 |
 |
|
|
It started at the Superbowl. I was at a Superbowl party, yet the packed bar did not notice it when it happened. A lame pop singer exposed Janet Jackson’s breast. Over the next week the image was repeated over and over and the message to little girls was clear. A woman’s breast is an ugly, dirty thing. As the scene was shown in slow motion all over cable news, campaigns began to clampdown. The FCC, which had allowed a lot over the last three years suddenly was flooded with demands to make sure nothing as evil and wrong as a woman’s breast could ever be seen again.
In Europe, commercials often contain nudity. In England, the biggest family paper, THE SUN has a “page 3” girl, and every day they run a photo of a topless woman. In the family paper! But those countries also allow women to tan topless at the beach. As Americans we know topless equals evil. Sick. Depraved. We don’t even allow thongs on most of our beaches.
The FCC has responded to the complaints with a clamp down unseen since the Viet Nam war. Which brings up a point I will get to in just a bit. Stick with me on this.
For the last half dozen years the National Organization For Women (NOW) has fought to have Rush Limbaugh, a conservative talk show host, taken off the air. They claim he violates equal time rulings. Hundreds of thousands of liberals joined in on their campaign. Yet at the same time, liberals are preparing to launch a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week station that will ONLY present their point of view. Rush is only on three hours a day.
The fall out from the Superbowl hit Howard Stern, who had nothing to do with the show.
He has now been kicked off five stations, and panicked networks across America are trying to come up with rules that will take the subject of sex off the air waves. People who were in Justin Timberlake’s old band have been stopped from performing on TV. The President of the United States is now shown on TV with a delay! One would think if the President was on and cursed that would be news. Next time he is on live start flipping the dial and you’ll be shocked to see how long some of the delays are. The President!
As a pagan, my preferred son of God is Hercules. Nobody nailed him to anything, he too was born of earth woman and a God but he kicked ass. He was also the first son of God. Mel Gibson may have ended his career by stating the obvious. No religion in the known history of earth has ever accused a living group of people of having killed a God- except Christianity. Until the early 1960’s this was Catholic Church thinking. (Remember that Mussolini was in Italy - where the Pope lives. Hitler was Catholic. SS troops after the second world war were given false passports to go to Brazil and Argentina - by Priests!).
Today however Mel could find it hard to find work. That would never have happened to Cecil B. DeMille. While I have no desire to see the movie, I prefer if a guy gets whipped for an hour it be done by a girl myself. Dressed in skin tight leather! Yet I do not understand how Mel should lose his acting career for risking his own money to remind Christians that there is more to Jesus than molesting priests. Nor do I understand people condemning anything, sight unseen.
And I am not stupid. Jesus was a Jew. His followers STAID in the Jewish faith. If they blamed Jews, why did they remain Jews? Christians broke away over the question of circumcision. Which is funny because in America Christians are routinely subjected to this barbaric practice at birth. The practice that led to the Christians splitting from the Jewish faith!
Now, has America lost its mind?
Hold on folks, this has happened before. During the Viet Nam War.
If you go back and look at TV of the time, THE MONKEES, THE BRADY BUNCH, THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, GOMER PYLE only one show ever had jokes about the draft and the war. GREEN ACRES! Any other show that tried to, from LAUGH IN to THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS ran into censorship. Sex vanished from TV. (Except in commercials). If the characters weren’t married, mom was around!
But friends the movies suddenly had nude scenes. Blood and gore became explicit. Movie makers realized if TV wouldn’t show it, they could. And the box office went through the roof.
So here is what this means for Psychotronic fans. Censorship is going to get worse. Even as the news fills up with dead bodies, TV will try to not rock the boat. So will radio. The movies are, however, about to go through the roof.
What does this say about America? Breasts are bad. But we’ll go see them at the movies. Violence is bad. But we’ll fill the news with it and go to movies to watch it. Finally, free speech is more fragile than we ever thought. If you have kids, teach them that a woman’s body is wonderful, and teach your sons to appreciate and respect them.
And hope we all survive- the coming hypocrisy.
.
[It's Only A Movie!] [Movie Madness] [Psychotronic Gift Shop] [Psychotronic Schedule] [E-Mail]
All contents ©2008 the Psychotronic Film Society, unless otherwise noted