Does it Take Sex to Sell a Book or Movie?---I Think Not.
Posted: Tuesday, June 16, 2009
by Sandra E. Graham
My Books and Articles
It seems you can't find many good movies at the theatre or on television without being inundated by sexually explicit material-unless of course, you are into cartoons. Thankfully there are more and more cartoons being created that are interesting to adults as well as children. Some really greats have been ICE AGE, RATATOUILLE, SHREK I,2,3, TRANSFORMERS, CORALINE, WALL-E, KUNGFU PANDA, MADAGASCAR 1,2,3, BACK TO THE BARNYARD, and POLAR EXPRESS just to name a very few .
FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH (2009), MY BLOODY VALENTINE, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, THE STEPFATHER, SAW and all its bloody versions, and on and on. Of course, we all know that young people love to be frightened (at least during the daylight hours), but why is it necessary to promote so much uncensored sex? Times have certainly changed since the days of I LOVE LUCY , when even a married couple had to lie in bed with one leg off the bed-actually, that may have been the era when both feet under the cover finally became allowed. But if I remember right, Lucy and Ricky always wore long pajamas to bed. Now that was the good ole' days of television! Television that promoted good moral family values- Andy Griffith, Father Knows Best, or The Brady Bunch.
Many movies now are taken from books and all too often, if there isn't enough violence and sex in the books, the movies don't always follow the script laid out by the book. And that, in my opinion, has a tendency to spoil some really good stories. If the book is good enough to be made into a movie, then the author should refuse any changes that degrades the initial storyline. Some may say we are beating a dead horse' to continually harp on too much sex and violence in movies, books, and television and that our politicians use this ploy as a safe and popular subject to draw the voting public's attention away from more pressing issues that take benefits away from the general public. And this may be true. But apparently we need help from somewhere to get censorship back in place to protect our children from the smut that is rampant for all to see.
Of course, you may say, well, if you don't like it, use parental locks that are there for that very reason. But our children are smarter than we give them credit for and seem always to manage to outwit and decode any security ploys that we may use to keep them out of certain programs. Most often they go to a friend's house where locks are not always in place.
There are also some adults, myself included, that would enjoy a good movie without the nudity, sex, and over-explicit violence. I realize a certain amount of all this is needed to make a story interesting and to hold the viewer's/reader's attention, but there have always been ways to allude to a touchy situation without taking everything away from the imagination. I always thought books to be much better than movies, simply because you could use your imagination to apply any degree of reality you wished. Computer animation, however, has gone that one better, so I can't say the same for Ice Age and Shrek-I would be hard put to see such wonderfully antimated characters in my mind's eye.
For all those who think I may be too hypocritical, snobbish, or just plain old school ridiculous, I'm sorry. Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to what they wish to watch or read and I certainly wouldn't wish take away anyone's rights. But, for the sake of our children's futures, if it ever comes down to a vote to raise the censorship of movies, books, and television, my vote would be all for it.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Sandra,Sex has been used so much for so long to sell that it's seeped into the culture in extreme and threatening ways. Kids now--I'm talking young teens and younger--pose on MySpace and Facebook and other social media like they are sex goddesses--an image paved upon their minds by the media's advertisements and by Hollywood.I see my daughter of 15 posing and taking pictures of herself on her cellphone like she's the next Miley Cyrus or Selena Gomez. Television, movies, and print media are full of images of sex, sex, sex. Regarding this topic, I often think of the Carl's Junior's Paris Hilton car wash pornographic commercial. This certainly shows how far we've fallen. When I was a kid that would have never been on TV. The closest we got was Marsha Brady or Genie in a short dress. How times have changed.
Personally, at our home we don't watch movies with graphic or gratuitous sex or violence. We not only find it offensive but uncomfortable to watch. Very rarely, even, do we watch "R" rated movies, even without the kids at home or in the theater. It's just bad conditioning. We prefer the good, the wholesome, the positive and uplifting. Garbage that goes in often not only stays in but festers.But all the smut out there is an avalanche that has been rumbling for some time and I'm afraid it won't stop until we've hit rock bottom, whatever that is and whatever that means.Thanks for the article and reminder of where we should and need to be.Thanks, Jeff. It's good to know that there are others out there that think things are getting way out of hand. I, too, just enjoy watching good wholesome movies that sometimes actually have happy endings. Life is just to short to waste it on worthless, smut. There is a place for some things and it should be kept in its place.Thanks for reading and commenting.Sandra
Sandra-I do not think you are old-fashion at all! I agree with you. As a parent, it is so hard to find good movies these days! Thanks for the article, as usual it was a great read!Thank you, Laura. And no only is it hard to find good movies, but it is also hard to find good books.Have a good day.Sandra
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