Sex vs Violence

Why does it seem the United States glorifies violence and villifies sex while other countries in the world abhor violence and treat sex as something natural and normal?

That seems to be taking a fairly selective minority of the people. I turn on TV and I see sex gloried nonstop. We do have a large market niche that glorifies violence, but is that really how the entire country is? I don't really see it. Outside of M-rated video games, most violence seems to be frowned upon in popular culture. The bad guys do it, or the good guys kill the bad guys and thus that violence is more or less painted as justice.

Exactly where is sex frowned upon anymore? No characters on television ever stay virgins for long and sex scenes are becoming more and more graphic. And rarely is it explicitly frowned upon. If a character ever disapproves of sex, they are presented as some closeminded old coot. Sure, people who have sex on TV often end up miserable, usually because pop culture glorifies sex so much that it can't possibly consider longterm monogamy as an option.

So I see the opposite. I see a culture glorifying sex and frowning upon violence. I personally think either extreme is messed up. We shouldn't glorify violence. And I don't think we need to glorify sex either. That doesn't mean that sex itself is wrong. But the way we glorify it now demeans it. I think the way people look at sex and violence is part of the reason it's not going away from the media anytime soon.

Worse are the movies that contain both sex and violence, very very bad for kids to see.People say that kids know the difference and violence they watch doesn't make them violent, but I believe they are wrong. I think it confuses young children to see an actor die then see them again later alive. Years ago there was a movie called My Bloody Valentine,(it had lots of sex and violence) where the woman's heart was cut out. Shortly a young guy cut his girlfriends heart out. OK that was one incident, but when someone is already unbalanced we don't know what will encourage them to violence.

In movies violence is easier because for one thing it often adds to the storyline, where would Highlander be without the beheadings? Where would All Quiet on the Western Front be without the war? Where would Psycho be without the shower scene? Sex doesn't add to any of these really. Also, violence is faked, rubber blades, movie blood, retractable knives, the nudity is real and the sex isn't far off on that one.

Supernova wrote:In movies violence is easier because for one thing it often adds to the storyline, where would Highlander be without the beheadings? Where would All Quiet on the Western Front be without the war? Where would Psycho be without the shower scene? Sex doesn't add to any of these really. Also, violence is faked, rubber blades, movie blood, retractable knives, the nudity is real and the sex isn't far off on that one.

That's another fair point. (One I actually exploited a bit in my latest impulse short story. It could be interesting social commentary, IMO.) You made a few good points, IMO. And a lot of violence is not presented in a positive light when it is presented. I don't think we can really compare violence in media to sex in media at all. Different animals.

Forgiveness Man wrote:That's another fair point. (One I actually exploited a bit in my latest impulse short story. It could be interesting social commentary, IMO.) You made a few good points, IMO. And a lot of violence is not presented in a positive light when it is presented. I don't think we can really compare violence in media to sex in media at all. Different animals.

Now this is true, in the older movies the most violent people who took pleasure in torturing and killing were generally the ones killed off, one that comes to mind is actor Tod Slaughter. For the 1930s he portrayed some of the most sadistic, psychotic men imaginable, but he generally met his demise the same way, a pleading little coward, he could dish out the brutal killings but he couldn't take them.

And then there were times when violence in response to violence was the only retaliation possible, like Last House on the Left, you have 3 brutal murderers in your house who raped and killed your daughter and dismembered her friend, the phone lines have been cut and the police are walking their way out to your house which is in the middle of nowhere, what're you going to do to make sure they don't get away with this? However that's not a position that anybody would want to be in in the first place. But if you think about it, that movie at the end with the booby traps was like an R rated Home Alone, which detours off to the section of cartoon violence which it's hard to take any issue with. Of course while on this topic I'd like to point out, it's funny because some people say, like myself, Last House is an R rated Home Alone, and with the Last House promos they had that 'it's only a movie, only a movie, only a movie', and in Home Alone when the furnace came to life Kevin was going 'it's only my imagination, only my imagination, only my imagination'. Kind of weird, ain't it?

Forgiveness Man wrote:That seems to be taking a fairly selective minority of the people. I turn on TV and I see sex gloried nonstop. We do have a large market niche that glorifies violence, but is that really how the entire country is? I don't really see it. Outside of M-rated video games, most violence seems to be frowned upon in popular culture. The bad guys do it, or the good guys kill the bad guys and thus that violence is more or less painted as justice.

