I might be wrong, but in my classes, I show kids art and teach them how to respond with a mature "artist's eye." Many examples of ancient and Renaissance art feature nudity. We look at the Venus of Willendorf. David. Michelangelo figure studies. I tell my students that if I had the budget to put them on a plane and take them to Greece or Italy, I wouldn't be able to cover it up, so I don't cover it in my classroom, either. I remember my colleague taking a beautiful large art book and taping paper over all the potentially controversial images. I would NEVER ruin an art book to censor it. If the book has too much nudity in it, or the meaning of the artwork is overtly sexual, it doesn't go on the shelf as that is just to provocative. The occasional abstract breasts, or a non-emphasized penis, is not the end of the world for any student in my long experience of teaching art. Sure, sometimes there a giggles at first, but, kids get used it trying to figure out what the art is about and develop an "artist's eye" by looking. My seventh graders tackled the Renaissance and learned how nudity in figure studies and Michelangelo's frescoes reflected the cultural ideals of the period, celebrating the human being's importance, power, and beauty in their world. Nudity as symbol. Much better than avoiding it altogether.
So, in this rapidly increasing nonsensical world we live in, the media marches on to define us and try to spin aspects of the world into controversy. This time, by applying a "cya" mentality and trying avoiding it. Funny.
What will you make today?