Straightforward question at the bottom...
Growing up, something I always found curious about my childhood was the way violence and sexuality were treated.
In-particular, my exposure to them in film. I had a thought about this earlier after stumbling across a website link made to educate parents on whether or not a film might be too mature for their child. What brought on the thought is the way sexuality had top-billing whereas it was made to seem like violence played second fiddle to that. Some might argue I'm overthinking that, which is alright, because I'm not really criticizing them, it really just brought on my current train of thought and I'm curious whether this parallels with any other people's experience.
As a kid, I loved horror films.
I loved horror films a lot and my Mom who was the parental figure through most of my life, was more than accommodating of that fact. I loved A Nightmare on Elm Street the most, but I also watched Halloween and Child's Play, and many more. In-terms of violence, I never had any real restrictions. In-general, this wasn't problematic, because I think I had a firm grip on-reality, I was able to not take anything I saw on television at face-value because I approached the characters as fictional and make-believe.
In-general, I don't really want to get into the debate about "how old" a child should be before they are allowed to see certain films. I really feel like that debate is played out and, mostly, the consensus is it depends on the maturity and impressionability of the person watching the film.
Something curious I do want to talk about is the 2005 film Hostel. Dubbed "torture porn," a phrase I'm not really a fan of, Hostel was about some recent graduates who went on a hiking trip and later encountered a man who convinced them to head to a Slovakian hostel, telling them it had attractive women spilling out the wazoo. Long-story short, although the hostel had its fair share of lookers, the man neglected to tell them they'd be tortured in various ways.
The reason I mention this film is because it captures the crux of what I am getting at. I was ten-years old when Hostel was released and while I definitely remember the violence of the film having a certain staying power, it wasn't something that startled me or had any long-lasting effect. I was never encouraged to look away from what was happening on the screen, ... except when naked women were involved. This was a rule that wasn't enforced very well my Mother who, as I said, mostly let me have free rein as far as my intake of horror films (a genre that often fancies full-frontal nudity), but if my family and I actively watched a film together, she encouraged me to "cover my eyes". (Little did she know them sheets I covered my eyes with were quite thin!)
I wouldn't consider my Mom very strict about most things, and, really, my take away from this is: for some reason or another, she was (at that time) of the belief that a woman's breast were something I didn't need to see, but watching a woman have her eye brutally burned with a blow-torch was fair-game.
Question: - While growing up, did you ever encounter situations where it seemed like nudity or sexuality was perceived as more heinous or "evil" than committed acts of violence in film? Whether it be your parents' personally, someone you know, or a different dynamic that applies. Why do you think that was? Do you think this mind-set has changed in recent years?
Growing up, something I always found curious about my childhood was the way violence and sexuality were treated.
In-particular, my exposure to them in film. I had a thought about this earlier after stumbling across a website link made to educate parents on whether or not a film might be too mature for their child. What brought on the thought is the way sexuality had top-billing whereas it was made to seem like violence played second fiddle to that. Some might argue I'm overthinking that, which is alright, because I'm not really criticizing them, it really just brought on my current train of thought and I'm curious whether this parallels with any other people's experience.
As a kid, I loved horror films.
I loved horror films a lot and my Mom who was the parental figure through most of my life, was more than accommodating of that fact. I loved A Nightmare on Elm Street the most, but I also watched Halloween and Child's Play, and many more. In-terms of violence, I never had any real restrictions. In-general, this wasn't problematic, because I think I had a firm grip on-reality, I was able to not take anything I saw on television at face-value because I approached the characters as fictional and make-believe.
In-general, I don't really want to get into the debate about "how old" a child should be before they are allowed to see certain films. I really feel like that debate is played out and, mostly, the consensus is it depends on the maturity and impressionability of the person watching the film.
Something curious I do want to talk about is the 2005 film Hostel. Dubbed "torture porn," a phrase I'm not really a fan of, Hostel was about some recent graduates who went on a hiking trip and later encountered a man who convinced them to head to a Slovakian hostel, telling them it had attractive women spilling out the wazoo. Long-story short, although the hostel had its fair share of lookers, the man neglected to tell them they'd be tortured in various ways.
The reason I mention this film is because it captures the crux of what I am getting at. I was ten-years old when Hostel was released and while I definitely remember the violence of the film having a certain staying power, it wasn't something that startled me or had any long-lasting effect. I was never encouraged to look away from what was happening on the screen, ... except when naked women were involved. This was a rule that wasn't enforced very well my Mother who, as I said, mostly let me have free rein as far as my intake of horror films (a genre that often fancies full-frontal nudity), but if my family and I actively watched a film together, she encouraged me to "cover my eyes". (Little did she know them sheets I covered my eyes with were quite thin!)
I wouldn't consider my Mom very strict about most things, and, really, my take away from this is: for some reason or another, she was (at that time) of the belief that a woman's breast were something I didn't need to see, but watching a woman have her eye brutally burned with a blow-torch was fair-game.
Question: - While growing up, did you ever encounter situations where it seemed like nudity or sexuality was perceived as more heinous or "evil" than committed acts of violence in film? Whether it be your parents' personally, someone you know, or a different dynamic that applies. Why do you think that was? Do you think this mind-set has changed in recent years?