When I saw the story breaking on yet another hypocritical, Clinton impeachment voting, GOP congressional member getting caught with his pants down I almost ignored the story because the shock value of it all has completely evaporated at this point. The only important questions to me were what district was it in, how red it was, and the potential for a Dem pick up in 2008. While I was looking for that info I got off on a tangent and ran across some data points that lead to telling conclusions about our culture surrounding sex and scandel, our POV on nudity and just how damn priggish and prudish we are. The 13 year old attitudes we have about sex and nudity heavily promoted by the religious right at some point has to lead us to conclude that we are causing major problems in our culture that are unnessasary and dangerous.
Back in 1977 I had the good fortune to make a trip to Greece to study Greek theatre as part of a grant scholarship program through my Univerity. One day I was waiting in the lobby at our hotel to meet up with a couple of my fellow students when I noticed a TV playing near the seated waiting area. As I looked on with curiosity while I was waiting I was suddenly stupified by an advertisiment about some bar soap. A woman was taking a shower using the bar of soap in question when she suddenly turned into a full frontal nude shot to lather up. I must have looked like the proverbial hayseed with my mouth agape at such a transgression. The point being I was the only one in the lobby that noticed or cared. So even a future liberal minded bohemian like myself was affected by this twisted culture we have weaved for ourselves and seem to be paying a heavy price for on many levels. Pedophiles lurking in 13 yr.old chat rooms comes to mind. It's not hard to connect the dots on how twisted they got and link it to the twisted cultural attitudes we project (i.e. the crisis over Janet Jackson's nipple exposure on live TV).
I ran into an intresting piece here about the current dust up over star Jason Segal in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and his full frontal nude scene with Kristin Bell. The discussion centered around the rare incidence of male frontal nudity and how it pales in comparison to female frontal nudity. At first I was reading it for laughs when the absurdity of it all dawned on me. The commenters were actually discussing whether or not shots of bare female breasts equaled a shot of the male penis or only when female genitalia is involved. I started thinking, "only in America." One commenter led me to this link that actually led me to writing this post. It was a link to a poll statistic regarding video games. Parents of video gamers were asked: "As a parent, which would you find most offensive in a video game?
a. a graphically severed human head? (26%)
b. a man and woman having sex (37%)
c. multiple uses of the "F" word (10%)
d. two men kissing (27%)
Imagine how disturbing it was for me as I surveyed the results of this poll to find that two men kissing and the visualization of a sex act was more offensive than a severed head? A severed head? I remember reading about Al Pacino's "Scarface" in the NYTimes when it came out and how the Europeans had rated it X because of the gratitous violence. Naturally, here it got the R-17 rating which means the teen market still got exposure to it. The article went on to say how the Europeans don't really care about the nudity in films its the violence that gets the rating over there.
No wonder the deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan don't seem to be as disturbing as they should be to the American public. Perhaps if our military men and women were being forced to strip and make out with each other and perform sex acts for the enemy as opposed to being, you know, just killed or maimed for life the appropriate level of moral outrage would be registering (but, as you already know from Abu Gharib it's still ok if we make them do it). I know the Dobson wing of insanity would be holding vigils on the WH lawn demanding we bring all our troops home - NOW.
How the hell did we get here? Some years ago I was watching a late night cable showing of DeMille's original silent version of Francis X. Bushman's Ben Hur. I remember nearly coming out of my seat when the scene of Bushman's Ben Hur character entered Rome in triumph alongside his newly adopted Roman Centurion father being led by bare breasted topless women strewing roses in their path. This movie was made before the Hayes code of course but still my reaction is indicative of the culture we live in. The scene was innocuous at best and I shouldn't have reacted at all. When you realize that movie simply could not be shown now on network TV now without serious consequences from the Dobson league of insanity you just want to scream.
Is there a way out of this madness for us? Somehow I doubt it. 15 yr. old Miley Cyrus gets a photo shot with a bare back and a wrap around sheet and its the apocolypse. As a high school teacher I am reminded by this twisted insanity everyday. If a student comes into my classroom dressed inappropriately I am to write them up and send them to the office. You would think some of the apparel of the teenage girls I have in my class would make most parents crazy with rage over their daughter being seen in public showing so much skin. I stopped writing up my students when our adminstrators were getting harranged and harrassed by parents wanting to know what the big deal was? Some of these girls come to class with their nipples barely hidden. Last year I had one girl with a very short skirt come to class who sat at one of the computer stations that required a tall stool. Turning toward me to ask a question about logging on she spread her legs making it very evident she was without underware. I instinctively jumped up to call security and have her removed from class to the administrators office. At first she just grinned and wanted to know if something was wroing. To avoid a class disturbance I didn't mention to her or security why she was being sent out. When the administrator stopped by the class to retrieve the paperwork and discuss the infraction I remember reacting in stunned silence as she took me outside the class and ripped up the infraction referral in front of me. As we discussed how I was going to explain to the parent how I knew she didn't have underware on I realized the potential peril for my teaching career if I insisted on writing her up. She explained to me she understood the dynamic of what happened but in practical terms it was best left alone because she knew the parent. The young lady in question had a history of disciplinary problems with the parent always backing the daughter up who could do no wrong in her eyes. As this was a new variant on misbehavior she decided she would handle it making it some other reason she was sent down. So now my policy is if they come to class and they have some kind of clothing on that's good enough for me while I keep my sanity in box in my classroom office.
TrumanDem
Truman's Conscience
"The Buck Stopped Here"