Before I begin, I'd like to try and keep politics out of this. I'm looking for your own personal opinions on this matter, and hopefully we can discuss this without issues.

I just read a news article about an event that can basically be summed up as the "Naked Mini-Olympics". Granted the only thing they did was tobogganing (That's what google translate said the english word for this was, not sure about it really, hopefully someone knows what I mean ) but that's not the point. It took place in the german town Braunlage this weekend.

I'm not here to talk about the event though, but the media coverage of it. I just read about it on the online edition of one the countries biggest newspapers, complete with a picture showing two women wearing helmets and panties only, no censorship of the briasts. And it got me thinking, I don't think that would ever happen in a mainstream american newspaper or show, yet here in Norway I've seen it many times and I've never really heard any negative reactions to it.

So the question is, what's your stance on this? Should the pictures have been censored? Or will the children be safe with four briasts in an online newspaper? Personally I see no problem with it at all, in fact I encourage it within reason of course, as it furthers a censorship free media.

Your turn, what do you think?

There is a reason people in the UK like to read the sun... So censorship I couldnt care less about, I see no problem, bowever paparazzi and others who invade others privacy in an attemt to get righ make me sick.

Online, fine. In a paper stand? No.

And why the [censored] would you go tobogganing nvde? That would be damn cold...

A couple of women's nipbles in a picture in a newspaper? Meh. :shrug:

We svck on those things after we're born and we have no psychological problems so I don't see the issue with it. An outright depiction of a six scene is something completely different and I understand and agree that that should be censored, but women nipbles per se nope, IMHO.

The picture should have been censored. It has less to do with protecting children (though that is still important) than it does with promoting intelligent and anolytical journalism. Newspapers and other media outlets should be attractive sources of news because they have thought-provoking and profound coverage of events that actually matter, not because they have a big picture of naked women on the front. God knows many people will buy the paper simply because of the picture, and that is not how journalism should work, and it is certainly the hallmark of a decline in journalistic integrity we have seen over the past few years. Coupled with things such as imprecision in language and a lack of conciseness, unintelligent reporting could become a real problem in modern society.

NO, I think hiding causes more problems, that's all I will say. I like to explain but that will be my theory and I will be told I am not a doctor to make that statement.

Exactly, although the people that have comments like that seem to oddly think that they are doctors or experts or whatever on the subject. :shakehead:

I could link you the article, but it's in Norwegian so it wouldn't do much good I assume. But it served it's purpose, it informed me about the event and was to the point. The picture felt natural because, well they were doing this nvde, that was the entire point of the event itself so if it was censored there would be little point in even writing about it.

Besides, that's how the media works these days, six sells, even if that's not a good thing it's the reality. You'd never find this on the front page of course, simply because it's not important, it's a novelty piece. But now that I think about it, nudity is shown on our main networks as well, not only in movies but in news coverage of them or a news piece that revolves around a situation where nudity is to be expected.

To put it short, I didn't feel this compromised the journalistic integrity of the paper or the article itself, it was a novelty piece, and a few nipbles never hurt anyone.

Were it my country, there would be no censorship whatsoever. News stations would also be relegated strictly to news, with opinions and talks hows inhabiting entirely separate channels.

I think he said that the picture was displayed within the article, not on the newspaper's front page.

This comment I saw on a blog pretty much summarized my feelings about sixuality related censorship in the US.

I think of womens nipbles as just larger man nipbles. I guess here in America being naked is taboo.

I did indeed. Now granted I don't really think of this particular paper (Dagbladet) as a very serious newspaper, but that's hardly the point here anyway. It's one of the most read newspapers, because people want something that's simple and to a certain degree exciting. If I want the best in terms of information and substance I read another paper that is much thicker, has much less pictures and is frankly quite boring.

Here discrimination laws prevent briasts from beinging censored on the news, and even in public- if a man can go topless so can a woman.

The weird thing is every time this topic comes up in the media, someone always ssays, "I don't think children should be exposed to that kind of thing"

WTF do they think those things are for!?

