In my blog post last week someone brought up in my comments that violence is not relative to just America and it is a global issue. It got me thinking about how the U.S. is different in terms of their media compared to a lot of other countries. As I had previously mentioned in last weeks blog America uses a lot of violence in their TV in comparison to the rest of the world. But if we compare Europe to America in terms of the media the conversation of violence and even sexual scenes would be totally different. In the US we rate explicit scenes with more scrutiny than extremely violent scenes, but this is the total opposite from Europe. European television has a lot of nudity and sex, the American perspective of what we think is too sexual and racy in our television is what Europe would consider a tame scene.
In the U.S. the MPPA is the power or group that rates most forms of media into its respective categories such as G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17. The MPPA was established in 1922 by the major Hollywood production studios in response to increasing government censorship of films. The concept of having a body rate movies is because America was concerned that their youth would be corrupted by the media that was being released. This was taken even further when the Hay’s code was released which solidified the desire for “pure” movies to be released for viewing. For more than three decades, the code applied rigid moral scrutiny to films, banning everything from interracial dating to “lustful kissing.” It died officially in 1968 — but in practice, it was always taking hits. Films were based on wether it was deemed “morally acceptable” but after World War II it was declared that the First Amendment protected movies. The current day MPPA makes judgements based on ethical and moral perspectives including violence and sex.
MPPA will allow high levels of violence even for children which is evident in kids cartoons however the slightest suggestion of something sexual, even a noise that could be interpreted as sexual is a scene that could be cut. Many cannot understand the reasons behind this as sexual intercourse is a normal part or growing up and experiencing adolescence, it’s even something that will be taught in school. America seems to take the stance that they should not expose children to things they do not know about yet. However European opinion believes showing these kinds of things through movies may be a more responsible way to educate adolescent’s rather than finding out through surfing the internet. This just shows the difference in mindset on how Americans and Europeans view sex and violence completely flipped. Being naked is generally no big deal and TV serves to show realistic experiences in all aspects including sex.
Foreign television that includes nudity and more sex isn’t even relative to just Europe but a lot of other countries. The most explicit displays of sex and nudity on TV occur in Europe, Japan and some South American countries, particularly Brazil, says Robert Picard, chairman of the communications department at California State University, Fullerton. Japan is a lot comfortable with nudity in TV because they overall are more comfortable with their bodies. While they don’t air sex scenes like Europe because they are more reserved in that aspect, the mindset of nudity in TV media is a stark difference from the US. Additionally some South American countries such as Brazil are well known for its steamy soap operas.
While you can argue that the U.S. is not the only country that is restrictive with nudity and sex scenes since Southern Asia, the Middle East, and Africa are similar in ideals, do we really gain anything from censoring? The restrictions overall do not really protect adolescents and almost hinders them from exploring their sexuality because they have nothing to relate their experiences to. By not portraying things such as sex and nudity, it contributes to the problem for a lot of struggling kids.