Strange Things has launched a companion
blog - a place for us to discuss the rise of the moralisers
(something that it just wouldn't be right for us to
bang on - and on and on - about here... though of course
we'll still bring you relevant news). Calm
Down, Dear! (possibly the only time we'll
be quoting Michael Winner / David Cameron here) is primarily
a photo and video blog that aims to show that claims
about 'sexualisation' and the spread of porn into mainsteam
culture are misguided, cynical and historically blinkered.
Here's the opening statement: feel free to pop along,
join the debate and enjoy the best of yesteryear's unfettered
raunch culture.
***
You
can't move these days without hearing some vested interest
banging on about 'sexualisation' and how our children
are being robbed of their innocence - an innocence older
generations enjoyed unimpeded - by an unholy illuminati
of pornographers, TV broadcasters, magazine publishers,
high street shops, clothing companies and advertisers,
who have one aim in life - to corrupt the mind of the
kids, introducing them to a word of porn, sexual experimentation
and promiscuity.
It is, of course, nonsense. While the internet has certainly
made adult material more widely available than it ever
was before (and has been doing so for over a decade),
there is no actual evidence to show that kids are being
bombarded with sexual imagery. Sure, teenage kids will
seek out porn, just as they did decades ago, and while
the stuff they find might be meatier than the stuff
(British) kids came across (no pun intended) in the
1970's and 80's, there's no evidence that it is doing
them any harm. In fact, one reason that hardcore was
effectively legalised in the UK in 2000 was because
our censors couldn't provide such evidence.
However,
both right wing and left wing rabble rousers are using
this media-driven hysteria and their snappy little buzzword
to press for new laws - laws that will affect adults,
not kids. With Reg Bailey, the not-at-all biased head
of the Christian organisation The Mother's Union, currently
compiling a report for the government (following one
for Labour by TV pop psychologist and non-expert Linda
Papadopolous), fueled by extremist organisations like
Safermedia (who believe a non-revealing photo of a naked
pregnant woman embraced by her husband to be 'porn')
and self-serving newspaper columnists and lunatic MPs
who believe that owning a Playboy branded pencil case
is the first step to a career as a prostitute or that
the sight of a naked man or woman is somehow inherently
corrupting, we are facing the prospect of new laws -
these may or may not include mandatory internet blocking,
a 'toughening up' on the TV watershed (to stop 'raunchy'
dance routines on TV shows like The X factor for instance),
a ban on lingerie advertising ('Some of those huge poster
advertisements for bras and knickers leave precious
little to the imagination and they are there for all
our children to see' screamed a source, suggesting the
sight of a woman - or man - in underwear will immediately
corrupt any ten year old seeing it) and even the idea
of a ban on gay kissing on daytime TV - the only one
of these idiotic ideas to have met any protest.
The
internet aside, there is less upfront sexuality on the
high street and on mainstream TV now than there used
to be. Back in the 1970s, sex was everywhere. All the
popular tabloids had topless women on page 3 / 5 / 7,
as well as using any excuse to splash more nudity across
their pages; naked girls appeared on book covers, LP
sleeves, magazine covers, film posters, wall posters
and mainstream advertising. Home video releases featured
nudity on the cover. Sexy playing cards and naughty
novelties were widely available in holiday resorts across
the UK. T-shirt sellers offered a selection of rude
and suggestive designs that could be instantly printed.
Carry On films and other comedies featured teasing nudity
and double entendres galore under the 'A' (PG) certificate,
and these films would play, uncut, on daytime TV, where
nudity certainly wasn't forbidden - your writer saw
his first full-frontal nude on ITV at 3.30 in the afternoon
during a documentary about a theatre show. And when
people complain about Christina Aguilera's raunchy dance
routines, they somehow forget the peak time antics of
Hot Gossip and Pan's People.
So this blog exists as a reminder that the past was
not a Puritan paradise, with photo and video evidence
- alongside exposure of the latest nonsense to be spouted
in favour of controls over 'sexualisation'. Please feel
free to link to us, and pass this evidence-based blog
on to those who would try to restrict your freedoms.
And if you have examples of our sex-obsessed past, or
news on the efforts of lunatics to restrict your current
freedoms while hiding behind a child-shield (reading
these reports always makes me think of Martin Sheen
at the end of The Dead Zone), pass them on.
You
can't move these days without hearing some vested interest
banging on about 'sexualisation' and how our children
are being robbed of their innocence - an innocence older
generations enjoyed unimpeded - by an unholy illuminati
of pornographers, TV broadcasters, magazine publishers,
high street shops, clothing companies and advertisers,
who have one aim in life - to corrupt the mind of the
kids, introducing them to a word of porn, sexual experimentation
and promiscuity.
However,
both right wing and left wing rabble rousers are using
this media-driven hysteria and their snappy little buzzword
to press for new laws - laws that will affect adults,
not kids. With Reg Bailey, the not-at-all biased head
of the Christian organisation The Mother's Union, currently
compiling a report for the government (following one
for Labour by TV pop psychologist and non-expert Linda
Papadopolous), fueled by extremist organisations like
Safermedia (who believe a non-revealing photo of a naked
pregnant woman embraced by her husband to be 'porn')
and self-serving newspaper columnists and lunatic MPs
who believe that owning a Playboy branded pencil case
is the first step to a career as a prostitute or that
the sight of a naked man or woman is somehow inherently
corrupting, we are facing the prospect of new laws -
these may or may not include mandatory internet blocking,
a 'toughening up' on the TV watershed (to stop 'raunchy'
dance routines on TV shows like The X factor for instance),
a ban on lingerie advertising ('Some of those huge poster
advertisements for bras and knickers leave precious
little to the imagination and they are there for all
our children to see' screamed a source, suggesting the
sight of a woman - or man - in underwear will immediately
corrupt any ten year old seeing it) and even the idea
of a ban on gay kissing on daytime TV - the only one
of these idiotic ideas to have met any protest.
The
internet aside, there is less upfront sexuality on the
high street and on mainstream TV now than there used
to be. Back in the 1970s, sex was everywhere. All the
popular tabloids had topless women on page 3 / 5 / 7,
as well as using any excuse to splash more nudity across
their pages; naked girls appeared on book covers, LP
sleeves, magazine covers, film posters, wall posters
and mainstream advertising. Home video releases featured
nudity on the cover. Sexy playing cards and naughty
novelties were widely available in holiday resorts across
the UK. T-shirt sellers offered a selection of rude
and suggestive designs that could be instantly printed.
Carry On films and other comedies featured teasing nudity
and double entendres galore under the 'A' (PG) certificate,
and these films would play, uncut, on daytime TV, where
nudity certainly wasn't forbidden - your writer saw
his first full-frontal nude on ITV at 3.30 in the afternoon
during a documentary about a theatre show. And when
people complain about Christina Aguilera's raunchy dance
routines, they somehow forget the peak time antics of
Hot Gossip and Pan's People.