Exactly where is sex frowned upon anymore? No characters on television ever stay virgins for long and sex scenes are becoming more and more graphic. And rarely is it explicitly frowned upon. If a character ever disapproves of sex, they are presented as some closeminded old coot. Sure, people who have sex on TV often end up miserable, usually because pop culture glorifies sex so much that it can't possibly consider longterm monogamy as an option.

So I see the opposite. I see a culture glorifying sex and frowning upon violence. I personally think either extreme is messed up. We shouldn't glorify violence. And I don't think we need to glorify sex either. That doesn't mean that sex itself is wrong. But the way we glorify it now demeans it. I think the way people look at sex and violence is part of the reason it's not going away from the media anytime soon.

Very good points FM.

Suzi wrote:Worse are the movies that contain both sex and violence, very very bad for kids to see.People say that kids know the difference and violence they watch doesn't make them violent, but I believe they are wrong. I think it confuses young children to see an actor die then see them again later alive. Years ago there was a movie called My Bloody Valentine,(it had lots of sex and violence) where the woman's heart was cut out. Shortly a young guy cut his girlfriends heart out. OK that was one incident, but when someone is already unbalanced we don't know what will encourage them to violence.

Good point Suzi. Do you think that if Violent Prisoners are shown say G rated movies like Disney movies etc. on a daily basis that eventually they will become less violent?

Shale wrote:But the question was 'why?' It goes to our puritan culture which is based on that dreadful 'Holy Bible' and some Paulist concept of penitence and abstinance.

The old testament is full of violence - sanctioned by God as long as it was his ppl meting it out. So that is ingrained in our cultural mythos.

Then the Puritans come along with their Paulist interpretation and go against anything pleasurable so portrayals of sex were forbidden, while within the church there was sex & exploitation of women done secretly by the more privileged.

Well, the English got tired of this and ran the Puritans out. They first went to the Netherlands until the Dutch got tired of them so they went to the new world to build their own little theocratic colonies. Those colonies became us and their view was incorporated into many of our laws, which 200+ years later we are still trying to dismantle.

Yep yep

I'd rather watch a movie with a man and woman making love than trying to kill each other.

Tony Marino wrote:


Good point Suzi. Do you think that if Violent Prisoners are shown say G rated movies like Disney movies etc. on a daily basis that eventually they will become less violent?

Probably not. I wouldn't say that an adult is influenced by the sex and violence they see on film, unless they are terribly unbalanced. However no one seems to care today what our impressionable children see. I'd a hell of a lot rather the kids see sex than violence or sex mixed with violence.

Even as adults though don't you notice we become jaded by all the violence we see in the world. 50 dead somewhere we hardly turn a hair, after all it isn't 3000 like on 9-11. I've seen people write about some horrific event and say but "only XX were killed". What is wrong with us?

I think the problem is that BOTH sex and violence are parts of human nature. And at different times, both are glorified, one not to a more degree than the other. The romans built the collesium for violence, we have stadiums and boxing rings for violence. Romans and greeks were both free loving societies... and loved sex! (god i wish i was born then LOL)

I remember when i was a teenager i went to a showing of Friday the 13th (part six i think)... and all the kids in the audience cheered for jason... the parents were horrified. BUT WHY? they took us to see it, so why would they expect a different reaction? My Bloody Valentine in 1981 was one of my fav movies as Suzi stated had lots of sex/violence (I was 7yrs old, and my mom let me watch that).

what's crazy is that everybody HAS sex, and doesnt want to admit it or talk about it. Not everyone kills someone. Is there too much of it on TV/Movies-- YES. I believe there is. Should kids wait to have sex, from my experience YES. Hell, i think people should wait til 30 to get married! LOL

Im rambling now cause i gotta leave for work and dont want to!

Sex and violence are both money makers. The US glorifies BOTH. Where you been? The people who always talk shit about the US being "puritanical", are the ones who usually have no common decency. Anyone with a brain knows that sex is the most natural thing in the world. However, we as humans have brains and it does not mean we have to act like we don't know any better. Sex isn't villified as much as you think. There's just no need for the indecent behavior that sometimes comes along with it.

I say MORE

Less

Tony Marino wrote:Why does it seem the United States glorifies violence and villifies sex while other countries in the world abhor violence and treat sex as something natural and normal?

Not all countries do, though. In fact, many don't, and some are wa-a-a-a-a- y more "repressive" than we are.

I, personally, don't see where we have such a problem here. People have choices and we all behave in the manner we choose to, for whatever reasons, and sometimes with consequences. People whine about this 'n' that (encroaching on each other's rights, etc.), but such are the issues with changing times, and with living in a salad-society.