The High Cost of Animal Genitals in Animated Movies and Television
I read once about a campaign someone started to force animation studios to draw the genitals on cartoon animals in movies and on television. The argument was that it was prudishness that caused the genitals to be hidden on screen and this practice of hiding what is real probably subtly harms and confuses children. I was marginally on their side, figuring why don't we err on the side of caution and include animal genitals, until I realized that there would be a very real and profound cost involved in having all these artists drawing and animators rendering (with computers) millions and millions of frames animal genitals. Imagine the millions of dollars extra it would have cost to have animated all of the penises and testicles involved in 101 Dalmations. If you think ticket prices are bad now, just imagine how much they would need to be to support all this extra work. So, on balance I think the way forward is just to take your child aside before you go into an animated movie or watch an animated TV cartoon and in a soothing voice tell your child that he/she shouldn't be alarmed, that all the people and animals depicted do indeed have perfectly normal genitals, it was just far too expensive to include them.
