the pressure for writers to push the envelope and defy social
norms has created a popular entertainment culture that is violent and sexual
and goes directly against traditional morality.
There has been some agreement in what is “moral” and good to
show on screen, due to the fact that we have ratings for our movies and
television shows. G being free of any objectionable material, the main ones
that the ratings are based on is sex, violence and profanity, R being full of
these and only viewable by adults, or those accompanied by adults.
Reasons: there has been an increase in rated R movies, to the
point where G and PG films are rare, and then only targeted toward the young
child demographic.
Many sitcoms and other television shows now have dirty jokes,
or an increase of them, and premarital sexual activity, whereas that was not
allowed on television before. Many shows have a TV 14 rating. It is hard to
find shows without overt sex and violence in them.
It feels as though these things are the “easy laughs” and the
writers aren’t even trying to truly entertain us anymore.
Creativity doesn’t have to be going against society in such a
blatant way, things like Japanese haiku or Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter,
where the strict form gives rise to creativity.
Agreed. It is interesting how things that would have been just been crude are now artistic or the only way to guarantee laughs
ReplyDeleteGreat point... It seems like art has been reduced by its own makers to anything that can claim captive the sensitivities of a person. "If it doesn't appeal to the carnal man," it seems they say, "Its not worth publishing, no matter the genius behind it." It's sad to imagine the true geniuses that simply can't compete with those cheap pimps pandering to a society lost in moral debauchery.
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