I'm still trying to figure out why looking at a naked human body is taboo at any age in America. Why American's immediately equate nakedness with sex is nothing short of bizarre.

Sex is just one act that a naked human body can engage in. It's equivalent to looking at a field of grain and complaining that it's promoting alcoholism because (heaven forbid) someone might make a can of beer out of some if it. Passing that same screwed up view of the human body is the absolute WORST thing you can pass on to kids. And even if the naked image IS clearly sexual in nature, as Amanda Beard's is, what on Earth is the rational reason for shielding children from sex??? I don't know about girls, but boys have some strong sexual urges as early as age 6 (that's based on my own memories), yet we "shield" or "protect" children from the information they need to understand those strong feelings. That is just ridiculous people. Explaining to children about sexuality in language they understand leads to a healthy view of sex and the human body. Those of you shielding even young children from sex are severely misguided. No, you don't pop a porn video in after an episode of Barney, but to think you are doing them a favor by introducing as little info about sex as you can get away with is horrible parenting.

The real problem that no one talks about is that all this talk about the evils of sex and nakedness (which aren't the same thing, but get lumped together) is predominantly religious-based. Misinterpretations of the bible. Luckily there are more and more people (us evil fornicators) who are using their brains rather than passed down doctrine to navigate this issue. For those of you using the Bible as your sole guide to parenting sex issues, I will pray for you and your children. You need it.

The porn industry isn't a multi billion dollar industry by accident.

No, it's not. You think that's a justification of something?

Maybe I'm oversimplifying things, but who's responsibility is it to raise your children, yours or Amanda Beard's? And stop with the role model stuff, I highly doubt Amanda Beard got into competitive swimming to become a role model for anyone, it's not her responsibility. Hell, ask 100 young girls who Amanda Beard is and you'll get an "I don't know" from 95% of them, but ask them who Paris Hilton is and you'll surely get a 100% positive response. Sorry, I think this whole thing is ridiculous.

They thought she was "lowering" herself and "selling out."
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I always love it when people talk about someone else, "selling out." "How dare someone make money in a manner that they find acceptable!" I often wonder what "rules" I'll have to live by if I ever achieve my goal of becoming inhumanly fast.

Teenage birth rates in selected countries (2002): [9] Country Teenage birth rate
per 1000 women 15-19 South Korea 3 Netherlands 5 Tunisia 7 Australia 16 United Kingdom 20 Russia 30 United States 53 Indonesia 55 South Africa 66 Brazil 73 Bangladesh 117 Niger 233Okay, I spent a minute looking it up. Here's a quick one:

The teenage birth rate in United States is the highest in the developed world, and the teenage abortion rate is also high.[4] However, the teenage pregnancy rate has been decreasing significantly in recent years, particularly since the early 1990s. This decline has manifested across all racial groups, although teenagers of African-American and Hispanic descent retain a higher rate, in comparison to that of European-Americans and Asian-Americans. The Guttmacher Institute attributed about 25% of the decline to abstinence and 75% to the effective use of contraceptives. [12]The Canadian teenage birth has also trended towards a steady decline for both younger (15-17) and older (18-19) teens in the period between 1992-2002.


From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_pregnancy

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The accuracy of widipedia varies a great deal depending upon the topic, but assuming that it's correct, it would not be surprising that the teenage birth rate is higher in the US than the rest of the "developed" world because the birth rate of most of the "developed" world is not high enough to sustain the population. A birth rate of less than 2 per couple, like in most of western Europe, is hardly a goal to aspire to.

My issue arises because it has become so prevelant that it's not a single painting or magazine but an exploited and pushed expectation at a younger and younger age.