A TV show I had been watching, a dramatization of the life of China's only female emperor, Wu Zetian (624-705), was pulled off the air for a period last year. The official explanation for its abrupt dismissal was "technical reasons." When the show eventually returned, I noticed a stark change - most of the shots now only showed the actor's heads.

It was speculated that the change was due to the gratuitous display of female cleavage in the show. I'll be the first to admit that I too, found this distracting at first. How did officials back then ever get anything done, surrounded by such constant titillation? No doubt, it was a cynical ploy by the show's producers to try to attract a larger male audience. But after the show was pulled - and then re-edited to omit the aforementioned breasts, I found myself irked by the overzealous prudishness that facilitated the change. 

I am the last person to defend the wanton exhibition of cleavage on television shows. But the reasoning of the censors is totally misguided in this case. Our generation has grown up exposed to countless images of women that are sexualized. Furthermore, isn't cutting shots of female cleavage out of the show delivering the wrong message - that the display of any cleavage, in any context, is somehow dishonorable and inappropriate?

I do not, however, have any sympathy for the torrent of protests against China's censorship bodies online - mostly made by chauvinistic fanboys who claim that they have a "right" to ogle at a woman's breasts.

Such comments have sabotaged the possibility of any meaningful discussion about history and one of China's most intriguing figures.

A woman's body has of course, always been a contested battlefield throughout the ages. But this time, between the censorship of authorities and the perverted discussions of the majority, I mostly just feel embarrassed.

Whether and how a woman decides to show her cleavage is none of anybody else's business. Even if cleavage is being used for cynical purposes, even if it's being lewdly displayed simply to satisfy a man's voyeuristic appetites on television - I don't see how it is anyone else's business. What I do with my breasts is my own affair - as is true for any other woman.

This article was published on the Global Times Metropolitan section Two Cents page, a space for reader submissions, including opinion, humor and satire. The ideas expressed are those of the author alone, and do not represent the position of the Global Times.