gothere
Posts 39
|
3/19/2006 2:19 PM
posted awhile ago
Sex vs Violence
So, my kids are too young for me to have to deal with this but I'm getting ready. Curious what others think about the problems of exposing young kids to sex and violence, how the two differ, and at what age. My personal bias is that I'd much prefer them to see sex than anything violent on the screen (okay, my daughter is only 6 months). But really, I'm far more concerned by my children seeing the average killing on prime time than Janet Jackson's chest. That's just physiology for pete's sake! What do you think?
|
|
|
paul
Posts 247
|
3/31/2006 3:24 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Sex vs Violence
Sorry for the late response, Mr. Got Here, but I have to say that both sex and violence are going to, at the very least, effect a child.
I dove back into my memories and started to examine my own encounters with film as a kid. Granted, my early childhood was late 70s/early 80s which seemed to be a period in filmmaking flooded with boobie movies. It seemed like a staple of any comedy to senselessly drop a topless woman into a scene. That aside, I remember violence not having nearly the impact on my psyche that sex did.
Boys in general are almost genetically engineered for a little violence. Crashing cars together, shooting toy guns at eachother, hacking away at each other with plastic swords. Horror, on the other hand, is something else altogether, but violence of the Dirty Harry type is the stuff of boyhood daydreams. Sex I remember being like a foreign substance introduced into my body. Like the first time I got really drunk. It was strange and tingly and incomprehensible. Maybe it's our over-sexed culture, but seeing a pair of boobs at age six felt like smoking a cigarette.
So, yes, I think both sex and violence will have an effect on a kid. But I think if you're making a decision according to blunt impact, sex definitely trumps violence.
|
|
|
gothere
Posts 39
|
4/2/2006 7:45 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Sex vs Violence
Paul, I agree with you.
The serpant in Genesis is described as "the most subtle" creature in the forest, suggesting that the most evil can come undetected. Not that I'm a practicing Christian, but I guess sex should be tingly and incomprehensible. Killing should be incomprehensible, but it's not.
As with everyday violence vs horror, there's nudity, then there's explicit sex. I wish 'everyday sex' sounded culturally less offensive than 'everyday violence.'
The first goal of civility is how to resolve conflict without violence, and boys need to be taught. I see it in my boy already, and how my response is a test of my own morality.
Anyway, it probably comes from a desire for my kids to share my world view, which of course they won't by definition.
|
|
|
raellens
Posts 4
|
5/17/2006 10:55 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Sex vs Violence
I finally have some time to browse this site and have fallen into a conversation about sex and violence in the film world. Interesting. As a mother of four, ages 13, 10, 7 and 5 I have to balance what is too "young" for the older two kids and too "old" for the younger two. I also work in an ER, and believe/know that there is evil, pain, violence, abused sex...in our little all american towns.
It is not wise to completely shelter our children, yet we cannot throw them into "real" life without guidance. Sometimes watching a film together can open up a conversation regarding life choices.
|
|
|
gothere
Posts 39
|
7/31/2006 12:23 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Sex vs Violence
Thank you for that, raellens. I'm both excited by the potential and a little frightened by the power of film over my kids.
|
|
|