that it can't be seen from the road or any nearby houses/buildings. I'd also be very surprised if people were allowed to take their kids on such a beach. I also bet that it has to have special permits from the city to allow people to go nude there, you can't just put up a sign saying "Nude Beach" an expect to get away with having nude people running around in public.

[Eirik]

"I believe you, but I'd be willing to bet that they have way more rules than their European counterparts. "

Not to be snotty, but wrong again.  The only thing separating this beach from the "Must Have Clothes Beach" I was at was a sign (a permanant metal one put up by the city).  And there were plenty of kids on the nude beach (though they all had swim suits on - something I also approvingly  observed in Germany).  The one rule I remember being posted on the sign was a "no photography" rule, which seems more geared to the privacy of the nude bathers than to any prudish American paranoia.  The beach was in full view of lots of buildings and was only isolated by being at the end of the beach away from the parking lot.  I was there in 1991.

By the way - something else I noticed in comparing Sandy Hook's nude beach to Germany's: There were a lot more people at Sandy Hook without anything at all on.  Germany's nude bathers for the most part had trunks/bikini bottoms on.  Am I now justified in questioning Germany's prudishness?

Whoever said America's "prudishness" could be better described as "considerateness" I think had a good point.

[JohnL]

>Not to be snotty, but wrong again.

Ok, I stand corrected.

[Eirik]

Actually, it seems Sandy Hook is just one of several nude beaches in the NYC area.  Check this site out (it's a guide, not a pictorial of the bathers)....

http://www.geocities.com/bhnyc/

[mr. henry]

america is the porn capital of the world my friend...do some research

[Alexandre]

That we all know.

[Susan]

>>america is the porn capital of the world my friend<<

Just to emphasis that I've seen websites with lego and furniture porn

=:-o