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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
The New York Timeswrote an interesting article this week about Hollywood's catering and kowtowing to new found fundamentalist audiences. Since Mel Gibson's S&M Christ movie made a fortune, studio moguls are salivating over this target market. Really, there is nothing wrong with this, even though many of their movies are discriminatory and offensive. For example, in the Left Behind movie series, God basically whacks anyone who isn't a born again Christian. But hey, if gay people can have their movies, fundamentalist's should be able to see whatever they want, not matter how perverse. And what exactly is it that they want?
A new study by a leading Hollywood marketing firm, MarketCast, suggested that not only do Christians watch mainstream entertainment, but the most conservative among them are also drawn to violent fare.
The study of 1,000 moviegoers asked respondents to define their level of religiosity and their leanings, whether conservative, traditional or liberal, based on a list of social issues. About 70 percent of respondents said they were "somewhat" or "very" religious.
The researchers found that "when it comes to popular movies and popular shows, tastes don't differ at all" between religious and nonreligious, said Joseph Helfgot, president of MarketCast. "What you find is that people with conservative religious doctrine are the most likely to see movies rated R for violence. If you compared it to liberals, it's a third more."
I have a hunch that the same statistic would hold true for Rated XXX movies. Fundamentalist's have always loved censorship, because they see banning tawdry fare as the only way to keep themselves from devouring naughty entertainment.
5 Comments:
Wayne, its about hypocrisy, most religious people and their respective religions are the worst hypocrites of all. [They] are the morally bankrupt ones, not us. At least we're honest about what we're about. That's what they can't stand, they'd rather us go back in the closet and remain there.
This is not news... part of why the movie "The Passion " was so succesful, was because the level of bloodinness implied. These people are blood thirsty. That is why they go to funerals of victims of hate crime and people with AIDS and ejoy themselves, that is why the join the NRA, and that is why they support war. Think about it, there is -for them- a level of sexual excitement -the sadistic kind- implied in watching or learning about the suffering of others, that is why they believe in the mortification of the flesh and that is why they love repression, because there is a sic way of getting off implied
posted by Anonymous, at
7/21/2005 4:07 PM
A Gay friend of mine had an interesting observation once. He said that Bible bangers are so religious because they assume that everyone else is a miserable bastard too!
posted by Anonymous, at
7/21/2005 4:59 PM
I had the misfortune of seeing this horrid film in the theatres. I can handle a lot of violence, in fact some of my favorite movies are fairly violent, but this film would have made the Marquis de Sade go pale. So much blood, so much gleeful twisting of Catholic doctrine, turning what is considered a beautiful mystery of the church into a gorefest to rival Leatherface. Not to mention the naked Jesus butt money shot and the end of the film. I've never shouted obscenities at the screen with such vehement hate as I have when I saw this movie. Although I seemed to be in a distinct minority. It's pretty sick, I think. --Johnny in Minneapolis.
posted by Anonymous, at
7/21/2005 7:25 PM
