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This issue is beyond simple American prudish tendencies. Because America has always been a bit weird about sex, this reaction about sexualizing children is very
by rhino369 10y ago
This issue is beyond simple American prudish tendencies. Because America has always been a bit weird about sex, this reaction about sexualizing children is very new. Before the 80s or 90s nobody thought of child nudity as sexual.
This exact photo was on the front page of the NYTimes when it was first taken.
This issue is more about the hyper paranoia about child abuse and child porn. Then again something like 1/8 children are sexually abused. So maybe it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.
- tdkl 10y agoThis seems to be also something that got pushed into mainstream over the world with the widespread of the Internet and probably as a boogeyman term to police it. Also to stop millions of dollars of unpaid tax money in purchase of this merchandise online, which was fine before.
- rahkiin 10y agoCan you give a source on the 1/8? I am wondering what counts as 'sexual abuse'. Eg. If a mother or father kissing her or his kid on the mouth is sexual abuse, the number does not surprise me.
- r_smart 10y agoMaybe depends on where you come from in the US. Where I come from I totally believe it. But then, I am fairly open about my childhood abuse, and it makes other people feel okay about opening up, so I could just hear about an inordinate amount of it.
- desdiv 10y ago>Because America has always been a bit weird about sex, this reaction about sexualizing children is very new. Before the 80s or 90s nobody thought of child nudity as sexual. Confusingly enough, child beauty pageants originates from the US, and are mostly still a US-only thing. This contradiction really boggles the mind.
- rhino369 10y agoIt's not really a contradiction. We associate child nudity with sexuality because we've started to sexualize children. It's why America refuses nipples on TV, but we go hog wild for huge tits.