SEX (in media)
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Those lyrics are awful. Not because they're sexual. They just suck.
People's behaviour isn't influenced by the music they listen to. People are drawn to music that resonates with them. Aggressive people listen to aggressive music because it reflects their feelings. The music didn't make them aggressive.
I don't think the issue here is that young people are growing up with exposure to sexual imagery. I think the far bigger concern, if anything, is that young people are growing up with a complete lack of a quality filter.
Edit: Changed "******" to "bigger". Who put those letters next to eachother?
People's behaviour isn't influenced by the music they listen to. People are drawn to music that resonates with them. Aggressive people listen to aggressive music because it reflects their feelings. The music didn't make them aggressive.
I don't think the issue here is that young people are growing up with exposure to sexual imagery. I think the far bigger concern, if anything, is that young people are growing up with a complete lack of a quality filter.
Edit: Changed "******" to "bigger". Who put those letters next to eachother?
Sure you wouldn't [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114317-Adorable-3-Year-Old-Experiences-Harsh-Justice-in-Skyrim].Batou667 said:
Not to mention my own run-in with Doom at age 7, which was a ton of fun. Fictional animated violence is of no consequence, so long as the parents are at the side of the child to help it understand what is and what isn't going on - rather than seal everything away in some puritanical ivory tower destined to crumble - and to just have fun with it.
If they don't have the time or interest to do so, then that is what's wrong, not the game being M-rated. Any half-decent parent will let its kid explore the world at its own pace, and a "parent" that'll let some arbitrary age rating decide for it, rather than individually assess what its own kid is capable of, is not worthy of the title.
First of all this. This is true.VladG said:
I think art should explore all of the human condition. Even sexuality. Especially so in fact since its so complex. Credit, this artist has done so... rather... very... crudely. But being a crude artist isnt illegal. And neither is exploring sexuality in art. I think we should limit small children from sex and let adolescents learn about it themselves. Maybe the art that expresses our attitudes about sex are always poor because of the subject, IE our attitudes, not because of the artist? Maybe.
Does it have an effect? Probably. Does it have as much of an effect as some people would have you believe? No, probably not.
Humans are sexual creatures. We are biologically compelled to have sex (well, most of us anyway). That's sort of the reason why we have an overpopulation problem. Rihanna isn't making sex more popular. Her music is popular because sex is popular. Her music is a symptom, not a cause.
Having said that, there is a negative impact to her music: it makes people more animalistic, impulsive, and sex focused.
I am very well aware that humans are animals, and that we have an animalistic nature and instincts. I am also of the mind that these instincts do not serve us well in the future. Unlike other animals, humans have a sufficiently developed intellect. We can create societies, we can modify our environment, and most critically of all, we can REFLECT on our actions and our instincts. We are self-aware to a degree that no other animal is, because we can actually question our nature and our desires and our instincts and change them radically.
Our instincts were vital for our survival on the savannah. They are less vital now, and in some ways they are actively harmful. The desire to have sex all the time, or to focus on sex exclusively, or to hold it up as a vital part of life, is harmful to human society - which is overburdened with too many people. Having a lot of sex and having a lot of kids as early as possible was an evolutionarily beneficial tactic in the days where the average life-expectancy was around 30 and most infants died before their second birthday. In this day and age, where children are expected to grow up in a stable household, and the infant mortality rate has plummeted, this sex obsession instinct is actively harmful to our long term interests.
Rihanna's music - hell, most pop music these days, and certainly almost all rap music, encourages emotional thinking, rather than rational thinking. It encourages the mindset of "IF IT FEELS GOOD, DO IT" (which I am aware was created in the 1960s, but the spirit of that saying is alive and well in this day and age). It encourages you to follow your heart, not your head. It values emotions over logic. It values outbursts over discussion, action rather than contemplation - it screams "GIVE IN! GIVE IN! GIVE IN to your basest desires! Don't think! Just feel! You wanna have sex! YEAH! Get it on! BOOBS! PENISES! SHOW SKIN!" The after-effects of such a "philosophy" (if it can be called that. You know, 200 years from now, people will still be talking about John Locke and Kant. Those were real philosophies. No one in 200 years will be talking about Rihanna, because her stuff is intellectually worthless. Come on. You know it is) are rarely explored in her "buttocks gyrating" "Music" videos.
These music videos encourage a culture of: "You find them hot!? DO IT IN A BATHROOM!". It advocates that women and men should follow their carnal desires without regard to well being, the future, STDs, potential pregnancy or emotional well being. It encourages animalistic humping rather than sober, careful reflection.
