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"I think that six years of figure drawing should be a mandatory part of public school curiculum, just so people get over the human body. This would make stupid, vulgar displays like that damn [Super Bowl] halftime show less common, and also make people care less when they do occur." -- mister_wolf, in a comment, 2004-02-19

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There are 16 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

It's the old statist reflex: "We've got a problem! Prohibit something, or if we can't then make something mandatory!"

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EVERYTHING NOT COMPULSORY IS FORBIDDEN

EVERYTHING NOT FORBIDDEN IS COMPULSORY

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For errorist, a pointer to this old entry in my blog:

http://mcgath.blogspot.com/2004/10/errorists-atack.html

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Pardon me, while I fling my glass into the fireplace.

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I could be wrong, but I don't think it was so much a reflex as a joke.

Speaking as someone who is morally and politically opposed to all mandatory schooling, and who supports the separation of school and state.... and still found it funny.

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Anything! to make people get over "Oh horror!" reaction of the human body would be immensly beneficial!

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Thanks, but (no pun intended) I draw a line at this one. I'm perfectly fine with human body, but being required to do 6 years of drawing (anything) at school would probably have sent me pretty close to slitting my wrists.

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No, as somebody who has had more than 50 combined stitches or staples in her wrists I can tell you that it takes a lot more than drawing to be pushed that far!

However, it would still take a society that did much more than just draw a naked body in art class.

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It takes more than that for you. But I am _not_ graphically inclined, and every "art" class that I was ever required to take was sheer torture to me. The idea of having had to go through 6 years of it, no way to get out, is enough to make me whimper now, and I'm quite a few years out of school.

Everyone has different breaking points. Just because _yours_ don't involve nightmares about being forced to be visually artistic doesn't mean that holds for everyone. And vice versa - I am sure that at least some of whatever things that caused _you_ to do what you did are hardly blips on the radars of a number of people.

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The FCC is now cracking down on nudity on radio:

http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/4019483/detail.html

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Waitaminute, the episodes in question were broadcast in 2002, and now, in late December 2004 the FCC is just getting around to saying, "You shouldn't have done that and we're fining you"?

[bleep] that -- there ought to be a statute of limitations on indecency violations, if for no other reason than the possibility of another station saying, "Well, what that first station did must have been okay, since they didn't get in trouble for it," then getting nailed for something they broadcast in the year between the example and the reaction to it.

If it wasn't objectionable enough to warrant a timely response, was it really objectionable enough to warrant any punitive response?

(Note that this is separate from the "we're going to fine you but it'll take a while for all the arm-wrestling to be completed" aspect. IF I'm reading that news report correctly, it sounds like the FCC only just now got around to telling the stations that what they did was wrong.)

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Er, the name of the show was "Naked Twister", but the reason it got fined was because of explicit interviews with porn stars.

I felt the need to clarify this because my brain spasmed at the idea of banning "nudity" on an auditory medium. What, you have to wear clothes in the broadcast booth?

No, they haven't (yet) jumped off that cliff. They're still on the old topic of talking about sex.

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Yeah, it would be nice if people would just chill about casual nudity. As the Japanese
say "nudity is often seen, but never looked at". My own casual attitude I tend to explain
away by claiming I'm an art student. It's quicker than running down a bunch of
concepts that are totally alien to many people.

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I think the trouble with the superbowl thing was not so much the breast thing but the fact that it was "sprung" on the people who had not expected it. Now if we lived in Rome or Europe nudity would not be so shocking. But in the USA there is a large percentage of the population that don't want to be exposed to such things. As such when it is done in public and it is unexpected then it give shock value and responces.

I know it may seem like a good idea to make people less sensitive by saturateing the airwaves with nudity or violence. But that would deny people the right not to be exposed to such things. So we end up play the what is acceptable under what conditions game.

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Maybe only 3yrs. compulsory. I'd get tired of doing drawing after drawing if they were all nudes. I was good at portraits in charcoal and chalk in Jr. high, but my lack of depth perception was a hindrance in impressionist landscape painting. "It's flat! It's FLAT!" Mrs. Ferguson would yell. Oh, right naked bodies.

I resented being told to wear a shirt when I was 7, quit wearing underwear at 15, camped at a clothes-optional lake the summer I was 18, while working graveyard shift at a large corp....I don't care who sees me naked, but I'm not pleased with my waist or lack thereof right now, and don large t-shirts to keep the public from shuddering. The public would shudder if I had a star's figure and went naked. T's and sweats or bike shorts or jeans are also comfy and cheap. Add sweaters, coats; all set.

I'm in Tucson visiting Mom. Her sweet 60-something neighbor tends to wander about naked, and worried it would upset me. Mom assured him I wouldn't take it as any muchness. He's got blankets hung at strategic points in his fence so as not to upset others. I've not chanced across him (can't think of Latin phrase). It hasn't been "Go Naked" weather much. I haven't met his longtime girlfriend, but Mom says "She's much younger." Hey he's letting me pirate his internet service via his wireless modem. I did say he is sweet, didn't I? Except when he's cranky.

Nudity can shock even me, however. One day I was driving down Main St., and a woman was walking on Schubert toward Main with nothing on but a baseball cap and socks and sneakers. After not hitting the curb, my 1st thought was "Is she okay?" and the 2nd was "Where does she carry her keys?". I was on my way back to work, and there was nowhere safe to park, so went on. I have 2 witnesses to this event.

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I'm going to point out just this once that in Sweden, kindergarden (which is compulsory as far as I know) begins at age three. One of the many items included is learning to swim, nude, with as many of the parents there as wish to be or can be. Along with compulsory sex education that IS education (as in , this is how things work; here is the emotional medical, etc., impacts to be expected by most people most of the time) rather than politically or religiously motivated BS, these leave Sweden in an unusual situation; the rate of teen pregnancy is less than one tenth that of the US and hasn't changed in nearly fifty years. Ditto for the age of first sexual intercourse, almost seventeen years. Would that we did a fraction as well.

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QotD

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