When it comes to nudity, American society is weird. We raised our first child mostly in Europe, where nude beaches are the norm, and few would make a fuzz seeing a naked child. Our oldest spent much of his early years running around on beaches without any clothes on. It saved a lot of diapers. Then we visited Chicago. On a blistering hot summer day in a park, Maryann stripped off our son’s clothes. His grandfather got extremely upset and threatened to go home instantly. Later, on a beach in Michigan, little kids would stare at our nude son (he was two years old) and called him names. None of this ever happened anywhere in Europe, and for that matter neither in Morocco and Turkey, where we stayed during winter. Any problem with nudity is socially fabricated, as far as I am concerned. This morning I heard on the news that somewhere in America, an eleven-year-old child sent a nude picture of himself to a friend over his cell phone. The announcer called it pornography and said that a judge is considering charging the child as a sex offender. As a society, have we lost any sense of balance? In medieval Germany they held a public execution of a rooster for mounting another rooster. I looked it up: Pornography is defined as “the depiction of sexual behavior that is intended to arouse sexual excitement in its audience.” Is this really what’s in this eleven-year-old “devious” mind? Immanuel Kant concluded that an action, to be considered morally wrong, must include intention. Neither the rooster nor the child, I presume, can be blamed for deviant intention. On the other hand, to be fair, I should have said above: To me American society appears weird, not is weird.
Only in America could pudeur reach this level of insanity. But this is also why we have a society that produces serial killers and pedophiles en mass on a cultural pathology assembly line. Victorian England also created its own illnesses and then reveled in them. Here we have our media to thank, and their underage marketing eye, and our religious history.
Totally agree. Growing up in the Philippines, seeing a little kid running around naked in the beach or just soaking in the rain is perfectly normal. Nothing malicious about it. If it is a grown up person then that will be a problem. Americans make a big deal of everything. The truth is people became aware of something only if we exploit that idea. Like kid’s being overweight, or playing toy guns. Sometimes I felt bad for kids in America because they can never enjoy what it really mean to be a kid since they worry too much about offending somebody – its the weird culture of America that is for sure.
No problem with a nude toddler (though letting him run free on a beach while ‘saving diapers’ is icky), but I have met some very savvy 11-year-olds! If he is old enough to send photos on a cell phone, I would think he is old enough to know he shouldn’t – even as a joke. Charging him as a sex offender is over the top. A lengthy cell phone “time out”, enforced by parents not a judge, is in order.
Media does not help. Nudity/partial nudity is continually portrayed in a salacious manner, seldom simply glorifying the amazing work of art the body truly is! A favorite TV ad, for a pain reliever, is shot in black and white, and simply shows close ups of a variety of bodies. Even the “older models” look beautiful in this ad. Nothing sexual about it.
A thought – if American children were allowed to run around nude more often, might that help avoid childhood obesity issues?
I completely agree with all the above post. Having been to Europe, the Caribbean, South America, and other places people walk around nude on beaches without problems and have no issue with displaying nudity on primetime television and commercials, etc. The attitude is much more lax which I enjoy. Many in America would probably chalk it up to “morality” but I believe it is really the oppressive viewpoints on nudity and sexuality stemming from certain religions. However, suppressing all these things (like the above commenter pointed out) rarely leads to anything good. It just produces pedophiles, rapists, and other deviants that find violent and sadistic outlets because of the nudity taboo in this country. I would hope with our new generation that ideas would change but I would not count on it.
I agree with that post. How can an eleven year old be charged as a sex offender for sending a nude picture to his friends. He had not intent of it making his friend sexually aroused. I read today in the Chicago Sun-Times that they are trying to pass a bill, so that children who “sextext” (i think that is spelled right) will not receive felony pornography charges and have to register as sex offenders. Instead they will have to do some community service and go to some sort of class. I am not sure what is wrong with nudity at a young age like one or two, it is the way they came out of the womb. I have a eighteen month old daughter who I am going to be potty training this summer and she will probably be walking around the house semi-nude or nude while were training her.
[...] Nudity, A Gay Rooster, and an Eleven Year Old Sex Offender. February 2010 5 comments 4 [...]
This is all rather unique to the United States inasmuch as our culture very early on was shaped by the religious Puritans who settled here. Unfortunately, we didn’t collectively inherit a much more useful obsession from them: pacifism. I find it very interesting that most Americans get riled up over anything having to do with sex, especially where children are involved, but don’t have as much of a problem with violence and depictions of violence. Many children in this country are brought up viewing violence on television, in video games and many (including me) are/were encouraged to be violent by their parents and peers as a way of getting through a competitive world.
I guess the bigger question for me concerning the eleven-year old is, even if he did intend to sexually arouse someone: so what? Who was it hurting?
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