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!

    • MTK@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      7 days ago

      I disagree, you were just taught to be ashamed of your body. Just as you shouldn’t be ashamed of your face or hair or height, you shouldn’t be ashamed of your nipples or butt or genitals.

      Nudity is okay, your body is yours, and your nudity is not for others pleasure if you don’t want it to be. Just as I wouldn’t look at your face and be disgusted that you have a nose, i wouldn’t be disgusted that you have other body parts.

  • Bob@feddit.orgEnglish
    54·
    7 days ago

    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.devEnglish
      32·
      7 days ago

      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.orgEnglish
        31·
        6 days ago

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

        • portal9021@feddit.orgEnglish
          3·
          6 days ago

          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.orgEnglish
            2·
            6 days ago

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

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      6·
      7 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.

  • nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    79·
    7 days ago

    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

    • CosmoNova@lemmy.worldEnglish
      231·
      7 days ago

      The quality has also dropped dramatically since the emergence of American streaming services while creating entertainment has become more accessible with freeware and open source programs. The world lost it‘s appetite for Hollywood slop.

  • Cruxifux@feddit.nlEnglish
    481·
    7 days ago

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

  • Mniot@programming.devEnglish
    433·
    7 days ago

    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.nlEnglish
      6·
      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

    • Aqarius@lemmy.worldEnglish
      26·
      7 days ago

      I find identity tends to be like an onion, in that it has layers.

      Also in that picking it apart is an unpleasant experience that frequently ends in tears.

      • HasturInYellow@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        7 days ago

        I agree. I like the post and its message, but in general everyone needs to focus less on identity and more on community. People have really lost the plot these days. What are we doing all of this for? So our families will have a good life, right? Everyone the world over is mostly just looking for that.

        • Aqarius@lemmy.worldEnglish
          51·
          7 days ago

          …Now that you actually put it that way, it’s kinda weird to think of identity as something separate from belonging to a community.

  • Tenkard@lemmy.mlEnglish
    351·
    7 days ago

    I didn’t take my dick out for Harambe, but I’ll do it for Europe

  • dumblederp@aussie.zoneEnglish
    23·
    7 days ago

    I’ve been to a bunch of nudist events in Australia, naked bike ride, nude beach, life drawing events, confest hippie festival and some gallery openings. I’ve also studied anatomy. People need to get their head right about what it means to be naked. Everyone has a body, and should be more comfortable with it.

    Edit: Chatting with yanks on deaddit, they largely seem so afraid of nudity that they’ll be calling the police if there’s an adult naked around a child where in many other parts of the world it’s completely normal, eg modest family bathing scenes in anime.