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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   38429 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 27, 2023

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Only 1/50 parents actually objected to nudity being shown (the other two objected to not being informed)

You (and others) talk like these are entirely disjoint concerns, but how separate are they really? Why is informing the parents required in this case in a way it isn't with, say, multiplication tables? Maybe it's a failure of imagination, but I'm having a hard time thinking of a plausible answer that isn't rooted in what some posters are calling "American prudishness".

Is there some alternative to parents getting to decide whether their children should see nudity, that you favor?

Because the only alternative I can think of is "parents shouldn't get to decide whether their children should see nudity". Yet you've carefully avoided claiming that. Do you just have no idea whatsoever about the subject?

Well, what I want to know can be rephrased as "what's so special about nudity"? I mean, surely they see themselves without clothes all the time, and lots of other cultures, and not weird fargroup ones but familiar European ones, don't have these hangups according to other posters. It sounds like you're presupposing an answer to that, and indeed an answer you can't even seem to imagine anyone disagreeing with.

I don't really have an answer, beyond that "kids are property" is a nonstarter.

I don't think that really changes my response. Either parents get to decide (at least sometimes) if their children should see nudity, or they don't. If you're going to ask what's so special about nudity, that's still going to imply one of those two answers. If you don't know what's special about nudity, then you don't know whether parents should get to decide if their children should see it. Is this really something you don't know?

Of course, the answer is that nudity is related to sex. And even though some nudity isn't very sexual, there's a range of examples, some more related to sex than others, and some which are 1/3 sexual and 2/3 something else, and some which are sexual and horrific, and some which may not have been meant as sexual but which may cause the child to react sexually, or which may have been provided by the teacher because the teacher was deliberately pushing the envelope about how sexy it could be. It's a matter of judgment-and parents are the ones to make the judgment calls.

(I hope your response will not be "what's so special about sex".)

lots of other cultures, and not weird fargroup ones but familiar European ones, don't have these hangups

Even the Europeans won't allow nudity to be seen by children with no restrictions. (The French dub of Ranma 1/2 censored out nudity.)

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