Boobs on TV (Janet Jackson, Howard Stern, etc)

[mwooldri]

I posted something like this earlier but it kind of got lost in the mass of messages here.

As you may or may not know, I'm an ex-pat Brit. I've come to the realisation that the UK is more socially democratic and liberal than the USA - and especially when it comes to the portrayal of sex-scenes and nudity on the television.

We all know the uproar that happened when Janet Jackson had a "wardrobe malfunction". My attitide? So what, big deal.

Any time I have been watching TV (we have digital cable) and there has been any depictions of the naked female form, the breasts are usually pixellated out - this is the case any time I've seen people undressing on Howard Stern's TV show.

So it was to my surprise when I was watching BBC America and seeing the program "Mile High" (a "drama" about people working with/on a european budget airline) that I saw proper nudity. Women with nothing on. Now, there are no crotch shots... (men got nude too of course and there's some gay sex too) but the boobs weren't pixellated out. I know US regulations on cable TV permit BBC America to air this kind of stuff, so it's not from a regulatory point of view that other US cable channels censor nudity. British TV says no to this kind of stuff before 9pm but after 9pm this would be OK.

So why is it that Americans are so prudish in this area?

Mark.

[A HERETIC I AM]

1. Because we're a nation of puritanical hypocrites

plain and simple.

[Dark]

2. Because the Brits kicked out the Puritans, people so uptight even the

English couldn't stand them

:hide:

[Vidar]

10. Actually no, Oliver Cromwell & the Puritans took over England.

[leftofthedial]

3. Because gawdjeezis hates nekkid people

even more than he hates commie yurpians

this here is Murka dammit!

[Hugin]

5. *spit*

'Bout sums it up... If u wuz to ask me.

*spit*

[Initech]

4. Did you see Jon Stewart last night?

He was completely ripping on the FCC for wanting to impose the same "decency" standards for cable that they do for broadcast television. I dont know, it seems people get crazier and crazier about this crap on a daily basis.

[ucmike]

6. i don't think we're so puritanical.

there's just a very vocal minority who ruin it for the rest of us.

i find it funny that we hear so much noise about "values". the minority who would impose these rules act like america doesn't want crazy music, pornography, violent movies, nude breasts, etc, yet the industries that produce those things make billions of dollars. they'd like to think that there's a small, secret, un-american, group of perverts out there consuming all the trashy media and having non-missionary sex.

if the collective american "we" didn't want those things the market for them would dry up. if/when they ever legislate those things off the open market there will still be a demand for it, and someone will fill it.

[AllegroRondo]

7. True story

My brother worked for a hotel when he was in college, doing computer related stuff. He said the weekend they hosted a church leaders' convention saw the biggest sales of x-rated pay-per view movies of the entire year.

I guess they were just pre-viewing them so they could tell their parishoners what not to watch.

[rustydog]

8. Funny, you can't see a bare tit, but you can see murder

gay jokes, racism and that is ok.

The big uproar in the video game Grand Theft Auto was you could engage in video sex (rape). The fucking fundamentalists didn't mind the car theft and murder that makes up the game..it is the sex that drives them into a furor.

[yellowcanine]

9. It is not called the boob tube for nothing....

I'm jest sayin.