As many of you know, I am now a regular writer at Liberal America. When I first started writing for LA on the U.S., U.K., Europe, politics and differences subjects, I thought that it was kind of a limited scope. Now however, the more I write the more I realise how many things are so fundamentally different in the U.S. than in Europe or the U.K., not to say we do not have vast amounts in common, we obviously do, but there are some basic and intrinsic differences.
Children and Access to Violence and Nudity via Mainstream Media
One thing that has baffled me for a long time is the fact that in the U.S., attitudes to violence and nudity have somehow got turned around, the total reverse of Europe and most Western countries. In the U.K. for instance, violence on TV is limited. We have a group that monitors TV and anything violent is not legally allowed to be shown on TV before what is called ?the watershed?; this is either 9pm or 10pm depending on the level of violence. This includes every type of show from news, soaps, movies, everything.
While violence is not considered suitable for younger views at certain times, we are much more laid back about the human body. The human body in pretty much all of Europe/UK is considered natural and not something to be hidden away as if it’s somehow unclean, sordid or something to be shamed by.? I am not saying we have porn for toddlers as some on the right in the U.S. will be quick to visualise, but nudity, is seen as natural, a woman’s and man’s body is nothing to be ashamed of.? Programs may show breasts, or women/men semi naked without a thought and after the watershed, it’s OK to show most sex scenes from pretty much any movie. Post-watershed would mean that it would expect ages from 1+ to be watching.
Films here are also measured using a different rating system, much more based on violence rather than sexual content. We are not talking porn. Let’s get that out of the way. I am talking about openness, and about showing the human body which is considered normal. Violence is a subject we are much more aware of. One is seen as something natural and very much a normal part of being human, while the other — violence — is considered against the grain and something quite divorced in many ways from real life everyday life in a modern western country. Yes we know violence happens, but minus guns [see previous article on U.S. Gun Culture] it much less common and much less a part of everyday life here.
This article really is about attitudes to rather than access to, violence and nudity and how those attitudes relate to the right wing in America and how it is such an aberrant attitude in modern society, largely influenced by a vocal minority.
Societal Attitudes to Nudity and Violence and How They Differ between Europe and the U.S. ? How this is affected by the Right Wing in the U.S.
There seems to be an almost schizophrenic split in how the U.S. views violence as a society and how nudity is such a taboo subject. In the U.S. any magazine with any form of nudity on the cover is sold with an obscuring cover, I have seen them on shelves in many U.S. stores and it is utterly baffling. ?I am a great movie lover and I suppose the attitude really hit me or was more forcefully driven home, browsing movie reviews on sites such as IMDB. On every single movie with release in the U.S., there would/is always be a post about how much nudity, how much of a body is shown, are there sex scenes of any kind, is part of a breast shown or god forbid a nipple or male, female genitalia. These are perfectly serious questions posed and answered in depth. To Europe, this is so strange, why such a taboo? Why so many hang ups about what is after all perfectly normal and natural and given to U.S. by God or nature. This does appear to come from the Right Wing in the U.S., the Christian right who seem to view such nudity as outrageous, immoral and utterly wrong on every level. Why? Where did this attitude come from? How is it maintained and justified in a modern society?? No not from the puritan settlers, that was long ago diluted to nonexistence.? I know many Americans, both as friends and work colleagues, several are Evangelical, Born Again or Fundamental Christians and their attitude to nudity/sex is very repressed.
The real dichotomy is where violence enters the scene. Almost any amount of violence whether real on the news or portrayed in movies is seen as fine and utterly acceptable. If you look at almost all mainstream horror or gore-fest movies, they are made and largely consumed in the U.S. Many mainstream movies routinely show violence and torture as an act of revenge, which is seen as perfectly OK. Think of almost any well-known horror/gore fest and it’s made in the U.S., from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the Saw series, Hostel series etc?Almost any level of violence which in Europe would be considered a fringe audience is normal and widespread in the U.S.
You hear time and again headlines from the right wing about how nudity and sex are corrupting the youth, how awful it is that such things are allowed. The real question is why is it seen as so terrible, but Americans seem inured to almost every and any level of violence, real or portrayed?
Throughout Western history, nudity and sex have always been seen as something normal, an everyday part of life. History books are full of examples from ancient Rome and Greece through medieval times, to modern times, sex and nudity, were always [ok we had the Victorians!] considered perfectly ordinary, which it is. In fact while in Europe, violence has become something seen as abnormal, something damaging to society. Capital punishment is a classic example, as are guns], the U.S. sees it as acceptable and normal.
The other paradox on this subject is that the U.S. is one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of pornography. This is of course a multibillion dollar business, so it must be ok to produce or sell hard-core porn. Even when made in countries such as Russia, it’s usually a U.S. based company selling it or offering it. Even if this was not such a big business in the U.S., is it not hypocritical of a country to be so absurdly prudish on one hand while on the other making vast amounts of money from hard-core porn?? What probably stands out even more is how often these right-wing advocates of morals and upright, anti-nudity probity are caught with prostitutes, with pornography or behaving in a totally immoral way. They then blame the devil or degenerates for leading them astray, absolving them of all personal responsibility. ?This is so hard for those outside the U.S. to understand!
It has no bearing on someone making a good leader or politician if he has affairs or is caught receiving oral sex. In Europe this really would not matter, many European politicians have been guilty of these indiscretions, but they carried on as normal except in cases when the behaviour was abnormal.
This double standard and refusal to even accept responsibility for their own actions is utterly and completely baffling to Europe and the wider issues of acceptance of violence within U.S. society, both real and portrayed, while rejecting nudity as beyond the pale, is to U.S., the normal values of society? totally reversed. But again, it is the minority who seem to force this onto mainstream America, but the questions still remain: how did such reversal of what is acceptable come about?
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