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@#$ing Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and childhood innocence
Categories: Life & Style, Behaving Badly, Media, Education, Gadgets & Tech
I was trying to explain to a childless friend how much less protective society seems to be in keeping childhood separate from adult situations and humor and than it was when we were kids, but was struggling to find a good example. I have it one now: the dueling Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel videos.
When I was in junior high, the most obscene thing around was Madonna's "Like a Virgin" song and we weren't even sure what a virgin was. We knew it was bad and possibly sex-related because our parents forbade us from all things Madonna for a while, but she seems downright quaint after the "I'm F$%$ing Ben Affleck and/or Matt Damon" songs, easily accessed by anyone on YouTube.
Sure, these originally aired on late-night television, but not that long ago (and before the era of Tivo or YouTube) it would have been considered too risque to show them at that hour.
I admit, I find them both songs funny, but I find it very disturbing that I'm sure a survey would find a lot of kids who know all the words to those catchy little numbers.
Nothing is off-limits anymore. And while it's liberating for adults to not have the societal obligation to curb their language or edit their T-shirts (we took our kids to a parade downtown and found ourselves standing next to a guy in a shirt that said "F*&^ you, you f#$%ing f#$%!" We went to a different spot. ) or bumper stickers, I wonder what happens when kids are raised in a hip society where anything goes, nothing is off-limits, and even Hooters restaurants have booster seats and crayon activity packs for the kids.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mckenna 2-27-2008 @ 5:53PM
I agree. But I'd have to say I'm less concerned about bad words than I am about the obscene car-window stickers that seem to abound around here. The little porn-style naked devil and angel women in platform shoes on "all fours" gives a wonderful first impression of sex to my 3 year old. I actually find the little naked lady mud flap things much less offensive.
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Uly 2-27-2008 @ 7:47PM
It's not that "anything goes and nothing seems off limits". It's that, as a society, we're switching around what causes great offense.
It used to be sex. Sex was pretty offensive to talk about - that's why fuck is such a "dirty word".
But now, as we're quickly removing the stigma from sex, we're rapidly attaching new stigma to slurs of all sorts. People complain about "the PC police" as much as they complain about "everybody says fuck"! They don't see that all we've done is change "fuck is the most obscene word ever" to "nigger/fag/retard is the most obscene word ever".
Frankly, I think this is a good move. I think that categorizing and insulting people based on their differences *is* more offensive than sex.
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Judy 2-27-2008 @ 10:03PM
The things on car windows really irk me too. I'm all about free speech, but this seems to cross a line for me, as there is *NO WAY* to escape it and keep your kids from seeing it.
And I cuss like a sailor, and used to be a stripper!
It's part of why we don't have TV. When we did, I remember waiting for a show that I watched to come on, and my son kept turning the TV on, and so I just left it. The shows on between 7-8 were so filled with SEX SEX SEX and that sort of insult humor (let's get a laugh by making fun of my wife/kids/mother/boss) that it shocked me. And when we've watched TV in hotels, even if the show we're watching is appropriate, the commercials often aren't.
My husband, who is quite a bit older than me and who basically hasn't had cable TV at all his adult life (a few years with his ex wife) was very shocked at the Jimmy Kimmel/Sarah Silverman videos (although we both couldn't stop laughing). Janet Jackson's breast is a huge no-no, but this was okay? Where is the line anymore?
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rebecca Biernesser 2-27-2008 @ 11:10PM
I can't stop what my kids see in society, but I can when I'm at home. I only allow my son on certain websites and thanks to my husband, those are the only ones he is able to go to b/c the rest are blocked. TV is controlled by me. I answer questions if need be and depending on the subject short and sweet and change the subject or long and lengthy.
Personally? I thought the vidoes were funny...did my kids watch them? Nooo.
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