Uncovering Sex and Sexuality Censorship in Today’s Business World

11 Responses to “Uncovering Sex and Sexuality Censorship in Today’s Business World”

1. Edward Mills on March 8th, 2007 6:10 pm

   Great entry guys. It is pretty amazing to see how people react to those three little letters - s - e - x. Clearly there is a need for an open, honest and intelligent conversation about this topic. And it’s great to have you creating such a space here.

   Bravo!

2. Wendy Piersall on March 8th, 2007 7:01 pm

   You bring up some really great points - and I can see both sides of the problem. With TLA, I think that in start-up mode they simply don’t have the bandwidth to sift through each of the adult sites that want to get into their system. I know Patrick Gavin himself has answered some of my questions to their support “team”.

   You would hope that as our industry grows that there would be allowances made for all niches. Yet just like some advertisers are simply scared of advertising on blogs, there will always be companies scared of crossing the threshold into the adult industry.

   Perhaps it’s my ignorance of adult sites, but I would venture to guess that there are far more “bad” sites in that industry than in other industries.

   With rampant fraud, it’s hard to shake off the stereotype. That being said, it doesn’t justify judging by stereotype in the first place.

3. Bethany on March 8th, 2007 9:28 pm

   Oddly enough, I’m a complex blend of conservative and liberal. My thoughts as I read through your post were all over the place. I thought of how if I had children, and sexuality were not censored from billboards, commercials, and other venues that kids generally see quite easily, how would I feel?

   I’m not sure that I want naked pictures everywhere to the point that my five year old boy is constantly talking about sex, but I do like the idea of having enough sprinkled here and there to bring up the conversation so that we could talk about it.

   I guess one part of me longs for a time when kids could be innocent and childlike and naive and just enjoy simple life…

   And yet another major thought I had while reading your post is that until parents take responsibility for their children, there will always be censorship everywhere. I guess that’s where I get complex. I abhor censorship. I hate it. I think if I were uncomfortable as a parent with a billboard or a commercial, it’s my right to ask if there is some way an organization can help me protect my children… and if enough parents ask, then that organization can respond by treating the majority of their customer base with respect. But when they don’t even ask their customer base? When a minority rules strong enough to make a general, across the country, no questions asked, no special circumstances rule?

   Aaargh. So you see, I am complex. I despise people making decisions for me, but I respect the innocence of children. I also have no patience for whiny parents who want the school system and government to raise their kids for them. It frustrates me to no end when I hear parents complaining about the quality of education and the stuff their kids are exposed to at school. I don’t have children, so take everything I say with a grain or two of salt, but when do the parents get involved? Do they sit down and go over the homework with their kids? Do they check into which school systems have the best teachers? Do they educate their kids on character-building strengths and the importance of accepting weaknesses, so that when they’re "exposed" to stuff at school they know how to respond, filter, and move on?

4. Adam on March 9th, 2007 5:47 am

   If only more people thought like that!!! I really think that half of our problems in this country are that too many things are taboo. The two biggest are sex and alcohol. I have been in Europe, Germany to be specific. I was sitting at a bus stop and I turned to look at the ad behind me to find a pair of beautiful breasts looking me right in the eye. Don’t remember what the ad was for, because as an American male all I could think was…boobies!!! The Germans thought nothing at all of them, just another body part. And that’s exactly the way it should be. Now on to alcohol. We all think of the Germans as the masters of beer (and they are…great stuff!) but what they also do is drink responsibly. The only people falling off of the barstools were us. In fact we were not let into some bars simply because as Americans we drink too much and are too loud. I think a big part of the culture there is from their beer, it can be ordered with a Big Mac! It can be found in lunchboxes at work, in fact you can get a beer just about anywhere. What is so great is that they teach yougsters about responsibility, and when they reach that magical age of 18 and can go out, it’s no big deal. I know that is way off topic, but is similar in nature because we are dealing with taboo. Sex is bad, don’t you dare do it Beaver! Ah Mom, but it feels so good, how can it be bad? How about teaching our teenagers to be responsible with sex. Don’t make such a big deal about it and it won’t be a big deal…

5. Gail on March 9th, 2007 1:31 pm

   I am a wife and foster parent, who is sad for this country and its obsession with sex and do what ever feels good. Our free speach, so to speak, has become tainted to the point, your worried about how far can you go, and yet mention God or Jesus, and its been taken out of everything, except our churches. I hope and pray the Lord will show you the damage this is causing in our young people and our future generations. Our founding fathers for this great country, fought for our religious freedoms, and yet it is being taken away. Yes it is the parents responsibility to monitor their children, yet alot of parents are worse in knowing moral right and wrong then their children know. The kids I have come across, abandonded by their parents because they were more interested in doing what ever feels good, drugs, alcohol, prostitution, and now many in jail or on the streets doing whatever. So sad!!! To hear their stories and what they have been exposed to at such a young age, would make you sick. Children malested by family members or others. Yes, your arguement would be this has been around for years, but check the stats as to how many are out there today! Now thats something worth writing about!!!The child protective services are bursting at the seams with chidren abandoned. It wasn’t till I got involed with their stories and lives did I learn, and give me new meaning to whats important in this world and protect them from the evil that is real in this world.

