Censorship of the Female Nipple

[Thesunmaid]

I have to say that the 'nipple dot' censorship reminds me of the tiny lines you see in NSFW mangas.  News flash:  You're not really hiding anything with that!

I asked someone about that...why do they pixelate penises or put black lines over cocks breasts and vagina's...its not like most who watch it will be like..hey that has small dots and lines on it...I wonder what that is? I mean its not like we will remove the dots or bars and it will reveal its hiding a shoe or a lemon pie. We know what it is...we know if you remove the dot there will be a nipple there...its not exactly making people scratch thier heads in confusion. My my...there are lines...and that long thing seems to be pushing into that hole like thing...and there is moaning. Gosh what ever could they be doing. Grarrr.

[Oniya]

Oh, the ones I've seen are even more laughable.  You see the whole thing in sharp focus, except that there's a line maybe 1/16 of an inch thick, crossing just where the head meets the shaft.

[Nachtmahr]

Oh, the ones I've seen are even more laughable.  You see the whole thing in sharp focus, except that there's a line maybe 1/16 of an inch thick, crossing just where the head meets the shaft.

It's funny - I know this is going slightly off topic by the way - But I've actually had the great experience of chatting with a Doujin-illustrator (Probably not the right term.) and it's of course got something to do with the weird Japanese censorship laws. Anyways, the funny part is that apparently there's this sort of weird competition within the industry to see who can do the most ridiculous and pointless censors.

Genuinely once saw a Doujin where a penis had been censored by putting a penis-shaped black bar where the head meets the shaft. That might be my personal favorite.

[Far eyes]

Genuinely once saw a Doujin where a penis had been censored by putting a penis-shaped black bar where the head meets the shaft. That might be my personal favorite.

Thats actually not really uncommon, i have seen stuff like that done years ago

[alextaylor]

It's ridiculous, but a social norm. Much of (western) society agrees that full breasts are bad, but cleavage, underboob, sideboob is ok. The line is drawn at nipples.

At some point people forgot why the line is drawn there. We have breast milk awareness now.

For many cultures, breasts are ok exposed. In Islam, women are expected to cover up from tummy to knee to other women.

[LtSurge]

Personally, I feel that nudity in itself is a victimless, non-violent crime. And censorship is something private  individuals and companies should exercise, not be compelled by the State.

There is nothing offensive about the human form. Breasts, butts, penises, whatever. I don't understand the fear people have of the naked form. I also don't understand why the same people seem completely okay with other naked animals being naked, with their genitals flopping around and such.

[Lunar Raven]

I'm not altogether certain of the purpose that censoring serves, though I suppose I can understand where they're coming from - but if that much of the breasts have been shown, censorship on really serves to call (more) attention to it than it would have otherwise had.  When I was much younger, I always spent more time wondering about the censored ones, but when there was an actual uncensored picture of a woman's nipple, I'd gloss over it relatively quickly.

[Triceli]

I couldn't help but poke around in here (no pun intended) and I came across this thread. Stop me if I'm not allowed to post here! I can definitely understand how this could be a touchy (pun intended) subject for some people, but I've actually thought about it to some length in a kind of philosophical way. We all have our own ideas about things, of course, and this is my idea about this subject. I'm not here to tell anyone that they're wrong or that I'm right. It's just what I think.

I don't think it has anything to do with control, or religion, or purity, or whether or not the breast, sex, and sexuality are "good" or "bad." Sure, it may have at one point, but I think it's beyond that at this point. If you ask, "Why do we censor breasts?" the answer is almost certainly going to be something along the lines of "Because they're sexy." Getting in to the matter of "Why are breasts sexy?" is a lot more difficult.

Sexualization of the female breast (and specifically, the nipple) is a kind of inherited fetish. Think about it.

I'm sure most of us are familiar and comfortable with the idea of things that are not particularly sexual being sexy. Spanking is a form of discipline, or abuse in some cases/opinions. Tickling isn't particularly sexual. Tying a person up with ropes and such isn't very sexual, either. But some of us find those things sexy, and some of us, indeed, fetishize and sexualize it. They are things that turn some of us on, and thus, they are often included in the context of sexual activity. Things we do with partners, things we do by ourselves, et cetera.

So is the game of "hide the nipple" we've been playing since Renaissance art went out of style in the same league as BDSM, then? Not particularly, but the two might be compared to show where the former is coming from as a fetish object.

Now, as for why this "fetish" is "inherited," I put it that way because we've essentially been censoring the female breast and nipple for several generations; long enough that we've really lost a grasp on the real reason why, and now censor it for the sake of censoring it. We're maintaining the status quo. In a sense, at this point, we find a woman's breasts to be sexy and sexual because the previous generation did. Really wanna creep yourself out? I'm basically saying that you can masturbate to the image of a topless woman (if you can, that is) because your parents could. And their parents could. And we can trace that, at least in modern media, all the way back to whatever person or group or artist decided "Hokay, it's time to cover these bad boys up."

In turn, if we stop censoring breasts and nipples, eventually, they might not be very sexy anymore. They might just be normal. Just functional parts of the female anatomy. Yeah, that wouldn't be so bad. But I'm not sure if I, personally, would want to live in a world where boobs aren't sexy.

Just my sleepy two cents.

[ArtVandelay]

If it is decensored, we should be sure to be kind and understanding to those who will still fetishize nipples, i.e. the people attracted to breasts who are socially inclined to like female nipples.

In the broadest sense, get the government out of art, media, all of it! Decensor, Uncensor, remove it all!

[Blythe]

Hey, folks, since the OP is no longer a member of Elliquiy and can therefore no longer reply here, this thread is being locked.

For those that would like to discuss this topic further, feel free to make a new thread on the matter. :-)