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Menino to ban kids, teens from MFA, BPL?

The horror!

Above: Channel 4 attempts to educate its audience about our latest crisis without giving them the vapors.

Oh, the horror! The Dig runs a cover showing crudely drawn cartoons of naked people and our little provincial backwater goes all to hell. As Channel 4 reports:

"It's totally irresponsible to have a photo like this in a paper that's widely distributed around our city," Menino said. "Young children can see it. It's not what we should be showing our young people."

Right. So keep them out of the MFA. Because you sure wouldn't want them to see this or this or this or this (and could somebody tell the mayor that a cartoon is not a photo?).

And we don't even need to bring up this scandalous statue - just a short walk from the children's room at the Copley Square BPL!

But Hizzona also wants to try to get Dig honor boxes uprooted from locations near city buildings - because you know how productivity must be suffering, what with frenzied hordes of Assessing and DPW workers racing out of their offices in a mad dash to Dig boxes.

Below: The shocking cover. If you're under 18, or are prone to inexplicable bouts of screaming hysteria, or are the mayor, stop looking now!

The horror!
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Comments

I'm so confused. The Dig is obscene, but this Barstool Sports cover isn't? I guess that scrap of fabric makes all the difference!

(And for the record, I don't think Barstool Sports is scarring our children for life either, even though I'm not fond of how close they get to Labiaville every issue.)

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What's offensive about it? Are they concerned that kids are going to find out that people have boobies and wieners? WBZ news sucks for trying to make this into an issue. It's too bad, because for a while it looked like they were on the verge of becoming a legitimate TV news source. My guess is sour grapes from some criticism in the Dig's Media Farm column. The Mayor really probably should have just laughed this non-issue off. It just makes him look like an old fogy (and judging from a number of personal experiences with him, I can honestly say he is nothing of the sort).

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Okay, so I'll admit that my first maternal impulse was "wait 'til I show this to the kids and hear their grossed-out prudish reactions!". I was careful while reading the Dig on the train down to the South Shore that I kept the cover folded inside for the sake of the tiny tots on the other side of the aisle.

That said, here's the reaction from the real impressionable children.

10 year old: Eeeewwwwww! Naked people cartoons. Yuk.

12 year old: Oh. I get it. They're nudists. It's a cartoon nudist picnic, with one guy who is being really shy.

Both (upon hearing of the Menino Kerfluffle): What? Ban it? What's his problem, it's just people.

10 year old: Hey mayor - look - NAKED DOGS!

12 year old: Yeah, somebody should tell him that being naked isn't the same as sex!

So ... how old is Menino anyway?

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I used to live in London, a short distance away from an art gallery called Spitz. They had an exhibition on, consisting of the sort of photos a family would have of their young kids playing on a beach. Family happy snaps. The kids were often naked.

So the gallery got raided and there was talk of the artist and gallery owners being charged with distributing child pornography. Eeep!

So The Guardian, a large mainstream newspaper in the UK, reported the story by publishing the supposedly most offensive of photos, on their front page, in full colour, above the fold. The gist of the article was "Is this child pornography? Of course not. Stop being so stupid."

The editorial staff who decided to print and distribute several hundred thousand colour copies of a photo accused of being child porn are far far braver than I will ever be.

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I'm really not sure what to make of it but its just a cartoon of people shoing what everybody has.

Boston Knucklehead Clothing
http://www.bostonknucklehead.com

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Way to say nothing at all. Does each shirt you sell come with a free can of spam?

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I'm embarrassed for this region of the country. I'm puzzled bit it, too. We can be so forward, as in the first to recognize the legality of gay marriage, yet so backward, as in rolling up the streets early. And then there are people here who would censor print publications in the very place where our revolution was born. The old phrase, "Banned in Boston" still rings true. And don't even get me started on the regional phrase, "Nobody has any businesses being out at (insert time here)."

How can we be one of the most liberal states in the union while remaining so reactionary, provincial and puritanical? How can we be both?

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When will we be rid of this tiresome a-hole?

He never misses an opportunity to oppress.

The other thing, he paves streets. Over and over again, at your expense. Big whoop.

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Menino is just playing to the religious crowd who think that the human body is inherently shameful.

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While Menino seems to be sensible in some areas, he sounds like he's seriously in need of a reality check, in this case.

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