for lack of a better way to put it....boobs everywhere!

 The first time you came to the UK, where you shocked at the preponderance of objectified  topless women EVERYWHERE (meaning mags and television)??  I am by no means a prude, the human form is beautiful....but...good lawd! Silicone and photoshop aren't generally considered part of the human form, anyway.

 Maybe this has something to do with my upbringing in the buckle of the bible belt, but it has nothing to do with my religion (mainly because I don't have one). I just find it a bit disconcerting and I'm not sure how to explain it to my eleven year old....Should I mention all the ladyparts he is inavoidably about to see so he won't be shocked ?

 
 Of course I am aware that all the same things go on in the US, just not so....openly.

  I'm moving anyway, of course...this is such a trivial part of living there....

I just wonder what your first reaction was.
 

LOL this made me laugh.  I cant comment on how to explain it to a child, but I will tell you I gasped and said "you cant put this in the newspaper!" when I saw Kate Moss' boobs all over the place at a newstand in England, and my BF had no idea why I thought anything of it.  I imagine its something you just get used to, and I personally dont mind it, but it is a little startling and I tend to turn the page quicker if some boobies are present

When i first moved here, my then-boyfriend 'read' the Sunday Sport and had a stack of Fiesta magazines in the flat, so i was de-sensitised very early on.  I don't really remember what my reaction was... not sure i even had one!   I was very young and like a sponge, just absorbing the culture around me.

I wasn't shocked in a bad way...more like "WHY DON'T WE DO THIS IN THE US!?"....I see nothing wrong with nudity.

People need to lighten up. We've all seen boobs, we have them, we've touched them...to some people boobs arn't even sexual...they are food suppliers lol.

I don't see the big deal

It surprised me also. I moved over with my 14 year old daughter, and when the newspaper was laying around the house- I felt the urge to hide it. I then gave it some thought and realised there was no huge issue, just a change from what we were used to. Your son will be exposed to it without a doubt, I decided to just ignore it and let her take it in as part of her new environment as so many things were different.

Maybe I just took the chicken way out by ignoring it ;-).

I don't really remember what my reaction was... not sure i even had one!   I was very young and like a sponge, just absorbing the culture around me.

I'm not young, but that's more or less how I am too.

Hmm, the first time I saw this, I was 18, it was way back in the last century (we don't really need to say which year?!), and it was in that newspaper that has the page 3 girl.  I don't read many newspapers here, so don't know the name.  It was my GRANDMOTHER'S newspaper!!!  So, I was a bit surprised at that, but then didn't think any more of it.  I remember seeing that newspaper again on a train to Edinburgh in 2003!  lol.  Still the page 3 girl.  Oh well. 

I have a tendency not to notice things I'm not interested in, so the only time I really do notice is if I wander into the wrong section in WH Smith's when picking up a fishing magazine for my DH...to me, it seems like the same proliferation I used to notice in some stores in the US, but I don't remember ever having one of my kids with me to explain it to them...doubt I would've done any 'splaining unless one of them asked anyway!

It should be a non-issue for me, and it almost is...I just wonder mainly if I should say anything to the lil guy...

 When I was in Guildford for a while, staying with my ex mother-in-law, it cracked me up because we'd be sitting in the lounge, having a serious chat ....and there would be wild hot naked girls on the telly, and she wouldn't even flinch!  On the other hand, my ex husband would point and giggle because, well, that's how he is.  

 Regardless, I can not WAIT to live there once and for all.

I really must start paying attention!  We seem to have every cable channel in existence, and I've never seen anything like that!     Not before my bedtime anyway!

Don't know what you should tell your little guy - depends on what he already knows at the age of 11...he'll probably notice a lot more than I do!

I really must start paying attention!  We seem to have every cable channel in existence, and I've never seen anything like that!     Not before my bedtime anyway!

Don't know what you should tell your little guy - depends on what he already knows at the age of 11...he'll probably notice a lot more than I do!

I am middle aged, and when I was growing up, of course there were magazines with pictures of ladies without any tops on, and of course we had recourse to them. However in general it was regarded as deeply shameful and certainly not something you talked about except to other boys of the same age. Nowadays they are mainstream (Nuts etc) and young guys think nothing of reading them in the tube. Apparently there was a cable channel called Nuts TV which was designed for laddish males and featured programmes about football, cars, and I quote from Wikipedia

    * Rude News - a nightly news bulletin
    * WKD Shed Sports Show - presented by Geoff Norcott.
    * North vs South - A game show hosted by OJ Borg pitting the North versus the South
    * Will Beauty Call? - a show which features where three men fight for the chance to give their phone number to Miss England, Miss Liverpool and Miss Glasgow
    * Book at Bedtime with Lucy Pinder - Lucy Pinder reads stories by authors such as H.G. Wells and Shakespeare
    * Overexposed - Lucy Pinder gives advice on photographing your own glamour shoot
    * Fit and Fearless - a show which features three fit women spending the night in haunted locations.
    * Football Hurts - a fly-on-the-wall documentary which follows Ryman Premier League side AFC Wimbledon.

Type Lucy Pinder into Google Images, with the Safe Search off, if you want to know just what sort of thing the Book At Bedtime probably was like.

Anyway,

On 28 October 2008, Turner Broadcasting announced that Nuts TV is to be taken off Freeview in early 2009 and replaced with CNN International, but will carry on as an internet channel. It is also announced that Nuts TV is to be taken off Sky Digital in January 2009 along with Nuts TV +1 which is a 1-hour Timeshift service which launched on 20th October 2008.

I believe that Freeview and SKy and cable boxes have parental locks and/or channel restrictions which may be worth considering.

I have noticed that the amount of nudity & ladies in skimpy costumes in France, Spain and Italy is greater than it is in the UK, but another aspect is that (certainly in France), the level of elegance and style used is much higher so that it has a bigger effect somehow. British media often (it seems to me) use nudity, bare breasts etc as a kind of bludgeon to get your attention whereas in France it's much more like a rapier - elegant, stylish and targeted. For example compare the Aubade underwear ads which you see in every French street, even on the bus stops, with the crude British "hello boys" Wonderbra ads which caused such a fuss a few years ago.

I wouldn't say anything...it might just embarass him.  It is probably better that he has the ability to sneak a look at ladies boobies in the harmless context of The Sun than he and his mates sneak around looking at harder stuff (which is probably what they will do in a few years).


Vicky

I wasn't shocked in a bad way...more like "WHY DON'T WE DO THIS IN THE US!?"....I see nothing wrong with nudity.

People need to lighten up. We've all seen boobs, we have them, we've touched them...to some people boobs arn't even sexual...they are food suppliers lol.

I don't see the big deal

I feel the same way.

But I thought this thread wasn't going to be about pictures of boobs in newspapers and magazines, but the way everyday British women tend to wear clothing that is much more revealing up top than American women.

*some* British women *some* of the time.

The girls in the Quayside, Newcastle, out clubbing on a Saturday night are not representative.  I wore a low cut top on NYE, I won't today when I go an visit my sick aunt.  I am sure plenty of women in New York on NYE wore low tops too.


Vicky

I'm not talking about girls out clubbing. In the UK, I see middle-aged women walking around flashing cleavage, and big-boobed women in management positions wearing tight tops in offices, things I would never have seen in the US.
 

Tight tops?  How tight?  How much cleavage?  Perhaps we just have a different perspective on what is 'too revealing'.  I seldom see women dressing inapproriately.


Vicky