A little something I found on myspace...

Last summer I watched Ira Glass from "This American Life" speak at Willamette University. He played part of an audiobook by David Sedaris and then read the FCC law and then the fines. Then he played the David Sedaris story again and counted on his fingers the number of FCC violations. Then he took out a calculator and multiplied that number the number of stations This American Life played on and explained how easy it is for the government to censor people.

The story contained not a single cuss word, drug reference, sex reference or really anything offensive. It was about using the bathroom at a friends house and someone before him didn't flush.

Anyways, I kinda liked this essay thingy...

Date: Mar 12, 2007 9:09 AM
Subject On Nudity
Body: On Nudity by Ryan Rogers (www.myspace.com/ryanrogersrizzo)

It was not too long ago that our country was gripped in panic and fear over something they saw on television. Something that happened accidentally (or perhaps purposefully) that gripped our country in fear. Congressional hearings were called. Massive fines were handed down. People were fired. It was bedlam. Parents were forced to contend with a horrible, overwhelming moral collapse of everything they had worked so hard to create. We were on the verge of anarchy.

Janet Jackson showed a nipple.

Yes, my friends, Janet Jackson, pop star and general gyrating flesh factory was performing with Justin Timberlake, and as if this were not embarrassing enough, had a part of her bodice removed during a choreographed dance number, exposing her right breast and nipple (I should say that she exposed her nipple, considering the bodice was already showing off a large portion of her breast already), not to mention perhaps the most tasteful and sexy nipple ring I have ever seen.

Of course, most of us know the rest of the story. Congressional hearings were, indeed, held, and massive fines were levied against the networks. Massive restructuring of the “allowed” images and words on the radio were put into law. Heck, even Howard Stern quit amid the turmoil. Parents were outraged. Family groups were outraged. Church leaders were outraged. And all this because of…a nipple.

Let’s put this in perspective. This was something that happened during the half-time show of the Super Bowl, a sport akin to Roman Gladiator bloodsports (but with padding), complete with perhaps the most violence allowed to be seen on Sunday afternoon television. Because after all, the violence is ok. But when the darkened nipple of a woman’s breast is exposed (the very same nipple which, if exposed on Justin Timberlake, would have been considered part of the act) the country is an uproar. Something tells me that our priorities are a little askew.

We live in a very unsafe and frightening time. People we know are getting killed, murdered, shot, tortured, or more. We fear for our lives. We fear for our children’s lives. We are afraid. So why is it that a film can be simply lauded with blood, gore, and violence, and television watchers seem to not balk at all (and perhaps enjoy it) but if a sexual, sensual or (good heavens) humanly anatomical image is on screen, we decry the decaying morality of our society.

It’s just a breast people. Many cultures seem to have very little issue with exposing the female breast. After all, it is beautiful. It is soft, sensual and aesthetically pleasing. It is part of the beautiful addition that gives a woman their heavenly curvaceous shape. Artists of the highest (and most religious) order have captured these breasts for centuries. They are not to be feared. And in a time of great turmoil in the world, shouldn’t we be far more sensitive to the violence that we constantly see, and far more lax and welcoming to the images of love and sensuality and beauty.
We are human beings. Just because we have chosen to drape ourselves in clothing does not mean that underneath this clothing we don’t all have the same beautiful parts (just in different colors, shapes, and proportions). So what’s to fear. Clearly Michelangelo did not fear the male penis when sculpting David. And heaven forbid I start to detail the famous authors that have paid great reverence for the human female form. It would take me all day.

I realize that we are the descendants of a puritanical legacy brought forward by our great ancestors, but perhaps it is time that she shake off the shackles of our ancestors and realize that our even greater human ancestors were not afraid of the human form. I am surrounded by art, sculpture, drawings, photography, all detailing this human form. The nipple, the breast, the penis, the vagina…these are not things to be feared, but celebrated. When a film tastefully presents these body parts, it is not obscenity, it is art. Heck, even if a film untastefully shows the female breast or the male penis, it is still not obscene. It’s just a body part. People do far more terrible, horrible, nightmarish things with their hands than they do with their sexual organs, yet we do not cover those up.

I am tired of the demonization of human body parts. Breasts are beautiful, and should be appreciated as such. Bodies in all their forms are poetry. The poetry of nature, and we should respect them as such. Nudity is not to be feared or frightened of. It is to be celebrated. And perhaps we would be in a far, far better place as humans if we spent more time worrying about the violence, hatred, and anger that is presented to us daily than the occasional viewing of a bare breast.