Children in Movie Nude Scenes

[Skwim]

June Fairchild in a scene from Drive, He Said, a movie directed by Jack Nicholson.

Spoiler: censored nude scene

Summary of the movie (from imdb.com)
Hector is a star basketball player for the College basketball team he plays for, the Leopards. His girlfriend, Olive, doesn't know whether to stay with him or leave him. And his friend, Gabriel, who may have dropped out from school and become a protestor, wants desperately not to get drafted for Vietnam.


Question: Is it alright or not alright that a child this young act in such a scene?

Why?

 

[Sunstone]

For me, it depends on circumstances. Is the nudity necessary to the story, or gratuitous? Does it sexualize the child? And so forth.

 

[Shiranui117]

June Fairchild in a scene from Drive, He Said, a movie directed by Jack Nicholson.

Summary of the movie (from imdb.com)
Hector is a star basketball player for the College basketball team he plays for, the Leopards. His girlfriend, Olive, doesn't know whether to stay with him or leave him. And his friend, Gabriel, who may have dropped out from school and become a protestor, wants desperately not to get drafted for Vietnam.


Question: Is it alright or not alright that a young child this age act in such a scene?

Why?

I think it's important that kids learn to not view parts of another person's body perversely. Just today I was at a May Day celebration and there were 10-year-old girls climbing up the Maypole with nothing on but their panties (they're not old enough to wear bras yet) and nobody batted an eye. In my opinion, we have an unhealthy fixation on the sexualization of the human body, and anything we can do to reverse this tendency is a step in the right direction. There should be nothing innately sexual about seeing another human naked. The fact that we've made it so taboo has in turn made it into a forbidden fruit, and in our hedonistic society that makes people objects as soon as they start to show some skin.

Men have bare chests all the time and nobody cares. But a woman takes off her shirt and EVERYBODY LOSES THEIR MINDS.

 

[metis]

I put "depends" as nudity in and of itself is not morally wrong, imo, but what one does when nude, or even fully clothed, may be morally wrong.

 

[Revoltingest]

I am so pleased that this thread wasn't an offering of pix.

 

[Sunstone]

In my opinion, we have an unhealthy fixation on the sexualization of the human body, and anything we can do to reverse this tendency is a step in the right direction.

I completely agree with you. Some folks might find it counter-intuitive, but nudist and clothing optional resorts are, in my experience, among the least sexualized places I've been. Maybe that has to do with how so many fashions today accentuate a person's sexuality -- when you're wearing nothing, there's nothing to over-emphasize any one particular aspect of your body.

 

[Trackdayguy]

June Fairchild in a scene from Drive, He Said, a movie directed by Jack Nicholson.

Spoiler: censored nude scene

Summary of the movie (from imdb.com)
Hector is a star basketball player for the College basketball team he plays for, the Leopards. His girlfriend, Olive, doesn't know whether to stay with him or leave him. And his friend, Gabriel, who may have dropped out from school and become a protestor, wants desperately not to get drafted for Vietnam.


Question: Is it alright or not alright that a young child this age act in such a scene?

Why?

Hear we go again, even asking the question you could be seen as sexualizing nudity.

 

[Shiranui117]

Hear we go again, even asking the question you could be seen as sexualizing nudity.

Either that or bringing up our society's practice of sexualizing nudity and asking us whether we need to re-evaluate said practice

 

[Skwim]

Hear we go again, even asking the question you could be seen as sexualizing nudity.

And I'm sure that's just how you see it.

.

.

 

[tayla]

Is it alright or not alright that a young child this age act in such a scene?

In my opinion there should not be any nudity in movies. Or sexual scenes. Or scenes of murders. Or even anger and rage. Or other kinds of people abusing or exploiting others. Who wants to pump that stuff into their minds and memories to bounce around?

 

[Augustus]

Question: Is it alright or not alright that a young child this age act in such a scene?

Is it ok that there is a fully clothed small child in a scene where a woman is naked?

I'm pretty sure we didn't evolve to be emotionally scarred by the sight of nakedness.

 

[Twilight Hue]

For me, it depends on circumstances. Is the nudity necessary to the story, or gratuitous? Does it sexualize the child? And so forth.

