[potentially NSFW] What's the essence of sleaze?

Guilt afterwards. So if I can tell my mom what I did.

To me, sleaze is when a person is aware of but complicit to the fact that they have stepped over a line in society.

Good question. As an artist, I always ask this question when I’m drawing nude figures.

To me, nude art turns sleazy when the figure is explicitly acknowledging the viewer. And it’s apparent that it’s not a natural, artistic scene.

It’s one of those things where you know it when you see it. The context in which it is experienced can be all important. What’s sleazy here, might be appropriate in another setting. A teenager can often get by garbed in gear that would define a 30 year old as a hooker.