Once again, gauging the minds of VB users. Which on-screen depiction do you object to more: sex or violence? Or are you okay with either, or both?

As for myself, I think some depictions of sex may seem a little extreme, but I think violence is worse. Maybe that's just my own taste, I don't like anything that seems like it glorifies violence.


ETA: Yes, some of the poll questions may seem a little redundant, but I was trying to cover all bases.

For me it depends on the target audience and the nature of the images. Personally I am ok with both. But when it comes to kids I do believe that what they see needs to be curtailed. Heck my son missed the whole Katrina thing till he saw the sesame street episode about the hurricane.

The thing that *really* gets me lately is the gore on television. All these shows, especially CSI that show severed body parts and dead bodies and all kinds of gruesome stuff. And for me those shows make me paranoid that someone is gonna come after me and hack me up or something.

I am not that sensitive, I like watching a good gorey horror movie on occasion (I also read 'Stiff' a book about dead bodies and the experiments performed on them). I just hate flipping through the channels and watching someone lift a severed arm out of a pile of trash when I was not expecting it.

The sex is all good to me - but I don't think I really watch too many shows that have sex and when it is it is more implied sex than anything actual.

I don't have a problem with either. I don't have a problem with fictional violence, though I don't enjoy it.

I think both sex and gore are overdone in television and movies. It is used as a cheap ratings trick.

But I don't object to it. I choose to own a TV. I choose to rent movies. For the most part, I can guess what a movie is going to contain. It would be silly for me to object to something I pay to watch.

Just my $.02

Extreme gore - or lack of it - annoys the hell out of me. I just prefer things to be somewhat believable, and people's idea of gory violence in movies seems to be something that I look at and think "Oh yeah, sure."

I don't like movies with extreme gore, I think they can get their point across without it unless the movie has not point to begin with. Same with sex, eluding to it is just as, if not more, effective and most movies I have seen could do without those parts anyway and get back to the plot.

I think it all depends on context.

However, I do think that the inundation and inescapability of sexual and violent images/sounds/etc is detrimental. I am fine with sex/violence in theory, but in practice, what is needed is an "on/off" switch to be able to avoid it.

I sure like to see it when I want, but I don't want it all the damn time.

I object to the premise of the question. :p

I am fine with sex/violence in theory, but in practice, what is needed is an "on/off" switch to be able to avoid it.

My television came with an on/off switch. :p

I prefer violence to sex in movies and TV.

I can't see why anyone would object to sex more than violence. Sex is a natural part of life and shouldn't be censored, violence on the other had...

Ain't nothing like a good flick with some smut and violence in it. Depends on what mood I am in though. As long as some young ones are not around.

magnus, that is funny what you said about Sesame Street. I think my kids have learned more from Sponge Bob, than anything else.:D

I keep trying to get them to watch sponge bob, but they are not into it. Delia my daughter will see sponge bob and yell his name but when I try to sneak him on she just says “no sponge bob”.

I was really vexed about the sesame street thing. I had been doing such a good job at avoiding everything close to that then Bam its on sesame street. He starts his interrogation and I explain what is going on.

To stay on topic yes to sex and violence on TV/movies depending on setting, time and context.

I can't see why anyone would object to sex more than violence. Sex is a natural part of life and shouldn't be censored, violence on the other had...

There are plenty of people, at least in the U.S., who do object to most, if not all, depictions of sex on screen. I call them the morality police. :whack:

This entire thread, actually, was inspired by an article in today's Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tvsex10nov10,1,1367017.story?coll=la-headlines-business

I keep trying to get them to watch sponge bob, but they are not into it. Delia my daughter will see sponge bob and yell his name but when I try to sneak him on she just says “no sponge bob”.

I was really vexed about the sesame street thing. I had been doing such a good job at avoiding everything close to that then Bam its on sesame street. He starts his interrogation and I explain what is going on.

To stay on topic yes to sex and violence on TV/movies depending on setting, time and context.

When my step-daughter watches it, she always asked me if they are cussing and then she says the word, that she thought they said. Kinda funny show though. Through all 3 kids singing that darn song, I have to go watch a violent movie in the other room.:p

My kids never got into seasame street at all. Funny. My daughter wants to watch csi, and I do not like it at all.

I voted Sex :up:, Violence :down:

I agree with Bryn. It's been said (I forget by whom) "In Europe, sex is a fact. In America, it's an obsession." I think our Puritan roots lie at the heart of the problem with our attitudes toward sex. We have this sort of national hangup about "dirty, nasty, sinful" sex, but oooh, we can't get enough of that naughty thing we're supposed to hate. I wish we could learn to accept sex as a fact of life-- I'm convinced we would be so much healthier for it. And on the topic, I highly recommend a book which I read in my college Sociology of Sex class years ago called An End To Shame by Ira Reiss. So basically, I think there's nothing wrong with sex, and no reason other than our national hangups that it should be censored on TV. But I do hate it when totally gratuitous sex is thrown in because the TV/film industry thinks we won't pay attention unless someone gets nekkid or something blows up. That's just insulting. I kind of like old movies for that very reason... they didn't have as many cheap gimmicks like sex scenes, explosions, and special effects available in those days, so they had no choice but to focus on telling the story.

While violence is just as hard-wired into us as sex, I feel very differently about it. While I'm not a pacifist, I think that we're intelligent enough that for the most part we don't need it anymore, it's generally counter-productive, and it's our destiny to move away from it as part of our moral evolution as a species. Therefore, glorifying it on screen (especially to the extent that it's done these days) is also counter-productive.

The worst is when they mix sex and violence. You might as well mix pills and alcohol. I saw about 30 seconds of Law & Order SVU once and I immediately turned it off in horror. There's something deeply sick and twisted about a society that thinks it's in any way acceptable to turn sexual abuse and child molestation into "entertainment." I want out of here. :spew:

I only object to censorship.
I can choose to not watch what I find distasteful.
My kids need to get de-sensitised somewhere!

I hate those real life medical shows & operations. If I have to go thru any of that in real life it would be bad enough, why watch it for entertainment?

I can't see why anyone would object to sex more than violence. Sex is a natural part of life and shouldn't be censored, violence on the other had...
:up: My thoughts exactly. Sex is a positive thing, while violence is not. And we're all doing it, so why can't we watch it?

I only object to censorship.
I can choose to not watch what I find distasteful.
My kids need to get de-sensitised somewhere!

I hate those real life medical shows & operations. If I have to go thru any of that in real life it would be bad enough, why watch it for entertainment?

lol.........but I love those live medical shows. Tramua Life in the Er is the bomb. That way you are pre-pared to know that they are going to cut your clothes off.

I always say, wear a matching pair of underwear and a bra.
:D

But honestly, sometimes they can depress me. I just have to be in that kind of mood to watch them though.

I don't object to either. I find it ironic, though, that Jack Thompson and his band of video-game hating conspirators want to make a game with a hidden, not even unlockable without hacking into the game's code sex scene Adults Only while shooting police officers is a part of a game rated M, below AO. Not really seeing the logic, but then again, who needs logic when your only purpose is to dismantle the ESRB?

I can't see why anyone would object to sex more than violence. Sex is a natural part of life and shouldn't be censored, violence on the other had...

Tell that to the MPAA. :devil:

Tell that to the MPAA. :devil:

UMM, what does that stand for?:sign:

MPAA = Motion Picture Association of America, the organization that assigns movie ratings.

MPAA = Motion Picture Association of America, the organization that assigns movie ratings.

Oh, thanks, I should have known that!