Does it bother anyone else that extreme, realistic violence is excepted but porn level sex is rejected?

[crackedreneamon]

I just finished watching a video about how a lot of big developers use actual photographs of real deaths and murders to better detail video game animation, my reaction to this is, "Holy shit, WHY?!"

And after taking a moment to let it sink it that developers are actually watching real snuff for things like Mortal Kombat, I was kind of angry that extreme and horrible "realistic" violence is not only excepted but rewarded but things like covered tits are openly mocked, rejected and called "evil" which means anything more hardcore is going to go over like a lead balloon, in Cleveland, during 1986.

I'm just wondering if anyone else was bothered by this? That girls with big boobs, sweet faces and smiles are often rejected and called "immature" and "degrading" is rejected for cold, hard murder and gritty deconstruction which is often called, "mature" and "adult".

 

[Avaron1974]

Thing that pisses me off most, and I mean legit pisses me off, is as a gamer i'm told that skimpy metal bikini's are objectifying women and have to go.

Except I am a woman.

And I want my characters to look cute.

I wish people would stop telling me what I can and can't do and fuck right off.

I've always found those that are okay with violence but get offended by the slightest threat of a nipple to be hilarious. Complete dickheads but hilarious.

 

[Twistedrem]

And that lots of Americans idiots believe in a flying spaghetti-monster isn't helping either.

It's not that we believe in it-- it's that a great many of us are irreverent trolls.

But yes. We've got some weird double-standards in this country where sex and violence are concerned. It's a huge detriment to creativity and expression.

 

[DawnCry]

Personally I started to play adult games mainly because I wanted that adult addition into the games, one of the games I liked the most was "the godfather", loved the movie and the game, but still I couldn't help but feel weird about how we have prostitutes that show their tits but we cant have a sex scene or something.

I always thought that the adult element makes stories more realistic, seeing passionate scenes makes you attached to the characters and you end up caring about them.

Albeit I do have to admit that I haven't found too many adult games while I did find a great number of visual novels. That's mainly why for now I care more about japanese games compared to english origin ones.

 

[SeventhVixen]

Yes.

 

[Zippity]

Well, I'm fairly sure that violence on TV/Movies is just as scrutinized as Sex/Nudity on TV/Movies, all depending on the location of the audience... I personally believe there is a line that should not be crossed for pretty much anything when it comes to entertainment made for the masses... And it definitely does influence some folks the wrong way... Not everyone can look or listen to things with an rational open mind and/or objective mind set... Regardless of where you are on the planet (or in space)...

Society works because the majority chooses to work within a set of guidelines and rules, hopefully for the prosperity and safety of the whole of that society... You will never be able to please everyone, but without rules and guidelines society would eventually erupt into chaos and no one would be safe or protected...

Now, that being said... Yes, the US is somewhat more conservative about some things then other nations... But change takes time, and it's more open about things then it was, even 20 years ago...

As to the topic itself, I actually find it in bad taste, that in recent years the types of violence being used in entertainment has become more extreme, regardless if it looks more realistic or not... I would rather it looked more fake then it does, sometimes... Just so some of those more unstable people out there, who can not tell the difference between reality and entertainment, do not get the wrong ideas... And it is a scientifically proven fact that it desensitizes many people to the point of making ill-informed and/or irrational decisions that end up harming others because it's become too normalized for them... Especially those with more pliable minds, such as the younger folks (which varies from person to person) who's brain's are not even fully formed yet (which usually does not occur till around the age of 20 to 21) and are typically incapable of more highly rationalized and well informed decision making... Or people who's mental capacity is hindered in some way, making them more susceptible to rash decision making, probably due to misunderstanding that what they may be watching is just meant to be entertainment only, rather then a representation of how you should normally act...

But you also see now, especially on Cable premium channels, shows with lots of both extreme violence and porn style sex... It's just put into a location where it's prone to be available to adults more so then under-aged folks... And as a parent, if you don't want your kid to see that kind of stuff, then parent them appropriately...

Zip

 

[Synx]

It doesn't really bother me as I'm personally not really interested in seeing hefty porn scenes in non-porn media (movies especially), but I get where you are coming from: why is one excepted while the other isn't?

But its just because of relegion. They created a taboe around sex as something private between a married man and a woman, while the bible is full of violence. And as most movie and game companies are located in America, which is still hefty influenced by relegion for a western country, its somewhat a taboe in movies and games because of this.

 

[crackedreneamon]

I don't know if religion is the full reason, it's a good chunk of it but honestly I seen a lot of non and anti religious people sneer at the idea of sex as entertainment.

A bit of a story, I was logging into reddit after being a year away yesterday for basically shits and giggles when I found out I had a big chunk of notifications from a Tabletop RPG subreddit I use to frequent, I left reddit because I posted a question, "why are Tabletop Roleplayers afraid of sex?"

