5 ms·

Orthogonal to everything brought up in the article: I'm still stunned by how many parents have no problem with depictions of graphic violence but go nuts over s

Orthogonal to everything brought up in the article: I'm still stunned by how many parents have no problem with depictions of graphic violence but go nuts over sexuality and nudity. Arab culture is the most sexually repressed I've ever encountered, but we here in The States are not that far behind.

AceJohnny2 15y ago
I keep wondering about this. The argument comes back all the time, and yet sexual repression continues unabated. I wonder if it's because violence doesn't provoke the same copycat response as sexuality does. After all, the whole existence of porn is based on it being a stimulant for sexuality. However seeing a violent scene doesn't stimulate you to go beat something up. Or at least any human that I know of ;)
- kappaknight 15y ago
  I don't know about that... as a kid, I would usually jump off the walls for about 30 minutes after watching Jackie Chan flicks. Luckily, he only fights bad guys. =)
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
  - derleth 15y ago
    > Nobody has urges to commit violent acts in real life unless provoked by an external (or even internal) force. This is wrong. People have always been violent.
7952 15y ago
Violence is essentially fictional to the vast majority of Americans. It's something you see on television. Sex really happens. There is an awful lot of this [sex], largely because of the total lack of anything else to do.
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  Violence really happens as well, especially where America is concerned.
  - nitrogen 15y ago
    I think what the parent poster meant is that, for most first-world citizens, violence happens to "other people," making it seem less threatening or tempting than something that is an essential element of everyday life.
lotharbot 15y ago
Parents are usually wary of exposing their kids to violence when it's emotionally realistic. They may let their preteens play the latest Explode The Bad Guys game, but are less likely to let them watch surveillance footage of somebody being beaten to death. Most of us want our children to grow up to have a positive, healthy sexuality. That means developing certain attitudes and emotions. Sexual content in media tends to distort or completely lack those emotions and attitudes; the same is true of decontextualized nudity. Most of us don't want our children to grow up to have the attitudes that come from a life of violence. Adults who train to do violence (soldiers, police, etc.) often need help to deal with the emotional scars. That's not something we want to expose our children to. But "graphic violence" in movies and games tends to distort or completely lack that emotional content. The unrealistic or disconnected nature of media violence makes it more acceptable, while the unrealistic or disconnected nature of media sexuality makes it less so.
- moe 15y ago
  You just said: Kids can handle unrealistic violence fine but unrealistic sexuality is a problem. That makes no sense. None at all. Either your kids can distinguish reality from fiction. Or they can't. Right?
  - tedunangst 15y ago
    I think "I can single handedly kill all the bad guys with poor aim" is more easily recognized as fiction than "I get to fuck all the girls because that's what studs like me do". Action movie directors responsible for the former are (I hope) at least kind of in on the joke, but I have my doubts as to how much sexual fiction is recognized as realistic or not by the author. As a culture, we generally criticize real life violence. The message is fairly clear (ok in fiction, not ok in reality). However, sex is celebrated in real life, meaning it's a lot less black and white deciding what's ok.
    - moe 15y ago
      I think "I can single handedly kill all the bad guys with poor aim" is more easily recognized as fiction than "I get to fuck all the girls because that's what studs like me do". Not sure what else to say other than: Huh? That doesn't remotely make sense to me. We are talking about kids, not about mental retards in the medical sense, are we? As a culture, we generally criticize real life violence. The message is fairly clear (ok in fiction, not ok in reality). However, sex is celebrated in real life, meaning it's a lot less black and white deciding what's ok. Again: Huh? When reading such arguments I can only wonder what kind of kids the author is around, and whether he has lost all memory of his own youth (sorry, not meant as personal attack). Obviously a minor below a certain age should not be exposed to either. However, by the teen years, when boys commonly gain access to both and consume large quantities of both, most seem to handle it really well. Making an artificial distinction there just doesn't make sense to me. If a kid develops behavioral patterns based on "because that's what studs like me do" (either in a sexual or a violent way) then that kid has deeper problems entirely unrelated to the kind of content that he prefers.
astine 15y ago
For most middle-class Americans, sexual misconduct among youngsters is a more pressing issue than violent misconduct. Kids having sex and getting pregnant is fairly common while kids going on shooting sprees is very uncommon. I can tell you though, that back in the 90's when there was a string of shooting crimes by middle class kids, there was a big outcry against violent cinema. Tarantino films, which were seen to glorify violence and some of the kids imitated to some degree, took an especially big backlash. For the most part though, that was just a passing panic.

