April 21, 2007

What is it with American tv?

Maybe the question should be "What is it with American culture/mores?"

How is it that this society finds violence so much more culturally acceptable than sex?

As a result of some conversations I had with European friends last week I paid a bit more attention to what I saw on TV over the weekend. I think I was watching Spike or the SciFi channel and the movie in question was some sort of shlock horror thing. I don't normally watch these as I'm rarely into horrorfests but for some reason these caught my attention.

What did I notice? They were bleeping out selected words of the dialogue that contained profanities. Not normally something to comment on, but the very next shot showed a decapitated women's head, still dripping blood from the wound. Extremely graphic and not something you would want to show your children.

Why is it that this sort of violence - typified by the evening news, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and countless horror films - is so acceptable - and desensitizing and that a little profanity is unacceptable.

The double standard is just mind-boggling.

Posted by artandscience at April 21, 2007 06:42 AM
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