Nudity and the US

This comes from a situation in KatzForums, in which I downloaded links to a lot of material, much of it Playboy magazine or the equivalent from around the world.

This was my response to a thread complaining about it:

Sorry Capitalism56,

I was searching for and downloading that type of link (and being polite to the poster). There may have been more items near the top of the lists, because saying "Thank You" bumps threads (that is a flaw in the web site).

Mr. A. (whoever he is) had nothing to do with this. In fact, if each of my "Thank you"s wound up sending him a PM, I am quite sure he is not happy with me.

What I copied links for is not, by standards of a reasonable person, Pornography. The limitation to people over "The Age of Consent and Contract" is for protection from extremists, not because of the nature of the material. Very little of this material even depicts the genital area of the models. Most are clothed.

There are no sexual acts, no blasphemy, no advise to break the law, no violence, no animals or children, and nothing else that could cause harm to a reasonable, sane person.

The taboo against people showing skin is much stronger in the US than most of the civilized (but non-Islamic) world. It comes our history. Many of our early citizens fled to this continent, because they believed that life is for work and prayer, and that any time spent solely for pleasure is sinful. Those among us with that belief still have a huge effect on our society (relative to their population), because we believe that you have a right to your beliefs and taboos.

Perhaps, we need separate sections in E-books for non-fiction, fiction, and art. Most of these fit into the non-fiction category, along with National Geographic, People, and the New York Times. Is that what you are afraid of, the truth?

I live in the USA. In this country the majority of experts in education, public health, and child psychology believe that the taboo against the depiction of nudity (as opposed to pornographic photos) is hurting our society. They have called for sex education to begin at approximately the age of 10 years. The recommendations include exposure to pictures of men and women with no clothes on and a discussion of the differences. Other aspects to be taught at that age are more "pornographic", including sexual abstinence, the relationship between sexual contact and diseases, and where babies come from.

Finally, almost every healthy child has seen the genitals of other children by age 5 and the breasts of a grown woman from birth.

Again, i am sorry if you had to look harder for your favorite books. I am sorry [I]for you [/I]if you were trained that pictures of skin are dirty or offensive.

Katz has separated the adult films into a different web site, not banned them. This is largely so they do not appear in the main "new topics" list for people who are disturbed by their existence.

I have to admit, this taboo has hurt me personally. I am separated from my wife, partly because I didn't know enough about intimacy (not just sexual). When I asked a question about sex as a child, my father's answer was to hand me a college textbook, that was typical of the environment. I am working hard to overcome the effects of this mistreatment.

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P.S. The prohibition against nudity in the Islamic world has nothing to do with the woman disobeying the Quaran. It is the belief that some men might have inappropriate thoughts if they see the face of a beautiful woman.