Nudity

Tonio,

My guess is it would have taken a lot of leg work to blur out the nudity. I mean it was A LOT of nudity. It never really confused me though. I grew up watching National Geographic and they had no problem showing indigenous people from South America or Africa in the nude. In a sense it was suppose to show them in their natural element. Hmmmmm???

In that case you could argue it was because they were African and back then (even still today) people think Africans are wild. People were shocked to find out that the Bushmen did not live a primitive lifestyle contrary to how they were portrayed in The Gods Must Be Crazy. In fact the Bushman who had the lead role was a school gardener in real life.

It's truly authentic with all the nudity! Women being topless in Africa was normal, who cared about seeing someones boobs! It's the western culture that considers being topless obscene!

Unless you were born and raised in a culture that is comfortable and accustomed to a woman's natural beauty, you will never understand. Who are we to judge each other's cultural diversity and uniqueness (rhetorically speaking). We can not expect each side to conform to one's cultural background. Rather, it is one's choice to become open-minded to a whole new understanding and accept the differences in each other's values... Marco Polo did this with great success and came back home to Venice with great wisdom.

Many of those responding are confused. The posters concern was that this series did not shy away from showing nudity, unlike other programmes and films. That is nothing to do with the cultural background of the series. Of course nudity was the norm in early 19th century Africa. But American films set in the era blur that out. The issue is that Americans are (officially) puritanical, and hide as much nudity as they can. This series was made in South Africa, which was never as much of a puritanical country as it was represented. More significantly, the makers wanted to make the series as accurate as possible. Strategically placed ornaments or modern-style clothes would be fake. Constant blurring of the bodies of characters would be ridiculous. South Africans do not have a hang up about nude Africans. Americans do.

What is interesting is that you inquire about the nudity of the women when I was inquiring to myself about the nudity of the men. Throughout the entire series, even when a man was naked, they never displayed his genitals. Sometimes you would see their butts but of course, Shaka had numerous rub downs and nothing was displayed. Interestingly enough, our culture as Americans are not like others. I used to live in Germany and I'd see billboards that would not dare be allowed in the States. Just the way we are. I myself, don't even prefer to leave the house without a bra...just the way I was brought up. I was also scared into wearing them even when I sleep by my aunt who proclaimed that my breasts would droop drastically should I not wear a bra.

Needless to say, thanks to this series, her theory was confirmed and I will continue wearing bras LOL.

This series is incredible and I do not feel that anything needs to be changed. Since watching this, I have researched more about it to ensure that authenticity. The series has opened my eyes and my mind to learning more about my history as an African-American.

The first couple episodes of Roots also showed bare breasts. Maybe you found out the correct answer since you posted this query, but in case you're still confused, television censors allow what's called native nudity. This applies to native people of various races. TV movies about early Hawaii, Japan, South America and Japan have showed uncensored nudity. Also, National Geographic and other cultural exploration shows at times have shown native nudity, such as a tribe in the Philippines discovered a few decades ago that were completely naked. Other movies that were aired on TV uncensored or partly uncensored were Schindler's List (even left the "f" word) and Papillion. When this is done, the networks announces after each commercial break the warning.



Under our clothes, we are all naked! But bare breasts (of females), genitals or buttocks is nudity. And depictions of sexual intercourse is sex. Not hugging, kissing, holding hands, arms around someone, etc.