mystified

[winterbadger]

US politicians have stepped into the storm over secret sex scenes in the best-selling Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas game.
The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly called for investigation into the companies behind the game.

The uproar is over explicit sexual scenes in the game that can be unlocked with software created by a fan.

Last week the game was given an adults-only rating, leading big US stores to stop selling the title.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4717139.stm

So why are people so outraged about the possibility that teenagers might be seeing (and vilrtually participating in) sex acts, but the same people seem to be perfectly OK with teenagers seeing (and virtually participating in) murder, arson, and robbery?

I'm not advocating a ban on violence in games, but I am advocating calling these self-proclaimed moral arbiters on their hypocrisy. Sex is bad, but murder is OK? It's inappropriate for a high school student to see two imaginary people copulating, but it's not a problem for that teenager to see one imaginary person empty an automatic weapon into another? It seems to me as if these people's priorities are in serious need of a refit.

Comments

[dwarfrage.livejournal.com]

Violence has always been more acceptable than sex, looking at looney tunes, full of violence.

[winterbadger]

But isn't violence much worse than sex? Are we really saying that, given a choice, we'd rather have (supposedly) impressionable young people being exposed to violence rather than sex? If there's really any connection between what young people see and what they do, I think it would be infinitely preferable to have a genreation of sex-crazed delinquents screwing in all the parks than a generation of violence-crazed delinquents robbing and killing people (which is what we seem to have now).

[radiant-one.livejournal.com]

Ditto... Wylie Coyote can be blown to smithereens... but god forbid we show Minnie and Mickey having sex.

[pusscat.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. It reminds me of reading some noticeboards on www.imdb.com about the film "Green Mile". Now I think I am in a bit of a minority because I hated that film. I think it was one of the sickest, most sadistic and disturbing films I have ever seen and any supposed moral message was completely lost in the pleasure it took in the lengths it went to, first to show how evil the baddies were and then to give them their comeuppance. I was startled by the number of children who seemed to have watched it and were commenting (it's worth noting that none of them seemed to find it disturbing). But what really got me is someone commented on the sex scene (which, as I recall, is purely sound effect rather than any visuals anyway) and this woman was concerned about that because she had been considering letting her children watch it but not if there was S-E-X. Someone even suggested to her that it might not be appropriate for children as it's very violent, and she even answered that she wasn't concerned about that, it was the sex that worried her. Sometimes I really fear the future - what kind of adults are the kids of this generation going to grow into?

[dwarfrage.livejournal.com]

The same sort they have always grown into, glorifying violence and tabooing sex has been around for a long, long time.

Or to put it another way:
Are whores or knights idolized?

[dwarfrage.livejournal.com]

Yes and we have been saying it for centuries. I may disagree with it, however, people have historically had a preference for violence over sex.

Or can you provide me with a non-niche culture that has glorified sex and condemned violence?

[winterbadger]

I guess I don't see why that means we should continue to accept it. I'd like my elected representatives to be held to a higher standard that "we've always done it that way". Wouldn't you?

[dwarfrage.livejournal.com]

Do you hear any approval in my text? If so, I've been to nice.

That being said, there are lots of things I'd like. Most of which I'm not going to get through law. I can affect 3 people legitimately in Congress. My local rep and my Senators. None of which are going to listen to me.

I just wonder at the point of outrage over this, when any sort of breast, not even a primary sexual organ, is a PG-13 rating, one "fuck", either verbal or literal, is an R, and so on.

I can want to push the wind, but doesn't mean it's going to happen.

[winterbadger]

Well, there's nothing stopping any of us writing to all the senators and congresspeople we can, whether they're our reps or not. A lot of judgment is based on sheer volume of mail received, especially if it's clearly mail from individuals.

And we can do more than what we ourselves can accomplish. Citizens have plenty of force multipliers to help our voices get heard: political parties, unions, professional organizations, the ACLU, People for the American Way, public interest research groups, the Center for Community Change, the National Organization for Women, MoveOn.org, and many others. Democracy isn't just about one guy vs. the System.

[kathygnome.livejournal.com]

I've seen the scene, my partner downloaded it. It's horribly sexist, but not particularly explicit.

Also the game in question was already rated M for mature, meaning that it's meant to be sold only to people old enough to be sent to Iraq. And as one commentator noted, far more explicit material is available to anyone with the internet skills to get the patch for the game.

It's the democrats shooting themselves in the foot again. Youth could be an important vote because of the extremist tilt by the GOP and the war. Instead, they've just totally alienated that segment. And at the same time, they aren't going to impress "values voters."

It really is rather stupid...

[frodolives33.livejournal.com]

I like to play video games...I wouldn't call myself a gamer, but I like playing then nonetheless...I don't have much experience with Grand Theft Auto but the game is pretty explicit. However, when you compare what the game is like to the common prime time television show...its not all that explicit anymore. Sex, drugs, alcohol are EVERYWHERE! If people are worried about this than they should be more worried about schools. Teens get more information from their peers than in some stupid game.

I think people are making WAY to big a deal out of the whole thing.

-Chase