Nekkid in Vienna
I recently returned from Vienna, Austria, and was intrigued to see this report from Reuters that the Leopold Museum has decided to self-censor posters throughout the city advertising its exhibit on male nudity. As it happens, I encountered these posters during my stay: they depict three male soccer players, naked except for their socks, standing in the middle of a confetti-filled stadium, facing the camera in full-frontal glory.
The first time I saw this poster, as I walked from my hotel to the U-Bahn station at Schottenring, I did a double-take. I realized that, while I don’t know exactly what the laws are in New York regarding nude advertisements, I certainly had never seen one walking down Broadway. I wouldn’t call it culture shock — more of a quick poke, actually. Austria generally has a more lax attitude toward nudity, despite being a nation that is very particular about etiquette and manners (and this despite its more well known reputation as a laid-back version of Germany).
Those attitudes notwithstanding, the Viennese public was evidently perturbed by the posters, and the museum agreed to cover the men’s genitals with a large red bar (running horizontally, in case you’re wondering).
“Many people told us that they wanted to or had to protect their children,” said a museum spokesman. Some Viennese warned that “if we won’t cover it they would go there with a brush and they would cover it with colour. Already somebody did that.”
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Related at PJ Lifestyle:
But but but..its FOR the children.
Based on what I have read about pedophila and other leather boy gambits, the target audience is that 9 year old child holding the hand of Ompa right there in Wein.
Recruiting posters.
I’ve lived in Germany for two years, and I always tell my friends here in the States that if they plan on going to Europe, it’s probably best not to take children, at least until they’re older. A good rule of thumb is that if you’re not ready to expose your children to hard-core nudity, and I mean hard-core, don’t take them.
Because you will see it on full display in some of the more innocuous places. Go to a train-station (bahnhof) and there will be postcards showing graphic pornography at the newsstands. I’ve seen them in rest-stops, at restaurants, and in malls.
There are beautiful places to go in Europe. If you know what you’re doing, and if you don’t want to expose children to such things, you can do it, it just takes a bit of thoughtful planning. Going to the Louvre, seeing ruins, taking guided tours, maybe even going to a theatre showing plays or operas is some of the things you can do.