Ok, who has not seen one of these and had a bit of a giggle to yourself?
A Hamilton dad is protesting about carvings with the thread-titled appendages. He said it was not easy to explain them to his 3 under-10 year old children when they came across them in the garden display. I thought one of the kids response "Is that a penis?" very mature for someone that age - correct use of terminology, apparently un-embarrassed by the question (I say "apparently" as there is no indication one way or the other when reading the text).
My first reaction (knee jerk) was one of gosh yes, how come these protuberances can appear out of nowhere and be in our face (so to speak) without any form of protest. But after reading the dad's reaction to the fact that he wouldn't complain about European nudity in art "because everything is kept in proportion" it made me wonder: do we get up in arms about the proportionality of it, or the nudity in general? I mean, puritans through the centuries have defaced even "proportioned" nude statues because of the display of dangly bits. Funnily enough nude women representations don't seem to cause the same reaction.... I wonder if that's because (as I read in an informative magazine once, which despite lots of provocative pictures, I was reading the articles....ahem) womens genitalia, being more internal, isn't as obvious as male therefore more 'discreet'.
So how about it kb'ers. Are we just being prudes due to social, cultural and religious doctrine or is there something inherent in many of us which consider modesty good and desirable? (Try not to get this sent to the RR thread if possible).
Originally Posted by Katman
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