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> how puritanical America is Heard this lots; never seen much evidence or experienced it in my travels. I think it's unchallenged BS. I mean, the sale of rat

> how puritanical America is Heard this lots; never seen much evidence or experienced it in my travels. I think it's unchallenged BS. I mean, the sale of rated music CDs to 16 year olds is controlled and enforced in the UK. There are a bunch of American movies that are close to banned in Europe, but none of the reverse. As for "sexual liberation", major US cities and major European cities are no different.

MaysonL 18y ago
Just talking about this with a friend last night who went to Paris a few years ago. On the road in from the airport she was somewhat surprised by the billboard (advertising orange juice) showing a family - mom, dad, young teen daughter, and about 9 year old boy: full frontally nude. The next day, at about noon, she was surprised by the appearance on the boob tube of Linda Lovelace in Deep Throat.
biohacker42 18y ago
I can tell you my personal and entirely unscientific experience. When I first got of the plane years ago, to go to college in the US, the US culture struck me as deeply puritanical. I can't put it into exact words, but there was clearly a big difference compared to Europe. I spoke with other immigrants and they felt the same thing. The best a Brazilian friend and I could come up with was that it was like everyone got stuck in that very awkward phase when you're 12-13 and just switching from hating the other sex to being uncomfortably attracted to it. It seemed to us that somehow Americans just never outgrew that uncomfortable phase, which Europeans and Brazilians outgrow by the time we're 16 at the latest. Again, this is just personal and subjective evidence. And I just remebered something much less subjective. Here's some empircal evidence. I remember watching The Abyss on basic cable, this again shortly after I came to the US. And at one point Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's character is out and needs a defibrillator and her boob falls out. I distinctly remember being genuinely surprised that it was blurred, it was such a nothing! Not a sexual scene, just one boob and someone went through the trouble of blurring it, a profoundly silly thing. I did not expect the US to be that puritanical.
- kingkongrevenge 18y ago
  > this is just personal and subjective evidence Yeah, and I've been around the block and think it's total nonsense. Maybe compared to Rio sober Americans are a bit frigid, but not compared to any northern european country. I really don't think blurred boobs on broadcast TV indicates much about anything. In case you haven't noticed, TV and magazines don't indicate much about reality in any country.
  - biohacker42 18y ago
    Any northern European country? Again purely personal experience but the only northern European countries I've felt to be similarly puritanical as the US are the UK and Ireland. The Scandinavians, the Germans, the Dutch, etc, far more... libertine, imho.
- racetrack 18y ago
  The best way I've heard it described is: America: Sex, oh god PROTECT THE CHILDREN. Violence, that's cool. Europe: Sex, it's natural. Violence, oh god PROTECT THE CHILDREN.
  - kingkongrevenge 18y ago
    Yes there are these tendencies in the censorship, but they're ultimately meaningless. The UK is a much more violent society than the US, statistically. That is real and meaningful. Who gives a crap about the differences in how movies are rated.
    - dinkumthinkum 18y ago
      That's not true. What nonsense statistics are you using? There are dozens of U.S. cities with higher per capita murder rates than London or any other city in the UK. How quaint it is to contradict someone with vague and controversial statistics.
      - 18y ago
dkarl 18y ago
Most American women I've slept with are writhing bundles of sexual issues and neuroses. I don't have much experience with non-American women, but they've all (might as well say both, not exactly a statistically significant sample, but what the hell) been completely different. It's hard to describe how different it is to be with a woman who doesn't see sex as a tragic minefield that we're dropped into by fate and biology, who instead thinks that the worst-case scenario of sleeping with you is that she might not enjoy it and will be a little tired at work tomorrow.
RiderOfGiraffes 18y ago
Consider the half-time Super Bowl incident with Janet Jackson's "costume malfunction". Those Europeans I've spoken with who know about it are somewhere between bewildered and amused by the fuss that caused. There's a real sense of non-understanding as to why it was such a big issue. For reference, I'm neither American (North or South) nor European.

MaysonL 18y ago

Just talking about this with a friend last night who went to Paris a few years ago. On the road in from the airport she was somewhat surprised by the billboard (advertising orange juice) showing a family - mom, dad, young teen daughter, and about 9 year old boy: full frontally nude. The next day, at about noon, she was surprised by the appearance on the boob tube of Linda Lovelace in Deep Throat.

biohacker42 18y ago

I can tell you my personal and entirely unscientific experience. When I first got of the plane years ago, to go to college in the US, the US culture struck me as deeply puritanical. I can't put it into exact words, but there was clearly a big difference compared to Europe. I spoke with other immigrants and they felt the same thing. The best a Brazilian friend and I could come up with was that it was like everyone got stuck in that very awkward phase when you're 12-13 and just switching from hating the other sex to being uncomfortably attracted to it. It seemed to us that somehow Americans just never outgrew that uncomfortable phase, which Europeans and Brazilians outgrow by the time we're 16 at the latest. Again, this is just personal and subjective evidence. And I just remebered something much less subjective. Here's some empircal evidence. I remember watching The Abyss on basic cable, this again shortly after I came to the US. And at one point Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's character is out and needs a defibrillator and her boob falls out. I distinctly remember being genuinely surprised that it was blurred, it was such a nothing! Not a sexual scene, just one boob and someone went through the trouble of blurring it, a profoundly silly thing. I did not expect the US to be that puritanical.

kingkongrevenge 18y ago
> this is just personal and subjective evidence Yeah, and I've been around the block and think it's total nonsense. Maybe compared to Rio sober Americans are a bit frigid, but not compared to any northern european country. I really don't think blurred boobs on broadcast TV indicates much about anything. In case you haven't noticed, TV and magazines don't indicate much about reality in any country.
- biohacker42 18y ago
  Any northern European country? Again purely personal experience but the only northern European countries I've felt to be similarly puritanical as the US are the UK and Ireland. The Scandinavians, the Germans, the Dutch, etc, far more... libertine, imho.
racetrack 18y ago
The best way I've heard it described is: America: Sex, oh god PROTECT THE CHILDREN. Violence, that's cool. Europe: Sex, it's natural. Violence, oh god PROTECT THE CHILDREN.
- kingkongrevenge 18y ago
  Yes there are these tendencies in the censorship, but they're ultimately meaningless. The UK is a much more violent society than the US, statistically. That is real and meaningful. Who gives a crap about the differences in how movies are rated.
  - dinkumthinkum 18y ago
    That's not true. What nonsense statistics are you using? There are dozens of U.S. cities with higher per capita murder rates than London or any other city in the UK. How quaint it is to contradict someone with vague and controversial statistics.
    - 18y ago

dkarl 18y ago

Most American women I've slept with are writhing bundles of sexual issues and neuroses. I don't have much experience with non-American women, but they've all (might as well say both, not exactly a statistically significant sample, but what the hell) been completely different. It's hard to describe how different it is to be with a woman who doesn't see sex as a tragic minefield that we're dropped into by fate and biology, who instead thinks that the worst-case scenario of sleeping with you is that she might not enjoy it and will be a little tired at work tomorrow.

RiderOfGiraffes 18y ago

Consider the half-time Super Bowl incident with Janet Jackson's "costume malfunction". Those Europeans I've spoken with who know about it are somewhere between bewildered and amused by the fuss that caused. There's a real sense of non-understanding as to why it was such a big issue. For reference, I'm neither American (North or South) nor European.