In recent years, more and more nudity, vulgarity and utter lack of refinement has surfaced in the public eye. With each passing day, another tasteless photo is posted online, a new swear word is allowed on television and the fashion industry grows richer and more powerful, though it would appear they are selling their clothing lines with less fabric than ever before. The spread of indecency has been sweeping the nation for an innumerable number of years, but certainly not at the rate at which it has done in the past 20. This tidal wave of  injustice must come to a halt if society is to continue to flourish.

Quite recently, a photo of Kim Kardashian showing off her rather prolific posterior has surfaced on the cover of a magazine known as Paper.  In this photo, she is turned around with her bare bottom facing the camera. This is an absolute absurdity. If this photo had been on the cover of a magazine within even the last 20 to 30 years, there would almost certainly have been a public outrage. This uprise in unseemliness can without a doubt be attributed to the internet’s surge in popularity over the last two decades. Websites of the 21st century are constantly trying to grab the attention of a potential browser. With millions of websites competing for viewers on a daily basis, of course the use of a compelling (though often obscene) image will occur. Although the internet is known as free domain, should everybody, including children, be allowed to view such defiled imagery?

Just because people are becoming more open to the ideas of others does not mean that public nudity and profanity have become prodigious for the use of all. According to Tom Cheredar of the website Venture Beat, on June 21, 2012, the high court ruled that the FCC may not fine any public television station for allowing the viewers to hear profanity or see indecency on their programs. This ruling has made it possible for people to hear almost anything they could imagine on modern day television programs. If this usage of harsh dialogue is not even monitored on TV, it is only a matter of time before we could be having characters such as Spongebob Squarepants dropping the F-bomb at every chance they get. The majority of today’s non-censored shows come on after 10:00 pm, but it is not uncommon for a young, and very persuadable, child to still be awake at that time. The last thing a parent needs after a stressful day at work is to come home and be greeted with, “How the f@#k are you Mommy?” from their nine year old son or daughter.

One of the more easily perceivable forms of indecency takes place in modern fashion. Some of the most influential people of the 21st century dress as if they are on their way to the beach or even a strip club. One of the most famous examples of this comes from the music world’s beloved Beyoncé. While performing at an event in Serbia, Beyoncé wore an outfit that made it appear as if her body had been covered in glitter and only glitter. Her attire was worn to kick off her Mrs. Carter tour, but what it really accomplished was an all too revealing show that left thousands of viewers stunned if not rather pleased. If an outfit like this had been wore 100 years ago, Beyoncé would have been arrested on accounts of public indecency. Professionals of the past were supposed to have a sense of eloquence, not incompetence.

As humanity’s ideals progress, a line must be drawn to illustrate the limits of acceptable and intolerable acts. How can society continue to advance if it begins to act more and more like the animals it so desperately attempts to stave off? The breaking down of borders is a generally superlative achievement, but only when all limiting factors have been accounted for. Civilization as a whole will simply regress if it is not accommodated by some form of regulation, for without rules, there can be no commonality, no order, and above all, no decency.