How can Wisdom Quarterly show BOOBS?!

Submitted by Jen Bradford (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

OnlyClassics: sexy Sophia Loren caught staring at plain Jayne Mansfield (iconic US pinup)

Here, is that any better now? Wouldn't want to corrupt the viewers with circa 1957 US-smut.

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Don't be nasty, be nice [like me]

I disagree with Mr. A (George Jackson). I don't mind [phalluses]. But shame on you for showing cleavage!! How dare you? I'm a single mother and [a mammal with ample boobs], and I don't want my son seeing things like that!! That's nasty!! We need to protect the childrens. I come to wisdomquarterly.com as a resource for peace, not nastiness and naughty pix of boobies bigger than mine!! I'm also a feminist and don't want nobody looking at me for objectificationment purposes. That's sick!! Can you imagine if my son could search the Web and find pix of breasts?! No thanks!! Take 'em down right now!! Show nuns doing good, not womens and how mean they are to women...

• Purity Police BLAST Wisdom Quarterly

Renounce the world and stop fighting

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: response

Features Editor Ashley Wells and Wisdom Quarterly Private Donors and Editorial Board

Buddhist Goddess of Wisdom Prajna Paramita, Indonesia

Dear Anonymous: It's true. We should be ashamed. Shame will save the world. The Buddha advocated abashedness and moral dread (hiri-ottappa) as lynchpins keeping the world from spinning out of control. But is it right to feel shame and fear of the female body? As girls we are taught to be ashamed. As women we continue to shame each other and teach our sons to ashamed and shame.

Body image is a big subject for bullies. I hope you were not bullied or a bully. Our minds get colonized (with sexism, racism, and other -isms and become the very monsters that oppressed up). We need to decolonize our minds and hearts.

Penises are real, even if Mr. A will not face it as this truth manifests in Buddhist Bhutan and Thailand, and so are paginas. Let's continue to feel shame and oppression. The Vagina Museum of England be d*mned, as Mr. A suggests.

Sex positive, body positive, free love, these are foreign notions today. We aim to be different and innovative at Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal. It's bound to raise some hackles, go against the grain, rub some readers the wrong way. Thank you for giving voice to their concerns as our daily numbers dwindle and spike, rise and fall.

The men at Wisdom Quarterly have much to answer for, submitting such stories. It's not appropriate reading for monastics, particularly celibate monks not yet attained to "right concentration" (samma samadhi, the joy of jhana and its supersensual pleasure or piti that makes the base village practice of sex so uninteresting), to say nothing of Buddhist nuns who must also struggle.

But this outlet is for American Buddhists, who are often jaded, postmodern, blase, and nearly nothing shocks us. From that point of view, we are presenting what is of interest to Americans interested in Buddhism.

We recommend Foundations of Buddhism: The Four Noble Truths by the Buddhist Publication Society. It's amazing what that small book was willing to tackle and discuss when there's so much "spirituality" we could be drowning in. We choose not to drown.

We are interested in tackling and giving our take on modern topics like sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, not to advocate them but to deal with them maturely.

This is no longer the Sixties. It's a corrupted time, a Kali Yuga waiting for a Golden Age. It's a little recognized fact that with every additional million readers on our tally, boobs are featured on the post the day of that attainment. Boobs are very boring, yet they're so alluring that they are an industry unto themselves. They are used to sell everything, including spirituality (that transcends the sensual). We are not hedonists, atheists, agnostics, or moralists -- well, we're kind of moralists, but only lightly so.

We are not here to shame. We will be shamed, if need be. The world with its cultural norms, religious and pious superiority, beliefs, superstitions, and fears will come around one day. Until then, please take our offering more lightly. There's plenty of Dharma discussed. The rest is just this American life.

Please feel free to submit a story idea to Ms. Jen Bradford. [Anyone is invited to by using the Comments Section below.] Thank you for the suggestion we show nuns doing good things. I have forwarded two story ideas to our Dharma editors to talk more about the Buddha's sister and brother as found in Buddhist sutras. Metta to you.