I’m constantly fascinated with America’s fear of sex and love of violence. Ars Technica recently published a news story titled “Parents: Severed heads in games bad for kids; sex is worse,” which pretty much sums up the general feeling in our country. Have we really gone so far with our sexual prudishness so as to prefer our children watch someone’s head forcibly removed rather than consensual sex?
When I was child my mother fit this archetype perfectly: We could watch any rated R movie we wanted, so long as we fast-forwarded through the sex scenes. I saw Terminator when I was seven years old, but I didn’t see the ridiculous breast-grabbing sex scene between Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn until many years later. Same with stupid Jean-Claude Van Damme movies of the time—I was allowed to watch him break necks and stab people in the eye with hunting knives, so long as I fast-forwarded through any of the ridiculous sex scenes.
In hind sight, I think my mother realizes how foolish it was.
