You can tell a great deal about a culture by looking at it's artistic endeavours. From humanity's earliest days, we've been drawing on cave walls, trying to immortalise ourselves and explain to future generations who we were and what we did. Early man defined himself as a hunter, drawing pictures of men killing great giant creatures, showing themselves as providers for their people. Since then, man has continued this same trend, and has etched out a place in eternity for itself using whatever came to hand and whatever would last longest.

There’s great pride in art. The ancient Greeks and Romans gave us huge statues of mighty warriors, perfect down to the last muscle. These statues took pride of place out where everyone would see them. They weren’t hidden away in dusty museums, these were meant to be seen by all, young and old, rich and poor, native and visitor.

But what happened? When did art become something shameful? What does what we’ve done to art say about our civilisation, and what message will be passed on when we’re long gone and all but forgotten?

I recently saw a “stamp” someone had made on dA, made as a reminder to people to be careful to properly mark their artwork for mature content. “It's when people just don't care that it's a big deal because they don't care about how their work will affect someone else. Please think of others.”
It’s not the first time I’ve seen such comments, and I doubt it will be the last. The cry of “Won’t somebody think of the children” goes out a lot. But what do we need protecting from? How does art, in any form, affect us so badly that we must be protected from even seeing it as a thumbnail? Those Greek and Roman statues I mentioned didn’t have a warning. Thousands, maybe millions of children and young people must have walked past the statue of David with no censorship or warning. Was that civilisation uncaring towards it’s young? Or have we twisted and subverted art, and nude art especially, into something that’s more harmful, more toxic?

When I look on this site, I think we have allowed ourselves to be perverted. 80% of the nude art on this site is little more than sexual exhibitionism. I’ve seen photos posted with comments that only people of one gender or sexuality are supposed to be looking at it. Many many others are great shots, beautifully lit, but headless, to preserve some kind of anonymity, because nudity has become something so shameful that we cannot put our faces to it.

If our artistic legacy is to mean anything, then we cannot shirk from it. We must defend the pride, the unashamed proclamation of who our society is and shall be remembered for all time. Art is not there for titillation, it’s not a dating tool, it’s meant to speak to the viewer and make them think, and make them remember. There should be no shame in art, nothing held back for fear of reprisal or embarrassment, it should be loud, be bold, or it will never last.