Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Thursday, February 14, 2008

10 Comments:

Although I personally find the word 'harsh', I think, given the subject matter, it's not really that big a deal. Saying that however, I should remember that we're talking about US television where a nipple or the word 'cunt' is horrifying, but seeing murder, death and violence is considered entertainment.
posted by Unknown, at 2/14/2008 7:38 PM

I'm 23 today. My mom says that 30 years ago, in the 70's, there was more free speech on TV than there is today. I don't get what the CUNTroversy is about. I wasn't traumatized by the Janet Jackson nipple and neither was my 4 year old sister.
posted by Emily K, at 2/15/2008 1:34 AM

Its because she's a woman. A man saying that wouldn't be as sensational. You should hear the language coming out of high school girls here in New York City. The media is hypocritical and bigoted anyway and lets face it, as a society we get bent out of shape when it comes to sexuality too, comparable to other backward societies such as Poland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and other eastern European countries when it comes to sexuality and censorship.

If any of you have access to BBC in America, check out the Graham Norton Show (not the one he did here in the U.S.). The language he uses pales but over here, the authorities have to beep out words such as "cunt" and "fuck" from his show. A lot of their celebrities use such language if they so choose, on or off his show. In the UK, his program isn't censored and its part of network t.v. not cable. We need to grow up, mature and join the more progressive societies, instead of regressing.
posted by Anonymous, at 2/15/2008 8:12 AM

That's true Robert. I was amazed at the 'stuff' that was on German television when i was there; bare chested women and bare bottomed (behind) men in commercials for soap and shampoo etc. In England they have a (night) tv show where audience members will strip to get certain prizes. I saw a guy flapping his huge elephant's truck dick on the stage to the roaring laughter of the audience. And this is in uptight stuffy Britain! The USA really is stuck in a puerile absurdly prudish level of development when it comes to sex and nudity.
ps...I love Graham Norton too, he's on Saturday night after Torchwood, the show with gorgeous gay John Barrowman on it.
Red V
posted by Anonymous, at 2/15/2008 12:39 PM

A speaker just came to our campus, he wrote the book Porn Nation, and his premise was that U.S. American culture is "hyper-sexualized".

I didn't see the lecture but I talked to someone who did. She said she would have liked him to focus more on education rather than blaming the media, but that otherwise she essentially agreed with him that America is over- or hyper-sexualized.

And I said, "are you kidding?!? People here can't even handle a nipple on TV!! You can't even show a lesbian (fully clothed, just working at their job) on public television without getting protested! Even in 'liberal' Madison, I get glares and comments when I hold my husband's hand in public!"

How can anyone say our culture is too sexualized? It seems to me to be very repressed and victorian (not to mention utterly sexist and homophobic). Even the so-called "graphic" sex scenes in movies and TV are just silly wish-fulfillment fantasies narrowly geared toward adolescent males.
posted by Anonymous, at 2/15/2008 1:48 PM

Big deal. Move on.
posted by Anonymous, at 2/15/2008 2:14 PM

Eshto, I think it's "hyper-sexualized" in the sense that sexuality is treated SO taboo and SO "inappropriate" in the USA that everything about sex becomes titilating and "naughty." Things that aren't a big deal in Europe are a HUGE deal here. In Rome, right outside the vatican, you can see movie posters with bare breasts. It's just not a big deal. NOW, don't get me wrong, I am very very much opposed to sexual exploitation. But because there's not much of a healthy view of sexuality in this country, EVERYTHING becomes exploitable. And since "guilty pleasures" sell, that's what will be given us.
posted by Emily K, at 2/15/2008 2:14 PM

Thank God the fundies were all over this, because quite frankly I missed it. There I was, watching the Today Show, seeing Fonda's interview with Eve Ensler, and I didn't even catch the word. I guess I was too busy making breakfast or ironing my pants, and did not have the chance to get all outraged.

Absolutely Pathetic
posted by Anonymous, at 2/15/2008 5:01 PM

Red V, yes John Barrowman is absolutely gorgeous, I never miss an episode of Torchwood. He sure can kiss good. By the way, it wins award after award for the best sci-fi program in the UK, written by a gay man of course, Russell Davies, who I think penned the original, "Queer as Folk". All of these programs of course are on network t.v. watched by millions which would be relegated to cable only in our country.

As for stuffy, uptight Britain, NOT any more, not in the past 30 years, light years ahead of us on sexuality and progressiveness. Blair had it right...Cool Britannia! He even attended Stonewall UK's annual gala, can you imagine an American president doing that?
posted by Anonymous, at 2/16/2008 4:03 AM

Of course they'll dredge up the old vietnam stuff again, even though she's apologized for it 1000 times and it happened when she was in her early 20s! No one else ever did anything foolish at that age, especially not her constant critics!
posted by Anonymous, at 2/16/2008 10:11 AM