Are most Americans prudes?

[Guest pod]

Actually, football may be more exciting with peoples' heads exploding ;D Or if the ball contained an explosive timer which reset itself when passed...kind of a hot potato type of thing.

[Guest bcnjunkie]

Most rational thing I've seen all day today.

The root of the problem is that we have a lot of people in this country who don't really 'get it' yet that the world is a totally different place than it was in 1950.  In a global information age you are going to be exposed to all kinds of things from all over the world that might offend your local culture.  Deal with it.

In Iran they think that it's a national crisis that the whole country is looking at press photos from outside of Iran of women's unshrouded faces.  The Taliban think that a woman's calves are dangerously erotic too.  Here the big offender is a lady's nipple.  The fundamental delusion in all of these cases is the idea that it's possible to enforce your own local version of prudence when everybody has access to video, news, and net feeds from all over the world now.

If your strategy for raising your children is that you are going to completely shield them from everything that offends your local preacher or mullah's notions of decency then you are going to fail because of television and the net.  Even if you succeed then you are going to end up raising uninquisitive, repressed, computer-illiterate children.  The appropriate solution is to participate in your childrens' lives and raise them to be prepared for the world so that they do not short-circuit into uncontrollable emotional depravity after glimpsing a nipple on television.  If you can't commit to doing that then don't reproduce.

very well said !!!

[ryan2772]

Actually, football may be more exciting with peoples' heads exploding  ;D Or if the ball contained an explosive timer which reset itself when passed...kind of a hot potato type of thing.

Pod, this should be one of your platforms in your run for presidency.

[Guest endymion]

But with TV rapidly becoming on-demand, I see less of this issue in the future.

I never thought of it that way, I see what you mean. Still, curious 12-year-olds will always find a way to find content that they aren't 'supposed to'. Consider this effect: Video on demand and the net assure that everybody has access to every exposed nipple, but the same technologies will allow families to push the issue under the rug and avoid dealing with it. Technologically-enhanced repression.

If a family can't handle even the slightest hint of sexuality then parents have no opportunities to provide guidance to their children. You think that the people upset about that nipple are really taking their own independent initiative on their own timetable to educate their children about sex and sexuality? No, what actually is happening is that curious little boys and girls all over the country this very moment are sneaking peeks at huge blown-up photos and video clips of that nipple on their computers when their take-the-easy-road parents aren't looking. If kids learn anything from this whole experience it will be that Mom and Dad apparently think that certain parts of the body are deviant and incorrect. Specifically the parts that are of interest to a developing adolescent. Sex and sexuality become sneaky, repressed issues that make these kids feel wrong and sinful instead of making them feel healthy and alive.

There is a simple reason why so many people are pissed off at Janet Jackson. It's because they have been forced to openly deal with something that makes them uncomfortable. They are uncomfortable in the first place because their parents took the easy route and shielded them from nipple shields when they were children. Not possible any more. Parenting must adapt, and getting pissed off at Janet Jackson as if she's the root of the issue is just an avoidance tactic.

Parents can cut to the heart of this entire issue by just saying "Hey, that nipple shield was pretty sexy! Pierce your own nipple before you're 18 and I will disown you. Now kids, what those pop stars did was cheesy and in poor taste and that's why it's wrong." American parents don't have the nuts to do that, and that's the real problem.

[ryan2772]

well said, tech. i think something good will come from all of this.

[Guest pod]

Ryan, you're a fucking genius. Remind me to spend extra time getting drunk with you at our next event. ;D

That's the root of the issue, the American people in general have been conditioned to think of sex and anything remotely related to it as a dirty concept. Core value? Yeah, it appears to be so. Bad way of going about it? Definitely.

I wouldn't object to her stunt on moral grounds, I would object to it on an "oh geez" type of ground, as in it was cheesy and just for attention.

I don't know about everyone else, but when I was growing up, it was a fairly open household. I could watch R-rated movies when I was 13 or 14, since I pretty much demonstrated that I had the willpower not to go out and imitate the movie after viewing it, be it basic instinct (at the time, it was "racy") or the Terminator flicks...though I think my dad woulda thought it was cool if I was precocious enough to date a bisexual girl at that time. ;D But anyway, back on track here...the general rule of thumb was that I was allowed to do pretty much as I pleased, but if I got caught doing anything wrong or illegal, that was it. I messed around with girls, did drugs, etc...but I never got hardcore into the latter...since I knew what it was about, and didn't care for it in the long run...however, I saw all sorts of people around me whose parents expressly forbade all sorts of behaviors...and guess what, these kids were the worst of the bunch, since their parents were so strict and mean...no being out after 10, no watching certain TV shows, no buying stickered music, etc...their lives were a huge set of rules and regulations...so they would rebel hardcore...even worse when they got to the comparative freedom of college. I went through 4 years at a bastion of partying, drugs, and alcohol (University of Miami), and saw plenty of kids drop out by year 2, since they couldn't handle the freedom.

