Today I want to talk about a couple of our favorite things as human beings; sex and violence. One is good, the other is bad, yet the taboos associated with the two seem to be skewed. We are programmed from childhood to be ashamed of our sexuality, whether straight or gay. We learn to feel embarrassed if we are caught watching sexually explicit material, yet we gather on the couch to watch portrayals of gratuitous violence. People have street fights, but I have personally never seen a street fuck. A penis penetrating a vagina gets a "XXX" rating while an axe penetrating a human cranium gets and "R" rating. It all just seems a little backwards.
The first time I realized this fact, I was making a transaction at my old job at a video game store. There was a child of about 10 with his mother. She was buying him a copy of Manhunt. Yes, this was a few years back. It was company policy that we informed the parent of a game's content if the game had a "mature" rating (for those of you not savvy to the video game culture, "rated mature" is the video game equivalent of "rated R.") I proceeded to explain to her that, in this particular game, you play the role of a convict that is released from prison in order to take part in a gritty snuff film in which you are audibly encouraged by the director to murder your victims in the most gruesome manner possible using things like plastic bags, shards of glass, baseball bats and whatever else you can find around the environment. The game was almost barred from release due to the graphic and sadistic nature of its content. Her response was priceless. After a slight hesitation and a quick glance at her angelic and impressionable offspring she ask me the more important question; "Okay, but there's no, like, nudity or anything, right?"
I nearly shit myself.
How the fuck did we arrive at the conclusion that mutilation and murder are more acceptable than a naked human body?! A human body in literally its most natural and uninhibited state is unacceptable in our culture. I'm trying to remain articulate here, but what the fucking fuck? Are you kidding me? If you are more offended by an exposed nipple than you are by someone being cleaved in half with a chainsaw, don't worry, I guess that's totally normal.
Now before you start to think that I'm saying that there should be less violence in our entertainment, I'm not. I am just as entertained watching Leatherface chase down and hack up some teenager as the next guy. I am equally entertained watching a UFC fight or an action flick to which you can play drinking games that coincide with the body count. Violence and sex are both in our nature as human beings, but for some reason we have decided to suppress the more natural and peaceful of the two.
Let's go back to penetration.
If you are reading this and you have a penis, you have probably used it to penetrate another human body by this point in your life. If you are reading this and you have a knife, the same is probably not true. So why then are we more comfortable to sit together and watch heads roll than we are to sit and watch uglies bump? The obvious answer is that a Saturday afternoon circle-jerk is not very appealing to most of us. I think that it may also have something to do with the removal from reality that comes with violent entertainment. Sex hits close to home for almost everyone, while horrifically violent scenarios don't. Also, most of us are not sexually aroused by horrific violence, and sexual arousal has a tendency to breed nervousness. To be repulsed or afraid is less personal than to be aroused.
I still find it funny, though, that if you flip on CSI or NCIS or any of those cornball cop dramas, they will open the show with the image of some mutilated hooker followed by a detailed description of how she ate shit; but when a vibrant and healthy woman removes her top later in the show, they'll come up with any angle or visual obstacle they can to protect you from the sight of those ghastly and offensive bare breasts. It's comforting to know that I can be sure there will be no filth to ruin my enjoyment of mutilated hookers. Thank you, TNT.
The dichotomy of what we find acceptable in entertainment and what we find acceptable in real life is interesting. For instance, you would probably prefer walking into a room to find your friend fucking his roommate over walking into that room to find him murdering his roommate; but that guy would much prefer your walking in on him while he watches a slasher flick over your walking in on him while he watches a skin flick. (I know the term "skin-flick" is corny, it just seemed to work well right there. Whatever. Fuck you.)
I guess that it helps in some ways that things are the way they are. For some people, porn can become an addiction, and many people that fall victim to this problem become desensitized to real sex. Maybe if we were shown too much sex in our entertainment, we would all become desensitized to it. Though I doubt that would happen. On the other side of the coin, no horror movie in this world can desensitize you to real-life violence. I had seen quite a few violent movies before the first time I ever got into a fist fight, and even something as simple as punching someone in the face feels slightly evil the first time you do it. To actually look at another person in front of you and inflict damage on that person's body takes something out of a good person, regardless of his or her taste in entertainment. I'm talking of course about hostile encounters in the real world, not combat sports in which there is a mutual face-punching understanding between combatants.
I'm not trying to start a protest here, I'm simply pointing out another ridiculous aspect of our society and the way we think about things. I realize that sex is usually a very private thing in real life, which is fine; but the fact that nudity is taboo is absolutely asinine when paired with the fact that a huge percentage of our entertainment is reliant on violent imagery. Add it to the list of ass-backwards things we all ignore every day, I guess. Goooo boobies!
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