NationStates Jolt Archive

Why is it that an American citizen has the freedom to do so many things but swear words and things as incuos as nipples get censored form TV and Radio?

I fail to comprehend this weird puritanical double standard, especially when murder, blood, guts and violence are completely acceptable to whomever does all the censoring. Up here in Canada, if I chose to watch the Osbornes and it was 9:00PM or later, Ozzies "vocabulary" was unedited and uncensored. I've had and been on many university/non-commercial radio shows and the same rule applied there. As long as it was past prime time, I can use the *occasional* cuss word to emphasize a point, and play songs with explicit lyrics. I can turn on Showcase or Bravo after 11:00 and see full frontal nudity and I get to see all the violence drenched American TV shows I want to, at anytime of day.

Could some of the Americans on here please explain to me why violence is regarded as entertainment but swearing and the naked human body are regarded as offensive?

In Canada we have some very stringant Broadcasting Laws ourselves, but they are almost entirely about the Canadian Content rules (of dubious value) and Hate Crimes. By comparison, American Broadcasting Laws make very little sense to me.

Bush :p

The story is old, it frequently repeats. People want the nebulous, and seemingly, infinite other to be responsible for providing themselves and their children with an idyllic enviroment. A myth that never existed outside of a soundstage.

It's funny. The non-sensical system that has evolved, where the FCC can't tell you the rules until after they've fined you for breaking one, has probably done a lot in contributing to American talents for colorful metaphor. It's based mostly on ideas of things a body generally wouldn't be doing in public. One of the unavoidable consequences of life is that people do bleed and occasionally die as part of a public spectical. Defication, Urination, Ejaculation, Copulation, not so much.

But don't be so quit to trumpet the enlightened attitudes of Canada. They might be a little more open minded when it comes to swearing, but if the powers that be are ideologically opposed to the content of some program they're perfectly happy to ban it in a preemptive attempt to protect the Canadian consumers from what surely be their own ill-considered choices.

I've explained this to bemused foreigners on numerous occasions, and frankly, between sheer repetition and the stupidity of the double standard, I think I'll condense it as much as I can. Because of the USA's origins and history:

Puritan moralizing + capitalism needing titillation to sell things = massive double standards regarding sex, language and violence.

Okay, Europe? Okay, Canada? Yes, we're pretty well fucked up over here. Bravo for noticing something so amazingly obvious, the fossilized bacteria on Mars can see it. I don't like it, either, but it will never change -- in fact, it can only get more ridiculous. You know what I say? Sit back and enjoy as broadcast corporations continue to walk the high wire between profit and prosecution.

Too many damn Puritans in this country.
They'd rather the kids see a murder than see naked people or hear the word "fuck."