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One problem that's perhaps underdiscussed is that all of this is coming from an entirely US-centric world view. In Europe, for instance, we are generally less paranoid about nudity, I don't think that the notorious "nipplegate" halftime show incident back in 2004 would have caused any uproar over here, perhaps bemusement.

But because the "world wide" web is really a "US-American" web at its heart, we now have to adhere to whatever standards are en vogue there today.




Or, perhaps it is "whatever are most restrictive but still societally acceptable". Europe has impacted the web by forcing us all to accept cookies.

Though we reject Chinese style censorship which is more restrictive but unacceptable.


Europe didn't force anyone to accept cookies. It forced companies to get consent before collecting your data. That's the companies' reaction to it.


Everybody remembers Justin showing Janet's boob in 2004.

Nobody remembers that in 2007, Prince used shadow puppetry to stroke a penis-shaped guitar. Not one peep about that.


This is perhaps the weirdest thing about American moral values. Everything from ads to performances are oversexualised as hell but all hell comes down when someone actually pulls off their clothes. I've seen dresses that are closer to wearable nipple covers than an article of clothing on TV and some music videos contain more grinding than the average porn movie, but show a nip slip and you're in for a world of trouble.

There's an absurd focus on the female nipple specifically. Someone should create a service that censors female nipples by replacing them with male nipples so they can be posted on social media and other platforms without any issues.




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