Enticing

Here in America we venerate the Masters of painting and sculpture. Foremost among the Masters are the likes of Michelangelo, Raphael, Da Vinci and Berneni. But here in America we also forget the ramifications of the fact they worked on commission for their livelihood.

“Occasioning ly” [poetic spelling] our delicate senses are shocked when we come across an erotic rendering by the Masters. In most cases these rendering are excluded in America from public view, despite the accomplished nature of their rendering. It was as true then as it is today, sex sells.

American zeal to protect us is everywhere. Do you remember that former US Attorney General John Ashcroft spent $8,000 on curtains to hide the "Spirit of Justice" statue, with one breast exposed at the Justice Department? The statue was commissioned in 1933 [C. Paul Jennewein] and had stood unchanged for decades. I wonder how many great artistic works of the Masters and others are hidden from the public view by the “Victorian” guardians of American sensibilities?

Playboy Magazine had the erotic market sewed up at the end of the 1960s. Then a rival entered. Penthouse Magazine was determined to do Playboy one better. It displayed larger endowments and complete nudity. Playboy tried to compete by going with complete nudity. It quickly learned complete nudity was not as erotic as partially covered suggestive nudity.

Perhaps America will learn that the more effort it puts into hiding sexuality, the more enticing it appears. If I recall correctly, Schindler's List and some of the other realistic Holocaust movies had some large scale depictions of nudity. But I don’t think you will find many people that considered it erotic.