But my basic gist here is, it may be a core value, but the government has no place enforcing values, and the public as a whole cannot dictate their morals on what everyone else can and cannot see.

And still, it was a 1 second shot at most! Big deal! I can only imagine the uproar if Justin whipped his trousersnake out and told Janet to service him on stage...shit, there's a halftime show for ya. Come on kids, let's watch!

[Guest bcnjunkie]

;D ;D ;D snake ? didn't it go public that it was more like a worm ?

[Guest endymion]

...it may be a core value, but the government has no place enforcing values, and the public as a whole cannot dictate their morals on what everyone else can and cannot see.

I agree with you but the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy does not.

Personally I don't want to see guys tackling each other when I go to a strip club, so I guess that I can empathize with people who weren't prepared to see some pop tart's tit during a football game. Bit of PR genius though, wasn't it?

[Guest pod]

Bush probably uses the Bill of Rights as toilet paper.

Hell in a handbasket, I tell ya.

[Guest zacashus]

Most rational thing I've seen all day today.

The root of the problem is that we have a lot of people in this country who don't really 'get it' yet that the world is a totally different place than it was in 1950.  In a global information age you are going to be exposed to all kinds of things from all over the world that might offend your local culture.  Deal with it.

In Iran they think that it's a national crisis that the whole country is looking at press photos from outside of Iran of women's unshrouded faces.  The Taliban think that a woman's calves are dangerously erotic too.  Here the big offender is a lady's nipple.  The fundamental delusion in all of these cases is the idea that it's possible to enforce your own local version of prudence when everybody has access to video, news, and net feeds from all over the world now.

If your strategy for raising your children is that you are going to completely shield them from everything that offends your local preacher or mullah's notions of decency then you are going to fail because of television and the net.  Even if you succeed then you are going to end up raising uninquisitive, repressed, computer-illiterate children.  The appropriate solution is to participate in your childrens' lives and raise them to be prepared for the world so that they do not short-circuit into uncontrollable emotional depravity after glimpsing a nipple on television.  If you can't commit to doing that then don't reproduce.

I completely agree.....it's not up to society to raise our youth!! if parents would take the initiative to actually spend time w/ their children and teach them to have minds of their own things like the superbowl fiasco wouldn't matter..... even though i think it was in bad taste, i can't control what the world does. nor do i want to! all i can do is try to positively affect the people around me. if the world would stop pointing fingers and take some personal responsibility i think it would be a much better place.

[ryan2772]

Ryan, you're a fucking genius. Remind me to spend extra time getting drunk with you at our next event.  ;D

Umm...ok.

And thanks!!!

[Guest pod]

Your name is ryan, too? Techjunkie's name is Ryan. I meant him, but we'll get loaded too at some point.

[Guest endymion]

There is no shortage of loaded time on my schedule. Fear not.

We have two robots exploring Mars right now and everybody is more worried about a pop star's nipple. Paris Hilton and Janet Jackson are both in the Herald today over any mention of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Israel or the Democratic primaries. Americans are so incredibly obsessed with sexual repression that we are ignoring the issues that matter.

I want President Blow Job back.

[Guest pod]

Me too. Let him run the country until I'm 35 and old enough to take office. ;D

[ryan2772]

Your name is ryan, too? Techjunkie's name is Ryan. I meant him, but we'll get loaded too at some point.

Yeah, man ;D

Sounds like a plan!

[Guest JMT]

"Vast right wing conspiracy?" Last time I checked the media in this country (ie newspapers) had been liberally-biased for decades.

Some of you people really have no clue what goes on this country.

[Guest pod]

What techjunkie is saying is that the government is a "vast right wing conspiracy"...

[LESjunkie]

i try to just have fun everyday and not waste valuable thought and conversation time on politics and changing things on a grand scale....we dont really have power over life, but we surely have power over our own. 8)

[Guest endymion]

we dont really have power over life, but we surely have power over our own.

You're not as helpless as you think. It's pretty astonishing how much influence one determined person can effect if they set clear goals and stay focused on following through. Just ask Janet Jackson. Or George W Bush.

Choose your goals wisely and make them happen. You only have one chance.

