European & American Sexual Culture

As a femenist, I have always been taught that the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s was a great advancement for women. Birth control allowed women the freedom to experiment, sexually without fear of a pregnancy. Unwed mothers are still stuck with a negative stigma today. Playboy magazine came about. Television shows became more open about sex. Advertising became more sexually oriented. It's obvious that everyone (especally men) was obsessed with sex all along, it just wasn't socially acceptable until then. But how far is too far?

I think of myself as a very liberal person, but I still have a line in my mind that, when crossed, doesn't make me uncomfortable, but makes me question whether the Sexual Revolution really was for the benefit of women, or just another way to publicly objectify women, without shame. (Sorry for that horrible run-on sentence.) I've seen interviews with Hugh Hefner where he praises his magazine for advancing womens' sexual freedom. I'm not sure if I agree.

I'm a person that actually reads Playboy for the articles. I've seen Playboy in the 1960s and 70s , when women were still allowed to have their own breasts and pubic hair wasn't considered gross. Now Playboy's centerfolds are all exactly the same. It's no longer a celebration of the female form (if it ever was...). Just like every other image of women in the media, it perpetuates an unachievable ideal.

I don't have a problem with nudity. I don't see every image of the naked human body as porn. I think our American culture does and I think this is where many of our problems stem from. If we cannot appreciate our bodies as beautiful works of art, then what's stopping us from objectifying them? What's stopping us from cutting them up and putting fake parts in (breast implants, collagen injections)? What's stopping people from committing violence against eachother?

I think because Europe had a Renaissance, they have a different view of sexuality and the human form, than Americans, who's sexual repression and disgust goes back to our Puritan forefathers (and mothers). This is not to say that Europe is perfect and doesn't have any problems with objectification. But they are able (in general) to appreciate the human body as art. You would never see th people of Florence cover up David's manhood. Nor would you see the people of Paris demand that Venus wear a bra. Yet, in Granbury, Tx, a mural had to be repainted because it featured a Boticelli-like topless woman. And parents complain when their 10-year-olds see nudity on their field-trip to the art museum.