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Page 8*
the constructive reports of the National Board and the Influences of the better class of audiences who are filling many of the theatres*
Costuming Tights And Hisufficient Clothing*.
The attitude of the National Board towards the indecent costuming of characters in a photodrama is easily understood, but calls for some statement of principle* The Board recognizes that there is nothing innately immoral or indecent in nudity or any stage between complete clothing and nudity ยป Questions of immorality and indecency arise in connection with nudes and unusual costuming because of the accompanying action together with the operation of the phychological fact of the association of ideas in the minds of the spectators. Real savages in their native dress and surroundings and pursuing their normal functions would be suggestive to nobody* but would be suggestive if these conditions were not true, or if the savages were performing some suggestive dance* On th# other hand, it is impossible to pass pictures of women almost wholly dressed, but yet displaying a lavish amount of lingerie* The same thing is true of women's dress where it is too much decollete* In both of these cases, convention is disregarded, and through the habit of association becomes unavoidably suggestive of indecency or immorality* It is simply because of custom and habits of thought that certain kinds of dress under conditions inevitably suggest evil*
Masculine and feminine psychology are different in questions of this type, and for this reason, among others, the National Board does ita best to have a representation of both sexes on all its committees, and on' its General Committee tries to balance them very closely* As a general rule picturing women's forms will start an association of Ideas in masculine minds which from the very nature of things no woman can experience; while on the other hand it appears that women make better censors of those pictures in which the actresses are treated with excessive familiarity*
Frank exposure of the person is much less objectionable than the exposure which is partly hidden and partly, revealed. To the adolescent youth and adult of arrested development, the mere fact that the costuming of a woman displays portions of her body usually concealed awakens the imagination and becomes suggestive of immorality and indecency* Especially is this true if the surroundings in which the scantily dressed characters are placed are unusually suggestive* The producers sometimes allege that true art calls for the particular costume chosen, but if the Board thinks that the art is pat in to carry the Immorality over, or that the Immorality is more effective than the art, it considers that it is its duty to condemn the picture* In these questions of decency the Board leans toward the conservative side*
infidelity And Sex Problem Plays*
This type is very common with certain companies and especially with the companies whose productions are made in Europe* The National Board has never denied that this is a legitimate subject for the motion picture* but it has insisted that it be treated with seriousness and artistic reserve*
Women Smoking And Drinking*
As was explained in the section on the comparison of custom, taste,