AceJohnny2 15y ago

I keep wondering about this. The argument comes back all the time, and yet sexual repression continues unabated. I wonder if it's because violence doesn't provoke the same copycat response as sexuality does. After all, the whole existence of porn is based on it being a stimulant for sexuality. However seeing a violent scene doesn't stimulate you to go beat something up. Or at least any human that I know of ;)

kappaknight 15y ago
I don't know about that... as a kid, I would usually jump off the walls for about 30 minutes after watching Jackie Chan flicks. Luckily, he only fights bad guys. =)
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
- derleth 15y ago
  > Nobody has urges to commit violent acts in real life unless provoked by an external (or even internal) force. This is wrong. People have always been violent.

7952 15y ago

Violence is essentially fictional to the vast majority of Americans. It's something you see on television. Sex really happens. There is an awful lot of this [sex], largely because of the total lack of anything else to do.

redthrowaway 15y ago
Violence really happens as well, especially where America is concerned.
- nitrogen 15y ago
  I think what the parent poster meant is that, for most first-world citizens, violence happens to "other people," making it seem less threatening or tempting than something that is an essential element of everyday life.

lotharbot 15y ago

Parents are usually wary of exposing their kids to violence when it's emotionally realistic. They may let their preteens play the latest Explode The Bad Guys game, but are less likely to let them watch surveillance footage of somebody being beaten to death. Most of us want our children to grow up to have a positive, healthy sexuality. That means developing certain attitudes and emotions. Sexual content in media tends to distort or completely lack those emotions and attitudes; the same is true of decontextualized nudity. Most of us don't want our children to grow up to have the attitudes that come from a life of violence. Adults who train to do violence (soldiers, police, etc.) often need help to deal with the emotional scars. That's not something we want to expose our children to. But "graphic violence" in movies and games tends to distort or completely lack that emotional content. The unrealistic or disconnected nature of media violence makes it more acceptable, while the unrealistic or disconnected nature of media sexuality makes it less so.

moe 15y ago
You just said: Kids can handle unrealistic violence fine but unrealistic sexuality is a problem. That makes no sense. None at all. Either your kids can distinguish reality from fiction. Or they can't. Right?
- tedunangst 15y ago
  I think "I can single handedly kill all the bad guys with poor aim" is more easily recognized as fiction than "I get to fuck all the girls because that's what studs like me do". Action movie directors responsible for the former are (I hope) at least kind of in on the joke, but I have my doubts as to how much sexual fiction is recognized as realistic or not by the author. As a culture, we generally criticize real life violence. The message is fairly clear (ok in fiction, not ok in reality). However, sex is celebrated in real life, meaning it's a lot less black and white deciding what's ok.
  - moe 15y ago
    I think "I can single handedly kill all the bad guys with poor aim" is more easily recognized as fiction than "I get to fuck all the girls because that's what studs like me do". Not sure what else to say other than: Huh? That doesn't remotely make sense to me. We are talking about kids, not about mental retards in the medical sense, are we? As a culture, we generally criticize real life violence. The message is fairly clear (ok in fiction, not ok in reality). However, sex is celebrated in real life, meaning it's a lot less black and white deciding what's ok. Again: Huh? When reading such arguments I can only wonder what kind of kids the author is around, and whether he has lost all memory of his own youth (sorry, not meant as personal attack). Obviously a minor below a certain age should not be exposed to either. However, by the teen years, when boys commonly gain access to both and consume large quantities of both, most seem to handle it really well. Making an artificial distinction there just doesn't make sense to me. If a kid develops behavioral patterns based on "because that's what studs like me do" (either in a sexual or a violent way) then that kid has deeper problems entirely unrelated to the kind of content that he prefers.

astine 15y ago

For most middle-class Americans, sexual misconduct among youngsters is a more pressing issue than violent misconduct. Kids having sex and getting pregnant is fairly common while kids going on shooting sprees is very uncommon. I can tell you though, that back in the 90's when there was a string of shooting crimes by middle class kids, there was a big outcry against violent cinema. Tarantino films, which were seen to glorify violence and some of the kids imitated to some degree, took an especially big backlash. For the most part though, that was just a passing panic.