The way to make a body part sexy is to cover it and keep it covered. Letting it all hang out, all the time actually reduces sexiness.

There are huge social, psychological and emotional components to human sexuality. The physical aspects are just one piece of the equation.

There are consequences to making it all too prosaic to have everything on display and they aren't all positive by any stretch of the imagination.

You're presenting this as a set of hard facts, where in reality you are just telling us about your subjective view of sexuality. That's natural, but perhaps there is a more neutral way to word your stance if that's the case.

That's not my subjective view. It is historical and well documented fact that cultures cover and keep covered body parts they deem sexual. There is lots of literature on the subject, anywhere from articles noting that the first pair of shorts in spring is a big deal, but by the end of summer people are inured to it, to testimony from people who participate in nudist colonies that people walking around nude all the time takes the sex out of nudity.

I have spoken to someone who went to nudist colonies. He told me outsiders always imagine it's all sex, all the time but it absolutely is the opposite of that. Most people aren't especially sexy when running around naked to begin with and when you normalize nudity, it further reduces the sexual element.

Just because you aren't familiar with the literature doesn't mean I'm making stuff up here.

That seems like a very simplistic view. Life is not boolean, and neither are human beings. Denigrating a particular point of view as "old" and using "taboo" illustrates that you've already closed your mind to alternatives.

Some of the most shocking and suspenseful films ever made had little to no nudity or violence. They did so through good writing and production. Throwing a bunch of blood or boobs on the screen is cheap and easy and attracts like-minded audiences. Making quality entertainment is hard.

Also, thinking that blood and gore and nudity never existed in entertainment before the modern age and that the "old" values were puritanical is simply false. Shock value has existed as long as there have been books printed, movies made, and photos captured. The things published today have nothing on some of the illustrated gore from the 16th century.

To add: entertainment 200 years ago was watching a criminal get hanged in the town square.

Which, I believe, didn't have enormous shock value either. Like, just another criminal getting hanged...