For anyone who is even slightly observant to cultural trends, it is obvious that one of predominant themes in American cinema, TV, music, and commercials is violence. There is blood, blades, or bullets in almost every American blockbuster and computer game. Violence is simply part of the pop culture and no one seems to find it overly shocking any more.
Sex, on the other hand, is taboo, and eroticism is an ancient art that exists only in Europe. Sex connotations are censored on TV, and movies with nude scenes often receive more strict parental guidelines (the sign that tells you if the movie is suitable for 12-year olds or 16-year olds, etc.) than those with killings. Lately, it seems that pop culture is becoming even more puritanical, like in the Twilight series where Bella and Edward will consume their love only after their marriage, or in Dear John where Savannah and John kiss and hug, but she still waits for him for more than a year to return from the war.
I don’t understand why Americans try to conceal sex so hard and still display so much brutality and bloodshed. Doesn’t it seem contradictory and maybe hypocritical? Probably the origin of the media sex-eclipse is the religiousness of many powerful American Christian denominations and sects. The saturation of guns and violence in pop culture reflects USA’s constant fighting and wars somewhere in the world, which have become part of the Americans’ daily lives just like action movies.
I go to college in the States, and I can tell you that someone’s attempt to keep youths pure from the sin of sex is absolutely in vain. Violence, unfortunately, seems to be engrained too deeply in politicians’ minds.
In Bulgaria, sex comes before violence. Sexual images inundate our pop scene, fashion, TV, magazines, and billboards. The young generation’s pop idols, the chalga stars, are platinum-blonde supermodels with silicone boobs and lips. One can mute their music videos and watch them as near-porn movies. Girls age 7 to 37 love and imitate the chalga stars. Our TV commercial slogans go: “With licking comes the appetite” (for Nestle ice-cream), “Erases the memories” (for vodka Flirt), and “It’s the season of the watermelons” (for mastika Peshtera liqueur). Our young women like to carry themselves as provocative and sexy, which has brought fame to Bulgaria, and especially our sea resorts as destinations for alcohol and sex tourism.
Despite the abundance of sexual imagery, Bulgaria is not a sexual inferno really. Young people are liberal in their views, but there is no baby boom or STD epidemics (with the notable exception of the Roma people whose numbers are going up while the average age when their women give birth for the first time is in the early teens; but Roma culture is different from ours).
So this is what I’m confused about: How can it be that something so terrible as violence has been turned into a cult in America, while something so natural as sex has been stigmatized as taboo?! Simultaneously, how can it be that a country that greatly values traditional family relations, where homosexuality and abortion are still sensitive topics can have such a vulgar and sexual pop culture?!
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August 1, 2010 at 5:06 am
katley
I have to say, Zikata, your observation about American culture and violence rings true. People don’t think twice about letting their kids watch a violent TV show, but if a woman shows her breast it’s major news…
A lot of the squeamishness about sex here in the States has to do with religion and the religious right. The media raised holy hell a number of years ago during the Superbowl Halftime Show, in which Janet Jackson’s breast was exposed in a “wardrobe malfunction”. I couldn’t understand what the big deal was! Here’s the link to the story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_XXXVIII_halftime_show_controversy
I’ve watched German TV shows and nudity to them was not a big deal. The Spanish language TV shows (especially the soap operas), which come from Latin America, are very sexual. The closest American TV gets to sexy is “Desperate Housewives.”
The human body and sex are not “dirty.” Violence is.
August 2, 2010 at 12:53 am
zikata
Thank you for the Janet Jackson reference. Let me just give some numbers from the Wiki article: this incident “resulted in a record $550,000 fine levied by the Federal Communications Commission against CBS […]. Additionally, some commentators saw the halftime show as a sign of decreasing morality in the national culture.”
I don’t think any Bulgarian has ever complained about a chalga music video or a provocative vodka commercial like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzbb3GhegLo&feature=related
And to expand on your idea, I was shocked when I recently found out about something called a “purity ring.” It is a way religious youths (or youths whose parents and community are very religious) demonstrate that they have vowed to practice abstinence until marriage.
First of all, isn’t such a vow supposed to be something very personal? I don’t think that such a public display of religiousness is necessary.
Secondly, should the government and businesses get involved in promoting celibacy and selling these rings at all? What happened with the separation between the secular and the spiritual?
I don’t know about freedom of speech and religion, but the idea of purity rings sounds medieval to me. In the Christian world in the 21 century, such an idea could be born only in America.
August 8, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Katley
That commercial would have been banned here in the States. I’m sure sales of that particular vodka were sky high in Bulgaria though 🙂
The religious people who live in the Bible Belt (see link) think sex before marriage and drinking alcohol are sinful, but they don’t have a problem with guns. Ironic, isn’t it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Belt
Here’s an ad for a Christian paintball park. Only in America could such a place exist, along with things like promise rings.
http://www.promisedland.com/
I agree with you, the undue emphasis on religion in a country like the United States, where separation of Church and State is the law, is a form of hypocrisy.
August 11, 2010 at 8:29 pm
zikata
The Promised Land Paintball logo: “Play Hard, Pray Harder”
This is a strange combination of funny, serious, and scary.
February 10, 2012 at 6:43 am
joaquinbarroso
Secularism and spiritualism are only separated in the States when nothing can be sold to bridge them. lol
I think this posture is widely adopted by the media, because of the religious and freedom of speech related reasons stated above, but not necessarily by the majority of the population; In fact, I believe the US are a far better destination for sex tourism than Eastern Europe.
Back in Romania we used to have this same kind of music and music videos which were incredibly sexual and here in Mexico soap operas tend to be also quite hot despite the widespread catholic morality among the population; but over there in the States, media is very much under the lens of a microscope.
Great post!