6. Gregory on March 9th, 2007 2:26 pm

   Great posts, and Bethany and Adam summed it up well! I totally agree. Forbidding something, anything, makes youngsters growing up want it more! Some parents don’t make a big deal about (dare I say it?) body parts and sometimes let their children see them (dare I say it?) naked. Also some parents serve wine at dinner when their children are teenagers. Just like cats react to tension in their owners, children react too. Pets and children are smarter than we think. We have allowed the Puritan underpinnings of this nation to carry to far and it’s about time we as a country change. We have a great opportunity with all the new immigration to do that. At least different groups should be more tolerant of others. The problem with mass marketing is that it is difficult to make “one size fit all.” The larger the ‘audience’ the more restrictive the media seem to be. It is quite something that the Europeans and Japanese, cultures that have been authoritarian and conformist, especially the Germans, now allow much more imagination in their advertising and mass media content.

7. Cheryl on March 9th, 2007 3:01 pm

   There is such hypocrisy regarding sex and nudity. Who cares about a breast or nipple? They are just body parts. I know people find them sexually attractive, but what about people that find body parts such as feet and toes sexually exciting? Should we be banning shoe ads as a result?

8. Ida on March 9th, 2007 3:10 pm

   Hard to believe that sex is still so feared in this day and age. Prince’s performance during the Super Bowl apparently was so offensive to one parent that he or she wrote to the network that after his or her kids had seen the Purple One’s phallic guitar, “now I’m afraid they’ll turn gay”! She or he even went on to write that “I’m thinking of having them checked for HIV”. How can a little boy turn gay just from seeing a phallic-shaped guitar? Implying that all gays carry the HIV virus is insulting; to infer that they can spread it over the TV is just plain nuts!

   When are we, as a nation, going to accept the fact that not all entertainment is child-oriented, nor is it meant to be? Protect your kids, by all means, but don’t try to protect me! I’m old enough to know what I want to read or watch, and if something offends me I’m capable of letting you know it. What about those high school girls in upstate NY who were suspending for saying the word “vagina” while reading from The Vagina Monologs? Excuse me, “vagina” is not a bad word! Doctors and lawyers say “vagina” in public while lecturing or giving testimony; nobody arrests them!

   It must be a legacy of this nation’s Puritan heritage that makes us all so fearful of sex. To that I can only pray, “Lord, protect me from Your followers!”

9. Bethany on March 9th, 2007 3:30 pm

   Great responses - and I truly do see both sides. This is - like I said - part of my complexity. I do see a need to protect children’s innocence and I am sad at the depravity we see with people who abuse children. I just don’t think the solution to this very large problem is to remove sexuality from their environment. For example, we’ve all heard the over-used example of a girl who is raised by a strict religious family, always protected from the world, never exposed to any evil, who grows up and runs off with a soon-to-be abusive man who treats her like a sexy woman.

   I think that even the terrible abuse going on in the world goes back once again to parental responsibility. I think Americans have a big problem right now of relying on the government and school system to make the rules for them to make their job easier. If more people were willing to invest into children like Gail does, then when someone rejects their children, or abandons them, there would be a surplus of role models ready to show them, if not tell them, what it’s like to be accepted and loved and nurtured and how to respect others. I know this is utopian of me, but I know that communicative, accepting, strong parents would be far more effective in stopping perversion and crime than a simple banning of advertisements.

   I do, however, think there is something to be said for the hiding of breasts in public. For no other reason than to keep the mystery and sensuality associated with them. I too have been in Europe - Italy, to be exact - and saw fashion advertisements with breasts out in full display. Young boys, men, women, everyone was so adjusted to seeing them that they were just like a pair of legs or toes. Is that really what we want? For breasts to be just like legs or toes? I kind of like the excitement that goes along with NOT being able to see a woman’s breasts.

   I think my ultimate stance is this: the majority of our nation still feels that breasts and genitals should be hidden. To be as accepting as we want to be accepted, we need to go with that. But at the same time, there are venues that not only tolerate but are conducive to showing those same body parts. I want our government and corporations to be respectful to the majority, but not to the point of making laws and rules that will affect the minority in every situation. If someone wants to advertise an adult web site, they should be given the same respect and rights that the opposing party does in a different venue.

10. Gregory on March 13th, 2007 5:00 pm

    Great discussions all. I agree that people who don’t want to see “forbidden” body parts should not have to see them. Same for violence which is all too common in the 1. Evening and cable news TV broadcasts. 2. TV fiction and non-fiction series. 3. Feature films, which show up in theaters, TV, and DVDs. 4. Books and magazines. We could discuss all too long whether more sex, or more violence, is out there for anyone to see. However according to “community standards” and behavior many think sex is more “disgusting” than violence. I would much rather see whole, uninjured, even “sexual,” human body parts than violent scenes. But if artists want to depict violence, it does exist as part of the human condition, so artists have a right to show it. Anyone also has a right to ignore the artists’ products. Sex or violence. Meanwhile I will take in what I want to and hopefully not what I don’t want to, and hopefully always have the right to do so as long as I don’t impose it on someone who doesn’t want it or keep them from what they do want (unless it breaks basic standards, such as torture or real violence).
    There are many things out there for people to consume, and individuals have to make choices. No one wants to or does take in it all. We adults can look past it or turn it off, and raise our children to (easier said than done) respect others and grow up wanting things for “normal” reasons, not just because they are militantly forbidden.

11. Ask Dan and Jennifer on April 4th, 2007 12:15 pm

    BANNED for Talking About Sex?…

    As Easter approaches, I’m left wondering what’s become of our nation and of Christianity…
    What are we coming to when we show blood and guts sprayed all over the TV, even on the Family Channel and Cartoon Network, but it’s wrong …