I asked the question because I notice this trend of mocking, hating, bullying and gatekeeping anything to do with sex, porn and tits but many videos will go into lovingly long detail about how they planned out murders, not glorious combat or spur of the moment accidental death but actual murder, and at times it's not even some evil kitty eating despot of a king but some regular shop owner. Kind of like I asked here I just asked why are RPers so against silly porn in their games.

400 something down votes, about 30 post saying I'm a sick monster and a few actually delivering a death threat or two later kind of ruined my interest in Tabletop RPGs. And after going back in after forgetting this I found a lot more notifications and down votes.

Still don't have an answer, but I thought I add this one to the pile.

 

[Zippity]

I personally believe the main-stream media producers are running out of ideas, or they are just trying to monopolize on what they perceive as "the more extreme something is the more wow factor you will get" from the audience... And in some ways it's the public's fault for falling for their gimmicks... Rather then focusing on good story telling and decent interactions between characters, they just keep using more and more extreme gimmicks... Almost as if they are trying to constantly one up one another...

As an example, I saw a huge turn in some newer TV shows and movies, when Game of Thrones started becoming more violent and showing more gore, and even killing off main characters that people actually liked... Mostly for the WOW factor or as cheap gimmicks, just for the sake of being further out there then previously was being shown... Then you suddenly begin seeing other shows using similar tactics, where they would never have even contemplated doing it before, until HBO opened the flood gates... It only got worse over time, because they kept trying to outdo themselves as well... To see just how far they could push the limits beyond anything that had been done before... Not for good story telling, but for momentary shock value...

Zip

 

[MarshmallowCasserole]

Its all because of the retarded Americans. Its in their culture, they have no nudity on TV/Ads, they even fucking aren't naked in the Sauna I heard.

This isn't exclusively a US thing. Americans are retarded in that regard only when compared to other Western countries, but they are quite liberal when compared to other cultural clusters. You look around the world and you see there are way more cultures with puritan attitudes towards sex than not.

There's a reason for that. It is essential for a society to normalize violence to a certain degree. It is not essential at all to normalize sexuality. We've come this far while believing the weirdest shit about sex most of the time (read on the hysteria treatments in Victorian age, it's hilarious). This is because we don't need to understand or refine our sexuality in order to reproduce. Women don't need Kama Sutra to conceive and nurture a child. Men don't need it either.

On the other hand, we need some readiness to employ violence all the time. We need it to police our own societies democratically, and authoritarian leaders need a lot more violence to stay in power (and historically authoritarian systems are the overwhelming majority, so, lots of violence). We need well-trained armies to defend against external threats, and when opportunity arises, conquer, subjugate others, and expand. Violence has to be accepted on some level.

If you measure our civilization by our understanding of sexuality, we are just barely above the levels of bare-assed savages roaming the savanna. If you measure us by our advances in violence, we've got guns and nukes and drones and non-lethal crowd control gear. Fuck yeah we're the best. Hope that answers your question, OP.

 

[Deleted member 440241]

You seem to be conflating 3 different groups into one monolith. You've got the opinions of far left feminists, far right religious zealots, and edgy teens fused together as one mindset in the OP. Do I dislike edgy teens praising uber gory fighting and shooting games as "mature"? Obviously. It's a shallow analysis from a shallow person who wants to seem deep and grown up while still wanting to enjoy the simple visuals of brown streets and bright explosions. It's about as grating as someone claiming Michael Bay is a good director because his films are profitable.

Do I dislike the feminists who never play video games but still judge gamers to be immature and sexist because female characters are in revealing clothes? Hell yes. The toxic and vocal political advocates that push this narrative have had a noticeably destructive effect on game development. Their aggressive tactics have made many gaming forums and subreddits hostile to people who actually play games. The support they get from the media and non-gaming sites has also made it impossible to speak out against them without being dismissed as a misogynist. These people are a huge problem for gamers as individuals and for the industry as a whole. Although they've gotten much quieter in recent years, maybe re-electing Trump will help keep them focused elsewhere.

Do I dislike religious people wailing about the effect on children whenever sex is included in games but staying quiet on violence? Somewhat. Both the highly violent and highly sexual games tend to be rated M, so the complaints really just look like bad parents demanding the government raise their kids for them. But there is also a valid argument for children coping better with violence than sex. Any kid can tell you that pain sucks and throwing a punch can hurst someone. You ask most pre-pubescent children about kissing and their response will probably start with "Ewwww". Most kids that young have zero concept of attraction let alone sex. The ratings system still makes this discussion largely pointless, but it's not quite as hypocritical as it's often portrayed.

 

[j4yj4m]

Coming from a country where nudity is regarded more or less normal and where most people don't care about boobs being shown or sex being display without actually showing much, I'd say there's a general level of tolerance. Still, when it comes to porn level sex I'd say it's much harder to justiy, simply because the socialy normal part ends and the awkward experience starts.

I mean, porn and sex have certain implications which most people simply aren't willing to share with that many others. Thus it severely limits the movie/game/product and that's why it isn't done. Surprise sexual/kinky content may be interesting in rare(ish) occasions, but most of the time it's pretty awkward and you just end up sitting there hoping it'll end.

