this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025
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Comrades of the European Internet Forum,

enough is enough!

For decades, we have placed ourselves in the cultural shadows - well-behaved, conformist, as if we were the ill-educated child of the great American moral uncle, who must not be too loud, not too naked and certainly not too independent. While half-naked shoulders are censored at high school graduation ceremonies in the USA, heads are thrown around like bowling balls in TV series. All normal, all ‘entertainment’. But woe betide you if you see a nipple - then the censorship hammer screeches louder than a Trump on Truth Social.

I ask you: What has become of Europe?

We, the continent-born of the Enlightenment, the revolutions, the renaissance of nudity on canvas, in stone and on film - we have allowed a country that bottles cheese in cans, of all things, to tell us what is ‘moral’!

It's not moral, it's demurely stupid.

Why are depictions of violence in mass media allowed to flow freely like American fracking oil, but natural, aesthetic, tasteful nudity - which has been part of European art and culture for centuries - is algorithmically filtered out, demonetised and labelled with warnings as if it were uranium?

No more prudish double standards!

We need a cultural return to what we have to offer:

  • Enlightenment instead of transfiguration.
  • Pleasure instead of violence.
  • Nudity as an expression of naturalness - not as a moral offence.

I call on you: Banish pixelated prudery! Let's tear apart the corset of American moral dictatorship like a badly programmed DRM protection! Save the freedom of the breast - for Europe!

Stop aligning your films, games and series with a market that beeps ‘fuck’ five times but completely waves ‘shoot him in the face’ through.

We are not Hollywood's post office box. We are Europe. We are culture. We are naked! - So, metaphorically. And sometimes literally. And that's okay.

Thank you for your attention!

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[–] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 6 days ago (3 children)
[–] GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 28 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Because there is nothing wrong with it.

fair enough i suppose.

[–] lb_o@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

Because it's artistic and natural.

[–] Asfalttikyntaja@sopuli.xyz 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I don’t know, but there’s very chilly weather here and my pee pee is shrinking. Maybe we could try again in the summer?

hmm, that's unfortunate, have you considered putting clothes on? I hear that helps.

[–] Mandelbrot@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago
[–] Bob@feddit.org 1 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I assume that you haven’t watched any American TV shows for the past couple of decades. Nudity and gratuitous sex scenes are a staple of the American entertainment industry.

[–] Mniot@programming.dev 32 points 6 days ago (1 children)

But note that that's about nudity and sex being the same, and the sex is pornographic (that is, the intent in showing it is to arouse the viewer). The OP is about non-sexual nudity. In fact, OP doesn't mention sex at all, but I feel like it's reasonable to extend the argument to non-pornographic depictions of sex.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

That's also true. Actually, I think they're (edit: sex and violence) both intended as pornographic in their own way.

[–] portal9021@feddit.org 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I think, there is a strong difference between pornography and artistic nudity and those should not be viewed as the same.

From Wikipedia on Nude (Art):

Kenneth Clark noted that sexuality was part of the attraction to the nude as a subject of art, stating "no nude, however abstract, should fail to arouse in the spectator some vestige of erotic feeling, even though it be only the faintest shadow—and if it does not do so it is bad art and false morals". According to Clark, the explicit temple sculptures of tenth-century India "are great works of art because their eroticism is part of their whole philosophy". Great art can contain significant sexual content without being obscene.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Ah, to be clear, gratuitous sex and gratuitous violence are both pornographic in their own way. Sorry, my bad.

[–] idefix@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 days ago

Funny, I was under the opposite impression: nudity has almost disappeared from US shows.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 6 days ago

Eh. Violence is still way more prominent. If feels like the whole point of the first 5 minutes of every cable show is presenting in vivid on-screen detail a new and unheard of way a person can be horribly hurt. Nudity is unusual and worth remembering, though.

[–] Noerknhar@feddit.org 117 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Hell yeah! But actually, what?

[–] diegantobass@lemmy.world 54 points 1 week ago

I have no idea what I just read, but it sounded like something I should agree with

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[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 79 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

I took my clothes off I don't know what else is going on but I'm having a good time thanks for inviting me I really appreciate it

[–] SorteKanin 7 points 5 days ago

Username checks out?

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[–] Cruxifux@feddit.nl 48 points 1 week ago

Haha written like a pamphlet during the Industrial Revolution. I love every part of this.

[–] Mniot@programming.dev 41 points 1 week ago (5 children)

It's a funny post, but a serious point. The Europe of my childhood was different countries all very different from the US. But over time American media and algorithmic dominance are eroding things toward being America with accents. And what will you get for throwing away that cultural identity? Americans will still sneer at Europe.

I think a trickier question is: if Europe ought to retain its own identity, then shouldn't each European country retain its own identity instead of banding together as "Europe".

[–] Mavytan@feddit.nl 6 points 6 days ago

My view is that it's not necessary to pit regional identity vs European identity. I think it's possible to have them side by side. I appreciate many things in my region that make up our identity, but at the same time as a European I can also appreciate many cultural aspects of other regions

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