The Hays Code is very interesting to research, as are the pre-Code films of the 1930s. Weirdly, a lot (perhaps most) of my favourite films come from the Hays Code era, because filmmakers were forced to be that much more creative by the restrictions. The final joke in Whisky Galore! (1949) - one of my favourite Ealing comedies - is an absolutely hilarious coded dig at the absurdity of the Hays Code, and makes the film even funnier. On the other hand, certain subjects simply couldn't be explored under the Hays Code so I'm glad it's gone.

I will say though that I find the opposite extreme from the Hays Code equally stupid. For example, the mandated pointless nudity in programmes like Game of Thrones. That's just as foolish as not allowing it at all. My wife and I used to play "guess the nipple count" when watching. On one particularly hilarious occasion, just to be different, I predicted an odd number. My wife rolled her eyes and said I would lose, but I won because that was an episode that featured breastfeeding in one scene.

I'm not prudish, and have no problem with extremes of sex, violence, nudity, or whatever, when the context demands it, and I absolutely don't do "offended". Indeed, I can think of examples of nakedness in film that made the drama ten times more powerful (the naked knife fight in the sauna with Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises, for instance, or the nudity with Rinko Kikuchi near the end of Babel). But just chucking naked women onscreen in a random, studio mandated way, is just as creatively crushing as not allowing it at all.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed the article.