[Guest bcnjunkie]

You're not as helpless as you think.  It's pretty astonishing how much influence one determined person can effect if they set clear goals and stay focused on following through.  Just ask Janet Jackson.  Or George W Bush.

Choose your goals wisely and make them happen.  You only have one chance.

or Anna Nicole Smith

[Artemis1414777738]

You're not as helpless as you think.  It's pretty astonishing how much influence one determined person can effect if they set clear goals and stay focused on following through.  Just ask Janet Jackson.  Or George W Bush.

Let us not relate the success of either George W. Bush or Janet Jackson to hard work.. these are nepotists who took advantage of their situation...

As for the whole titty situation, I do happen to have a son. The simple rule with kids is that they will inevitably find whatever you tell them is wrong "cool". So I have more to fear as a parent from this whole "right wing conservative" facism than any "liberal media". The more the right wingers make sex, nudity and drugs out to be such a big deal, the more I see kids (including my own) taking more of an interest.

Kids will always want to push the boundaries of their own independence. The more "taboos" we create as a society, the more "tools" the kids will have to do this with.

[Guest pod]

That's what I'm saying. It goes back to the "restrictive" vs "liberal" upbringing.

Again, I was raised with very few rules so to speak, I knew enough what the consequences were though, not to do anything my parents wouldn't have approved of...or as my dad put it "be smart enough not to get caught!"

The kids raised "restrictively" had all sorts of issues, with their parents, with authority figures, and so forth, since it was cool to rebel. They thought sticking it to The Man was the best thing since sliced bread.

[Guest zacashus]

"Vast right wing conspiracy?"  Last time I checked the media in this country (ie newspapers) had been liberally-biased for decades.

Some of you people really have no clue what goes on this country.

gotta agree here..... can't trust the news anymore b/c of the liberal media slant.... it would be nice if people and government/society could stop trying to press their political beliefs onto the public. anyone w/ half a brain that can think for themselves knows that you can't categorize your beliefs or opinions into one group or "club" to belong to.....wake up people

[Guest endymion]

anyone w/ half a brain that can think for themselves knows that you can't categorize your beliefs or opinions into one group or "club" to belong to.....wake up people

There is a time when paying attention to the issues and forming a rational opinion is important. Nine months before a presidential election is one of those times.

And don't even try to pretend that CNN and Fox News are not wrapped around the administration's finger. Both networks signed their souls away in order to get "embedded reporter" slots during the war. The teeming masses who were offended by Janet Jackson's nipple do not read newspapers, they watch Fox News.

I have a new question: I have a friend who is convinced that it would not have been much of an issue except that it was a black lady's nipple. She thinks that if it were Xtina then it wouldn't have been a problem.

I think maybe she's right. Lesbianism offends the Wal Mart set as much as nipples, right? But the Brittney and Madonna kiss just kind of got laughed off. What's the difference, skin color? Anything else?

[Guest zacashus]

There is a time when paying attention to the issues and forming a rational opinion is important.  Nine months before a presidential election is one of those times.

And don't even try to pretend that CNN and Fox News are not wrapped around the administration's finger.  Both networks signed their souls away in order to get "embedded reporter" slots during the war.  The teeming masses who were offended by Janet Jackson's nipple do not read newspapers, they watch Fox News.

I have a new question: I have a friend who is convinced that it would not have been much of an issue except that it was a black lady's nipple.  She thinks that if it were Xtina then it wouldn't have been a problem.

I think maybe she's right.  Lesbianism offends the Wal Mart set as much as nipples, right?  But the Brittney and Madonna kiss just kind of got laughed off.  What's the difference, skin color?  Anything else?

yes you are right about forming an opinion and having a voice...esp. during an election... my point is that chosing a cantidate shouldn't be limited by there political affiliation but on how you "feel" about the good they could do.... and no cantidate is going to be exactly what you want.....

in regards to the racial issue that may or may not surround the whole idiotic nipple incident..... honestly not sure....i will say that the whole brittney/madonna thing was in my opinion taken too lightly... however it was done on an MTV event and not an internationally televised event on CBS..... in any case i think the sexual censorship in this country is retarded, and we should control the violence that is broadcasted on tv much more than the sex.... however, when it comes to racial issues in this country i think we still have alot to learn and a long way to go. whether those issues surround this incident or not is something i'm not sure about. i just hope that janet doesn't turn around and try to say something like that..... i really think that in her case that would be sort of a cop out ...but maybe i'm wrong, racial scrutiny is of course all subjective and in the eye of the beholder...... but it could be used to manipulate a public if she feels she can sell some records by making a fuss..... and she has a nice rack...hahaha...lol