Robert-
I disagree. A very large number of Americans will
refuse to
use Wikipedia if it contains color photographs of penises,
vaginas, anal sphincters, etc. If we do not have at least
some level of protection, then we will become one of
America's most-blocked site on home and school Internet
filters.
We've gone through this before. My point of view is that we have no
obligation to pander to filters - we have an obligation to be an
encyclopedia. Being overly offensive hurts our usefulness as an
encyclopedia, but being in the filters is not an indication for being
overly offensive. A lot of stuff is put in filters that is not offensive
by any reasonable standard.
Perhaps main articles should have no such images, but
can
contain a link to a related article with such photos.
I find this to be an implicit endorsement of the shamefulness/sinfulness
POV that has some prominence in American culture. NPOV should be paramount
except for cases of near-universal offensiveness.
We should probably formulate a policy on this. On Talk:Clitoris there was
a near consensus for including either a photo or a drawing, and a slim
majority for a photo (although no suitable free illustration has been
found yet). I do not see a fundamental difference between clitoris and
penis in this regard. So it appears that the vast majority of Wikipedians
favors liberal standards of inclusion rather than conservative ones.
Regards,
Erik