Why can't you do both? Define intelligent and anolytical journalism, and how does having a few nipbles in a picture affect that? Perhaps it would only be considered less intelligent because it is in fact "taboo" in North American countries? Considering there are a hell of a lot of European countries that are more culturally lenient to stuff such as this, and they do not appear to be any less intelligent it seems like a weak argument to me. I mean to them they would call it being pansies and not having a journalistic back bone to show you the real event and give you a story along with it.

It's a cultural thing, and has nothing to do with "morality" in this case. Not only that, but this belief can be traced back to early... yea. Can't go any further because it is a banned topic. You just need to know I think your argument is arbitrary. Since I can't go any further into a debate, well... this is where I make my exit int his topic.

I should've used a different word than morality in the title now that I think about it, but you make an excellent point. It's a culture thing, it seems to me that most european countries are much more liberal in terms of media than say, the US. The question is, why is that?

On the flip side where I live we get mexican news broadcasts and the buttox isn't censored. Nor is the violence. If it's about a gang killing then it shows the bodies tied up and bloodied, no censorship. Even then, god forbid we see something we all share.

Considering the kind of things you can find online I don't see any issue with a couple of nipbles being shown on a news site. If parents worry about their kid's "well being" then they should not let them on the internet.

As for the integrity of journalism, that has been going down the drain for quite some time. Our news in America has become sort of like the movie Idiocracy with its drift towards celebrity gossip being more important then actual news.

I think, and have said before so this is just recycling, that America is almost uniquely hyper-sixualized and that such a state is bad for it's health. See we have this perverse idea that briasts are harmful or some [censored]. Crazy right?

Anyways hyper-sixualization. It's when every facet of the culture works towards reprimanding six, making it forbidden, and repressing it all while using six as a marketing tool and as a powerful force. "briasts are bad and six is bad" they say while strapping models into bikinis and then putting them up on billboards. It turns the naked body into this HUMONGOUS FRIGGING ISSUE that people freak out over, while in more "liberal" places in Europe you see naked people and it's basically no big deal at all.

I think it's stupid. Violence is a-okay, but the human body is taboo and harmful? It's the most twisted, perverse, backwards thing in American culture I think. We have a lot of faults, and a lot of virtues...but the way we handle six is just dumb.

As far as I see it, there are three major ways to respond to something:
1) like it,
2) dislike it and complain about it,
3) dislike it and ignore it.

I think people should get a life and choose the third option instead of the second one in 90% of the cases. I'm so freakin' sick of people complaining about things that don't concern them and have no effect on them (and yes, I see the irony of my complaining here).
I'm not saying that one shouldn't complain, though, there are issues that need to be brought to attention ever so often. People have severe difficulties when it comes to separating what needs to be complained about and what doesn't, though (this problem is what the tabloids are profiting on).

I agree, this fixation on making sixuality taboo is unhealthy. People say it'll corrupt their children, but I can tell you right now that a sixually confused child will have much more trouble in life than someone who knows and is comfortable with his/her sixuality.

Different thresholds of tollerance. I don't think being naked is taboo in the US. mastvrbation is.

Amen to that.

Now that wouldn't really be a good thing exactly, some censorship is all right, but granted too much and unreasonable censorship is worse than no censorship at all. For example, you definitely wouldn't want a 6-year-old kid to see a scene of two advlts sixing each other up with all the juicy details shown on the screen. That and excessively violent scenes with people's body parts flying off of them and getting blown apart is something that actually could cause certain mental issues in small children, IMHO. However, the problem is that certain advlt people tend to think that, since they are reminded of six whenever they see women's nipbles, small children are reminded of the same thing - so they think that therefore seeing women's nipbles is obviously just as wrong as seeing a juicy six scene. However, anyone with any bit of sense in their mind will agree that when a 6-year-old child sees advlt woman's nipbles it will not instamagically get the image of six pop up in its mind thus scarring him forever.

I agree with that.


I like ow tey say think of the children and yet they are thinking about it with an advlt mind not a childs, besides you cant stop kids asking, avoiding it just makes it more awkward.
Funny thing is they complain yet on holiday in spain people dont mind all the topless women...I dont.