[Kevin Andrew Murphy]

Originally posted by Dan Halberstein:
The female nipple's "tabooness" in the West, is due to the fact that it can signify sexual receptivity, and arouses biologically (not culturally) determined reactions. All manner of social awkwardness is thus avoided by public display of same, although of course it's silly for a whole nation to go into paroxysms of shock over a super bowl nipple display. However, the location and square footage of a piece of cloth are not arbitrarily determined here.

So you're saying that women in the West need to hide their nipples because some guys get instant hard-ons at the sight? What about the guys who have a thing for legs or butts or eyes or hair? Wouldn't it be better to just hide women under tablecloths to avoid even the slightest chance of an unwanted hard-on? Except, oh damn, what about the gay guys? Shouldn't we drape the men in tablecloths too, to keep them from getting turned on?

And what do we do then about the people who are linen fetishists who get turned on by all those hot sexy tablecloths?

I'm sorry, dress codes are all cultural constructs. You only have to pull open an old issue of National Geographic to realize that you can have a society with women without tops that is not a nonstop orgy.