Great pictures - General Tiki

K Kono Member Orlando Joined: Oct 08, 2003 Posts: 1266	K Kono Posted posted on Tue, Oct 19, 2004 6:23 PM On 2004-10-19 13:39, bigbrotiki wrote: I can not help but observe that the American public has an attitude towards nudity that is kind of schizophrenic, (very much like the Japanese): Producing and consuming sexual content like libertines, but in a clandestine way, yet when seeing a nipple in public (like on MTV), all hell brakes loose. Yet without that strange dichotomy would rock and roll have ever been invented? Or how about the Tiki Culture (Mk I)? It's that whole allure of the hidden, desire for the forbidden, tension/release thing. Yeah, the whole sex sells/but yet sexual desires should be repressed idea drives a few people loony but I think it works for us for the most part. :wink: It's just a cultural difference, nothing more. I think Americans tend to equate nudity with sex where as Germans perhaps equate nudity with not having any clothes (on). For Americans, sex is OK in private or as long as you pay for it (cable TV, porn) but it's not OK for on public TV which is for kids and church people. I used to be a trash film buff. In the late 50s and early 60s American sleazo film makers would use a couple of standard techniques to get films past the local community censors that they would run into as they traveled the country looking for theaters in which to show their movies. One technique was to shoot the movie in a faux documentary style. A movie with nudity was unacceptable but a movie about nudity was OK! The whole "mondo" themed succesion of "documentaries" took this route to present otherwise objectionable material to those fine folk in Peoria and other Mayberry-esque towns throughout rural America. Another technique was to put a strong morality message at the end of the film. You can have all the sex and violence you want as long as you close the film by talking about how bad all that sex and violence is. Russ Meyer might have originated this device (if not, was right there in the beginning) and if you go back and watch your copy of "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" you can see that he employed it in that flick even though by the time that film came out it was quite unnecessary. I only mention this because the same phenomenon occurred in Germany in the 70s with the German schundfilm. The Schulmadchen reports and all their imitators used a fake documentary style and morality clause to (apparently) make the content and subject matter of those movies palatable to the general public. Interestingly, and probably contrary to what most Europeans would guess, I believe that the Netherlands and Denmark were the only countries in Europe to legalize X-rated movies before the United States did. My point? Well, I think I've forgotten it, but it was basically "yeah, we're kind of weird when it comes to sex but so are you and everyone else except perhaps the Polynesians (according to Michener)." :)

On 2004-10-19 13:39, bigbrotiki wrote:

I can not help but observe that the American public has an attitude towards nudity that is kind of schizophrenic, (very much like the Japanese): Producing and consuming sexual content like libertines, but in a clandestine way, yet when seeing a nipple in public (like on MTV), all hell brakes loose.

Yet without that strange dichotomy would rock and roll have ever been invented? Or how about the Tiki Culture (Mk I)? It's that whole allure of the hidden, desire for the forbidden, tension/release thing. Yeah, the whole sex sells/but yet sexual desires should be repressed idea drives a few people loony but I think it works for us for the most part. :wink:

It's just a cultural difference, nothing more. I think Americans tend to equate nudity with sex where as Germans perhaps equate nudity with not having any clothes (on). For Americans, sex is OK in private or as long as you pay for it (cable TV, porn) but it's not OK for on public TV which is for kids and church people.

I used to be a trash film buff. In the late 50s and early 60s American sleazo film makers would use a couple of standard techniques to get films past the local community censors that they would run into as they traveled the country looking for theaters in which to show their movies. One technique was to shoot the movie in a faux documentary style. A movie with nudity was unacceptable but a movie about nudity was OK! The whole "mondo" themed succesion of "documentaries" took this route to present otherwise objectionable material to those fine folk in Peoria and other Mayberry-esque towns throughout rural America.

Another technique was to put a strong morality message at the end of the film. You can have all the sex and violence you want as long as you close the film by talking about how bad all that sex and violence is. Russ Meyer might have originated this device (if not, was right there in the beginning) and if you go back and watch your copy of "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" you can see that he employed it in that flick even though by the time that film came out it was quite unnecessary. I only mention this because the same phenomenon occurred in Germany in the 70s with the German schundfilm. The Schulmadchen reports and all their imitators used a fake documentary style and morality clause to (apparently) make the content and subject matter of those movies palatable to the general public. Interestingly, and probably contrary to what most Europeans would guess, I believe that the Netherlands and Denmark were the only countries in Europe to legalize X-rated movies before the United States did.

My point? Well, I think I've forgotten it, but it was basically "yeah, we're kind of weird when it comes to sex but so are you and everyone else except perhaps the Polynesians (according to Michener)." :)

Post #120462 by Kono on Tue, Oct 19, 2004 6:23 PM