Boing Boing: Why is it OK to show a man’s breasts on TV? asks Bennett Haselton
I link this mainly in order to share the following anecdote.
I was watching some plastic surgery show on, I think, the Discovery Health channel, last week.
The particular operation they were showing was breast implants for a male-to-female transsexual.
During the beginning of the operation they showed his chest, nipples and all, and the doctor commented on how tricky it was to do the by-the-nipple style of incision on his small nipples. They showed the incision being made and all. But once the implants were in, they blurred out — not the new breasts, but the nipples. The same exact nipples which were situated moments ago on a flat chest, were now blurred out because they were now resting on womanly breasts.
It really summed up the absurdity of it all.
Behold! The shifting of signifiers before your very eyes!