Quivering Over Semi-Exposed Breasts

By Marty Klein, Ph.D.

Jordache Jeans has launched an entertaining set of print and TV ads featuring model Heidi Klum. On TV we see Klum's topless back; in print we see her looking into a full-length mirror, her out-of-focus breasts sort-of visible, nipples strategically covered with hair.

Predictably, those obsessed with hiding women's breasts from unmarried Americans went berserk. Robert Peters of Morality in the Media, for example, suggested that this represents the end of civilization as we know it.

People who freak out about women's breasts need to grow up a little, not talk about "morality." Like any reasonable 13-year-old boy, Peters keeps careful track of boobies-"it is to my knowledge the first time a half-page photograph of a topless woman has appeared in that paper two days in a row."

Similarly, Peters lovingly describes a recent photo of "Courtney Love sitting in her birthday suit, with breasts fully exposed except for a few beads" (Is that a complaint or a sigh of relief? Doesn't the coverage of "a few beads" contradict the outraged/thrilled "fully exposed?")

This is the same attitude that leads these people to count "damns" and "hells," and the number of milliseconds you can see Janet Jackson's nipple or someone's butt crack on TV. Your federal government can fine a radio or TV network for each use of a forbidden word, and it funds the Parents Television Council to count them. There's a dignified use of democracy.

Exactly how damaging are women's breasts on TV, film, magazines, and newspapers? With nude beaches, topless TV ads, and magazines that mix nudity with gardening tips, a half-billion people have already done this experiment, and the results are clear. They live in a place called Europe, a place that American "morality" crusaders conveniently ignore.

PS: Please let's not stoop to "But the ad exploits women." All ads exploit people--they feature men in dresses, suggest that a car is a "lifestyle purchase." Klum has three kids, so let's hear it for topless mothers.

excerpted from:
"Quivering Over Semi-Exposed Breasts."
By Marty Klein, Ph.D.
© Sexual Intelligence Issue #91 Sept. 2007