More on babie's toes

To follow up on a comment/question someone had,

I have no problem with adult women's toes (or at least "of age," whatever that means).

Here's my rationale: Those girls get to choose (beg) to have their toes sucked. Babies get no such choice. Now, I understand a baby is too young to get a big say in everything. But for something that later on in life is sexual, or at least can be, it seems to me to be taking advantage of the baby. I'm not going to call all of you people who suck on babies' toes evil sick perverts who should be beaten to death with shovels, but I'm thinking it.

I'll tell you something else, something I feel even more strongly about: I have a HUGE problem with naked babies in TV, movies and most of all commercials. Again: the baby is being exploited and doesn't have a say.

In general, I'm kind of bothered by baby and child actors to begin with. I would say in 99% of the cases it's the parents (read: mother) pushing the child into it.

But that's beside the point. Here is the point: I agree that no one (at least no one in teh realms of the law-abiding) consider a naked baby sexual. But if it's okay to show a naked one month old, is it okay to show a naked five month old? 1 year? 2 years? How about 5 or even 10?

You see where I'm going with this. "But Hyperion" you say. "Everyone knows it's wrong for a naked five year old."

Do they? I've been to public pools and seen moms let their little girls run around topless. True, they haven't developed breasts, but for some that can be a turn on. In Europe, they show naked families in art books. I still remember when Koz and I saw one at a Barnes and Noble in Atlanta. We were shocked to see naked kids age 3-16 just frollicking around.

Now, anyone reasonable person (I feel) could not have looked at the pictures and seen pornography. It was art, however weird, but I bet others use it differently.

Let me put it another way: though you thnk it's easy to tell when it's okay to show a kid naked and not okay, you have to admit that not everyone agrees with you. And logically they could use baby commercials to justify four and five year olds naked too. It's a lot trickier than you think on where to draw the line.

It's always bothered me and I suppose that why the toe thing bothers me too. I'm not saying it's the same thing; it's definitely not. But it does start to fringe onto that area of exploiting kids without their permission.