 

[khumak]

I'm mostly against censorship in any form except when it's protecting people who can't defend themselves from exploitation. So basically anything involving adults is fine with me and anything involving kids needs some "guidance". If you want to make a show that includes full penetration and all of the actors/actresses are willing I see no reason to censor it. People who don't like it can choose not to watch it.

My main complaint with some of the content out there that is rated mature/R/NC17/X/etc is not having granular enough info about what sort of content is in there without reading spoiler laden reviews. For instance if a show has sex scenes in it, I want to know if that includes gay sex scenes. If it does then I'm not interested. I don't want to ban it. I just want to know that I should skip it because I won't like that show. For some people graphic violence might be their deal breaker. That's fine too. Tell me what's in there and let me decide if I want to see it or not.

 

[jamdan]

People have been largely desensitized to violence, so you can get away with a lot. Chopping heads off, bodies exploding etc. Violence is in almost everything, it's normal.

I think nudity is fine, although I understand why people wouldn't want actual sex being shown, it's a bit too intimate for most people to watch actual sex in movies, tv shows etc. It makes it awkward. That and the actors probably wouldn't do it, they aren't pornstars and don't want people to know what they look like, not to mention their relationships. There are specific shows/movies for this stuff on playboy TV and whatnot.

Although in video games, I think it's fine if it makes sense, even if the actual sex (as far as penetration, oral etc.) isn't shown. Prostitutes in GTA, your wife/husband in Skyrim etc.

On a slightly related, but not really, note. I watched a documentary about men who have gynecomastia, it wasn't censored despite the guys literally having boobs, and that sort of thing really irritates me. It's insanely hypocritical, because for whatever reason, man boobs are fine, but those lady boobs, nope, too much.

and related to that slightly unrelated note. I watch a lot of documentaries, a lot of those are medical, and it always triggers me when those are censored. The entire point in watching those is because the viewers find that stuff interesting, censoring the most interesting parts defeats the purpose.

 

[215303j]

it wasn't censored despite the guys literally having boobs, and that sort of thing really irritates me. It's insanely hypocritical,

I watch a lot of documentaries, a lot of those are medical, and it always triggers me when those are censored. The entire point in watching those is because the viewers find that stuff interesting, censoring the most interesting parts defeats the purpose.

Aren't you contradicting yourself here?

 

[jamdan]

Aren't you contradicting yourself here?

No, when I said medical, I was talking about the surgery and that sort of thing.

 

[215303j]

No, when I said medical, I was talking about the surgery and that sort of thing.

So, surgery is ok, manboobs not?
Personally I don't prefer either, but we don't kink shame here

 

[M$hot]

Can't it be as simple as showing people that which they are not likely to encounter? Your lady or man taking a naked shower while you wash your hands and moisturize the skin around your eyes, imo, totally normal. A graphic murder, collapsing lungs, breaking spines, hangings, ripped out intestines? I'd probably never see that in my city. In society it's fine to like boobs, to have sex, to go to prostitutes and stick your dick in any consenting hole. Murder and all these other violent delights are super illegal and not that much fun, so we are not allowed nor interested in engaging with them.

So TV shows us what we aren't likely to experience and kind of skips over that which we already know. Then again, I live in a secular country, can't speak for the US. But in my experience in central Europe, they build your escapism from elements that you can't really related to, and have you relate to the characters. I don't know what it's like to witness a murder, but I can relate to the character that's shocked by it just fine. But I have to be honest, sex is not nearly as beautiful as porn. Because they have nice lighting, everyone has their make up done, right camera angles and doing poses slightly different. I don't want to see porn in 'normal' media, but I'd love to see more sex. It's a normal thing that normal people do. But perhaps we need the detachment from what we see on TV with elements sprinkled in that we can relate to?

 

[tsuchinokoreal]

It bothers me too because it comes across as a hypocritical mindset. I have no problem with extreme violence in videogames but I do think that it has become overdone to the point where it can damage the investment players will have into the game's story and gameplay.

For example, although in most cases I find comparisons between GTA and Yakuza series to be dumb I think that Yakuza handles the topic of violence much better than GTA as an open-progression action game. It still has the conflicts that you would expect from a gritty crime drama but you can't just go on a random rampage whenever you want in Yakuza games. The most you can do is beat up thugs who almost always start a fight with either you or someone else first. Most of the interactions in the city outside of the main missions are non-violent and this gets you to care more about Kiryu as a character and the setting as a whole.

 

[RikkaNoodles]

I mean, I don't know about other countries, but I wouldnt say video game violence is universally accepted here in USA. There's always been a noticeable outcry against that sort of thing, although it has gotten considerably better over the past two decades. But, when I was growing up, there were politicians and groups telling you that you were gonna turn into a master serial killer with an unquenchable blood lust if you were to so much as even look at the cover of a violent game.

Anyways, a lot of people have many ridiculous double-standards, so to me, it does not come as any surprise. I will continue to enjoy what I enjoy and do what I do regardless, and so should you.