Posted to accompany my post about "The Boobs of Texas," here are excerpts from a 2020 article in The New York Times:
COPENHAGEN — “OK, children, does anyone have a question?” the TV show’s host, Jannik Schow, asked. Only a few in the audience of 11- to 13-year-olds raised their hands. “Remember, you can’t do anything wrong,” he said. “There are no bad questions.”You can’t blame the children if their thoughts were elsewhere. On a stage before them in a heated studio in Copenhagen stood five adults in bathrobes. There was a brief moment of silence, as faces turned serious. Having discussed it for days before in school, the children knew what was coming next. Mr. Schow gave a little nod, and the adults cast off their robes.Facing the children, and the cameras, they stood completely naked, like statues, with their hands and arms folded behind their backs.And so began a recording of the latest episode of an award-winning Danish children’s program, “Ultra Strips Down,” which is shown on Ultra, the on-demand children’s channel of the national broadcaster, DR. The topic today: skin and hair.
The program is now in its second season, and while perhaps a shock to non-Danes, it is highly popular in Denmark. Recently, however, a leading member of the right-wing Danish People’s Party, Peter Skaarup, said he found “Ultra Strips Down” to be “depraving our children.”“It is far too early for children” to start with male and female genitalia, he told B.T., a Danish tabloid. At that age, he said, they “already have many things running around in their heads.”...Mr. Schow, 29, who helped develop the concept of the show after a producer came up with the idea, said the point was also to counter the daily bombardment of young people with images of perfect — unrealistic — bodies. The adults are not actors, but volunteers.“Perhaps some people are like, ‘Oh, my God, they are combining nakedness and kids,’” Mr. Schow said. “But this has nothing to do with sex, it’s about seeing the body as natural, the way kids do.”...“Danish parenting generally favors exposing children rather than shielding them.”
One famous example of how far the Danes take this philosophy was the euthanization and dissection of a giraffe at the Copenhagen Zoo in 2014, where children observed from the front row.Abroad it was seen by many as a nightmarish spectacle, topped off by the feeding of the carcass to the lions, but in Denmark people shrugged their shoulders. The children in the audience that day had asked “very good questions,” one zoo official told CNN...Asked during the program on skin and hair why she decided to take part, one of the adults, Ule, 76, said she wanted to show the children that perfect bodies are rare and that what they see on social media is often misleading...In its first season, in 2019, “Ultra Strips Down” won an award for the best children’s program of 2019 at the Danish TV Festival. In the 2020 season, the show, which is produced by the Danish branch of Warner Bros. International Television Production, will offer five new episodes on a variety of topics, each to an audience from mostly different schools...If a child does become uncomfortable, she or he can join their teacher in the studio. “But we have had over 250 children in our audience,” Mr. Schow said, “and this has never happened.”
Addendum May 5, 2025:
In overturning District Court and Court of Appeals decisions, the state’s high court ruled last week that there is nothing illegal about a woman having her breasts out in public in Minnesota, as long as she is not engaging in sexual activity. ( Breastfeeding was already exempt from the law.)
And this is exactly what you need public media for.
ReplyDeleteI'll add this Dutch program: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spuiten_en_Slikken
And while the English wiki calls it highly controversial, I'll note it ran for 13 years and ended because they pretty much ran out of topics (ignoring that there was a new generation of kids). And you can still look at the archieve: https://npo.nl/npo3/spuiten-en-slikken
I'm gonna make a bit of an odd turn, and point out that America's prudishness is deeply ingrained in its culture. So deep that while debate rages over whether nazism is free speech or not, the free speech debate in the US never ever mention how much the human body is censured in social media. Boobs and butts are banned under any circumstance, even when European museums show century old art like the Venus of Milo or Michelangelo's David. Or any Rubenesk woman.
But it's worse than that. Try typing boob, butt or any related non-offensive body part deemed sexual by puritans and note that your autocorrect will very aggressively autocorrect away from these words. Boob will become Bob, butt will turn into but, ass will become as etc. One of the games I play will consistently not let you to type 4*s because it looks like ass, even though there are many 4* characters you can get, and how else to describe them as 4*s?
Free speech my ass. Nazism is a-ok, but you can't chat grandmom approved language on body parts or game mechanics.
Well said!
DeleteI think it's weird to put so much effort into putting naked people in front of kids, but I actually have some so maybe I'm biased.
ReplyDeleteAre you talking about Pornhub or a one time show on Danish TV?
DeleteUm, the Danish TV show
DeleteThere doesn't seem to be any effort being put into it. It's simply available if parents think it's OK for their kids. Why do you think there's force involved?
DeleteI have kids who I want to educate so they understand what body parts are, how they function and how they change as you grow. Just basic info on life that it's a parent's duty to provide. Yet I struggle with finding a way to talk about the human body because it's so censored. its hard to find age appropriate books for younger kids.
ReplyDeleteIf only you had a body available.....
Deletei would contribute a (speedily) translated paragraph from german wikipedia on nudism(1), as another area in which nudity is experienced in a nonsexual manner:
ReplyDelete“scientific studies show that people regularly practising nudism have a more positive body image and fewer self-doubts about their own body. (2) this is independent of how much they conform to prevalent beauty ideals. socialisation in the framework of nudism leads to a more confident and relaxed relation with their body and lowered bias through medially conveyed beauty ideals in later life. (3, 4, 5, 6)”
(1): https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freik%C3%B6rperkultur#Akzeptanz_des_eigenen_K%C3%B6rpers,_psychisches_Wohlbefinden
(2): west, k (2018): naked and unashamed. investigations and applications of the effects of naturist activities on body image, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. journal of happiness studies, 19(3), 677–697 doi:10.1007/s10902-017-9846-1
(3): barcan, r (2004): nudity: a cultural anatomy. berg publishers, ISBN 1-85973-872-9
(4): smith, g & king, m (2009): naturism and sexuality: broadening our approach to sexual wellbeing. health & place, 15(2), 439–446 doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2008.08.002
(5): cooper, d (2011): theorising nudist equality: an encounter between political fantasy and public appearance. antipode, 43(2), 326–357 doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.2010.00833.x
(6): górnicke, a (2016): nakedness, shame, and embarrassment: a long-term sociological perspective (vol. 12). springer doi:10.1007/978-3-658-15984-9 ISBN 978-3-658-15983-2.
raphael
“already have many things running around in their heads.”...
ReplyDelete...and any are too many; the only acceptable number is zero.
I just inserted this addendum to the post:
ReplyDeleteIn overturning District Court and Court of Appeals decisions, the state’s high court ruled last week that there is nothing illegal about a woman having her breasts out in public in Minnesota, as long as she is not engaging in sexual activity. ( Breastfeeding was already exempt from the law.)
Good for the SCOMN. I look forward to all the many many many Minnesota lake beaches filling up with topless women enjoying the sun just like their topless male friends.
DeleteLittle weird that there are now going to be a bunch of lawsuits about when showing boobs is sexual activity and when not. Cringe.