Blaine argues vociferously in favor of her right to a public online life. "My website is not a professional venue of mine; it's not linked to my teaching at USC. I've never assigned my site to students. I've never told them to go look and find images of me. It's not been brought into my teaching at all," she states. Fifty-one students who filled out surveys about Blaine's teaching gave her high marks in all areas, offering praise such as "Blaine is without a doubt the most exhilarating whirlwind of feminist, socially conscious thinking I have experienced thus far at this institution."

The professor understands why the focus has been on her boobs rather than her provocative editorial, and sees this "scandal," which she adeptly deconstructs on her site, as part of her feminist teachings. "I know too many beautiful young women who don't like their bodies, who don't enjoy their sexuality fully. That's why I went to Burning Man, to experience self-exploration in the desert, including the ability to take off my clothes," she explains. "I was a little fat kid who hated her body; I never dreamt I'd be able to walk completely naked and find freedom in that. I can't tell you how many women came up and said, 'Thanks for being this brave.' " What does she think about the fact that people have probably jerked off to her decidedly tame photos? "It's none of my business," she says, laughing since her husband had to point out that her photos are likely masturbatory fodder.

With my own nude photos online, I can relate to Blaine's situation. Attempting to be taken seriously while also publicly claiming one's sexuality means we walk a tricky line. Too many people look at the nudity and never read on to see how the choice to show our bodies relates to the rest of our lives. Aside from breast-feeding, most of us cannot view boobs as anything other than forbidden symbols of temptation. By all means look at men's and women's chests, but keep in mind they come attached to a real person.

Bottom line: You don't have to like Blaine's photos to respect her First Amendment right to post them. Nobody's forcing you to look at them. Hers aren't plastered on her site, and in fact, one must go searching for them—they're hardly blatant attempts to get anyone to ogle her body. Blaine sees the photos as self-expression rather than porn. "I'm not desperately seeking male approval. If I hadn't found some pleasure in the pictures I wouldn't have put them there. For the people who've said, 'Oh god, you're disgusting,' click away. There's lots of other pictures on the Internet, there for exploitative purposes because women need to sell their bodies. I'm privileged to have a choice and was able to operate as an intellectual in spite of the fact that I have a body with boobies on it."

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