Too Prude?

One of the many fascinating aspects of my job includes monitoring a few travel boards. I get to read about all the fascinating places and travel finds from people all over the world. It does come with a bit of power -- I am a moderator so I do get to approve, accept and ban people from the network. Although I do so very rarely. Today, however, was a high point in my editorial tenure.

This morning we had a new member (erm, bad word choice, but read on please) on our boards. His name is Tim and he's part of an association called the Gay Travellers Network. Tim has traveled all over the world and it was all captured in the 100-slide photo show that he posted with his profile. The photos were beautiful! Even the men in drag.

There was, however, one photo of question. It was of a naked man lying on his stomach sprawled out across the bed. To be perfectly honest, I found the photo rather artistic. I might have requested the nude man get a waxing, but to each their own.

However, this particular travel board is a family-friendly board and we do have rules and regulations about photos and nudity. And so, as the moderator, I penned the following note:

"Dear Tim,

Your pictures are beautiful and on behalf of our readership, I look forward to your stories and posts about the various adventures you’ve been on and the destinations where you’ve traveled. Unfortunately, there is one photo that needs to be removed. We encourage diversity and pictures of your travels, but please refer to the terms and conditions as to what is appropriate."

In other words:

"Dear Tim,

Please remove the naked photo of your post-coital friend from the site. While I find the photo artistic and believe you could bounce a quarter of the man's behind, soft-core porn isn't widely accepted on travel sites in the U.S. Personally, I find the photos of the men who are clearly past their prime and dressed in drag more offensive, but my bosses are likely to have a bigger problem with the bare butt. Thank you for understanding."

Tim replied:

"Coming from Europe, I find it strange that you're so peculiarly prudish in the US, as the content of photo concerned could easily appear in TV advertising or on a bus shelter billboard here advertising shower gel or aftershave. This level of nudity simply isn't an issue here...This is nothing personal, as you handled this politely."

Was Gay Tim right? Are we too prude in the U.S.? While I appreciate his acknowledgement that I was polite and it isn't personal, I had to wonder, "what was the big deal, anyway?" So the guy was naked. We've all seen naked pictures -- go to any PG-13 or higher-rated movie today and there's bound to be breasts and butts on screen. So what makes a travel message board any different?

In this case the answer is easy: It's a sponsored site, and the rules and regulations clearly state no nudity. But is it necessary to ask this member (word choice appropriate) to remove photos of his lifestyle because they might be offensive to others?