I’m posting this text in reaction to a blog post I’ve read on a French news website and for which I would appreciate some feedback from the Ars community.

To summarize, since the blog post is in French, it relates a small anecdote that happened to a French woman, who had been living in the US for several years, while she was at the pool. Coming out of the pool her nipples were visible through the fabric of her swimsuit (due to the cold and exhaustion) which apparently led to some muttering by the pool supervisor and a remark from her son that she was being indecent. The post then goes on to explain that, in the US, bras and swimsuits are designed so that no one should ever be able to discern a nipple through the fabric while, at the same time, showing vast amounts of cleavage was perfectly acceptable.

I realized actually showing a nipple was a bit no no in the US, but I had no idea that just accidently showing its outline through the fabric was considered rude as well. So my first question is, is this post actually accurate or is it specific to certain states or sub cultures? With the second being, would you yourself be shocked by a woman whose nipple would be visible through her clothing (not on purpose, but due to specific circumstances)?

Official moderation notice.


The Posting Guidelines require that "foul language" be kept out of thread titles, since many users browse from work and thread titles tend to stand out in a way that content does not. The PG also requires descriptive thread titles.

I've edited the thread title from "Tits and nipples in the US" to something more descriptive and work safe. The OP is free to choose a new one if he prefers, so long as it complies with the aforementioned standards.