I agree it's all under certain circumstances.

I'm a big fan of foreign film.

I Remember the multiple award-winning film Tomboy (2011). It was an incredible film that you're likely not to forget after watching it.

It's probably one of the best examples for this thread where children and nudity play an integral role in the film in a way that you wouldn't view as being disgusting or inappropriate. In fact just the opposite.

 

[Sunstone]

I'm pretty sure we didn't evolve to be emotionally scarred by the sight of nakedness.

On the few occasions when I've been to clothing optional resorts with young children, the children seemed more indifferent to nudity than the adults. So far as I can tell, kids below the age of puberty tend to easily accept nudity.

 

[Ingledsva]

I chose it is NOT alright, - because this is a movie, - not real life, and there is absolutely no reason to CREATE a scene where a child actor is with a nude adult actor. The movie could be made without that scene.

And just so you know, - I'm all for natural nudity in naturally appropriate places such as your own property, the beach, moms nursing in public, etc.

*

 

[Sunstone]

I chose it is NOT alright, - because this is a movie, - not real life, and there is absolutely no reason to CREATE a scene where a child actor is with a nude adult actor. The movie could be made without that scene.

And just so you know, - I'm all for natural nudity in naturally appropriate places such as your own property, the beach, moms nursing in public, etc.

*

I don't know. Offhand, I can imagine a film about societal attitudes towards nudity that used child actors in a nude scene to make a point that advanced that theme in a way adult actors alone could not make, or would not be quite as suitable.

 

[PureX]

There are too many variables for any one simple answer. To see a nude human body is not an immoral act. Nor does it invite any immorality. Beyond this, it depends on whatever else is going on.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

I chose it is NOT alright, - because this is a movie, - not real life, and there is absolutely no reason to CREATE a scene where a child actor is with a nude adult actor. The movie could be made without that scene.

And just so you know, - I'm all for natural nudity in naturally appropriate places such as your own property, the beach, moms nursing in public, etc.

*

One of my favorite childhood movies featured a nude adult and two children. It was My Neighbor Totoro, and it was a parent having a bath with their kids. Something that is completely normal and healthy. There was nothing sexual or sexualized about the scene. If people are bringing that kind of baggage to a scene then that should be called out. But being silent, making it non-existent, only makes it this taboo and shameful thing that helps perpetuate the resistance of natural nudity in real life.

 

[Skwim]

I chose it is NOT alright, - because this is a movie, - not real life,

Why does this make a difference?

and there is absolutely no reason to CREATE a scene where a child actor is with a nude adult actor. The movie could be made without that scene.

But this can be said about a lot of things in a movie:

Was it really necessary that they eat food in the cafe scene?
Why did they have open the window when they came into the apartment?
Was it necessary to have that many policemen at the murder scene? Huh?
And why show the dead body? We know the guy was killed!
​

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[Frater Sisyphus]

Interestingly if you look at visual art (paintings in particular) of every major period of history, you'll find that they use nudity for completely different effects. Some periods use it to shock and horror, others use it to imply purity and innocence, others use it to convey shame and insignificance (in many religious paintings actually), some use it to convey eroticism or arousal, some use it to convey mans relation to nature, and so on so forth.

My point is that it includes both adults and children (within art) and it really seems like it takes an effort from people in the modern age to try and understand other perspectives but not only that but we contradictorily have pushes to intense censorship in the mainstream social world at the same time as pushes to intense anti-censorship (way past anything legal or morally acceptable) in the underground internet and social world.

It all depends on the context but you really do need to always ask, am I just being hypersensitive? But as I said, nudity in art itself (as film is a form of art) has radically different meanings depending on the period/era and style.

 

[Sunstone]

One of my favorite childhood movies featured a nude adult and two children. It was My Neighbor Totoro, and it was a parent having a bath with their kids. Something that is completely normal and healthy. There was nothing sexual or sexualized about the scene. If people are bringing that kind of baggage to a scene then that should be called out. But being silent, making it non-existent, only makes it this taboo and shameful thing that helps perpetuate the resistance of natural nudity in real life.

We will never deescalate the escalating sexualization of children by making simple child nudity itself shameful, taboo, and thus a kink for some people.