LOS ANGELES: Two decades after a nude photo scandal helped cost a Miss America her title, Americans may be adopting a more ho-hum attitude toward people who bare it all for the cameras.

Some experts say the Internet and more explicit TV are fostering a more relaxed response by Americans to public displays of bare flesh, even if many people profess to be more conservative.

Take, for example, the muted reaction to nude photos of 18-year-old Vanessa Hudgens, the star of Walt Disney Co's squeaky clean ‘High School Musical' franchise. One day after the photos surfaced on the Web last Thursday, Hudgens issued an apology and family friendly Walt Disney Co said it would continue negotiating her appearance in the third installment of the hugely popular series, one of the most popular programs in US cable TV history.

While some expressed outrage, many fans pledged support on her MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/vanessahudgens. Some lashed out at her critics. "Quit moaning and if you have any kind of decent filtering on the computer, kids aren't going to see it," wrote one poster on a website at http://acemanonline.wordpress.com.

It's a far cry from the scandal in 1984 when Vanessa Williams, the first black woman named as Miss America, resigned after nude photos surfaced of her and another female model. "I do think that general attitudes about nudity are becoming more relaxed, but these changes take time, which is why there's still mixed responses," said Paul Levinson, communication and media professor at Fordham University. "We as a society are finally growing up and it's a healthy thing," he said.

Sex and nudity are also more prevalent on TV, especially cable stations. Last week's opening episode of the HBO drama Tell Me You Love Me , contained half-a-dozen sex acts.
Topic from Times of India