You see this all the time in modern music and pop culture. From Elvis to the Rolling Stones to Rihanna or Snoop Dog or whatever it is kids like these days.
Of course, Rock'n'Roll and Rap Music won't destroy society. That was where the "Cultural" conservatives were wrong. But it does encourage young people to act out, to go wild, to do it if they feel they want do. Of course, you can argue (correctly, in my opinion) that teenagers have been acting out throughout all of human history. But at least they'd have the good sense to be ashamed of it in the past. These days, buck wild, immature, selfish desires are celebrated by Western society. Scholastic endeavours? Scorned. Intellectual pursuits? Ignored. Sober, contemplative reflection on your own behaviour? Apparently that's just for squares. The idea that one should RESTRAIN their emotions, think carefully about problems, consider the consequences of their actions.... that's lost on today's youth.
No, I am not a religious fusspot. I'm an atheist. No I'm not an old bitter man. I'm only in my early twenties. No, I'm not some white guy railing on about the "destruction" of my culture (I'm only half-white, and I've lived in many cultures and nations throughout my whole life). But I am a sensible, careful, reflective person. I value stoicism and an apollonian nature. I see the youths of today act like feral cretins. Screaming, shouting, jumping up and down like little animals. I see them abandoning mathematics and science in droves (no wonder half the members of the labs I've worked in are Chinese or Indian, because those societies still value intellectual endeavours). I see a society that developed the technology to travel to the moon, turn its attention to grown men swiping credit cards through the buttocks of a stripper on TV. And I am disgusted.
Do the young people of today really see no worth in intellectualism? In restraining one's emotion? Of suppressing one's desires? Of thinking of tomorrow rather than today? Don't they realize that the pleasures of the flesh, while nice, are petty, passing and infinitely more shallow than the pleasures of the mind, of thought, of calm contemplation?
Humans are sexual creatures. We are biologically compelled to have sex (well, most of us anyway). That's sort of the reason why we have an overpopulation problem. Rihanna isn't making sex more popular. Her music is popular because sex is popular. Her music is a symptom, not a cause.
Having said that, there is a negative impact to her music: it makes people more animalistic, impulsive, and sex focused.
I am very well aware that humans are animals, and that we have an animalistic nature and instincts. I am also of the mind that these instincts do not serve us well in the future. Unlike other animals, humans have a sufficiently developed intellect. We can create societies, we can modify our environment, and most critically of all, we can REFLECT on our actions and our instincts. We are self-aware to a degree that no other animal is, because we can actually question our nature and our desires and our instincts and change them radically.
Our instincts were vital for our survival on the savannah. They are less vital now, and in some ways they are actively harmful. The desire to have sex all the time, or to focus on sex exclusively, or to hold it up as a vital part of life, is harmful to human society - which is overburdened with too many people. Having a lot of sex and having a lot of kids as early as possible was an evolutionarily beneficial tactic in the days where the average life-expectancy was around 30 and most infants died before their second birthday. In this day and age, where children are expected to grow up in a stable household, and the infant mortality rate has plummeted, this sex obsession instinct is actively harmful to our long term interests.
Rihanna's music - hell, most pop music these days, and certainly almost all rap music, encourages emotional thinking, rather than rational thinking. It encourages the mindset of "IF IT FEELS GOOD, DO IT" (which I am aware was created in the 1960s, but the spirit of that saying is alive and well in this day and age). It encourages you to follow your heart, not your head. It values emotions over logic. It values outbursts over discussion, action rather than contemplation - it screams "GIVE IN! GIVE IN! GIVE IN to your basest desires! Don't think! Just feel! You wanna have sex! YEAH! Get it on! BOOBS! PENISES! SHOW SKIN!" The after-effects of such a "philosophy" (if it can be called that. You know, 200 years from now, people will still be talking about John Locke and Kant. Those were real philosophies. No one in 200 years will be talking about Rihanna, because her stuff is intellectually worthless. Come on. You know it is) are rarely explored in her "buttocks gyrating" "Music" videos.
These music videos encourage a culture of: "You find them hot!? DO IT IN A BATHROOM!". It advocates that women and men should follow their carnal desires without regard to well being, the future, STDs, potential pregnancy or emotional well being. It encourages animalistic humping rather than sober, careful reflection.
You see this all the time in modern music and pop culture. From Elvis to the Rolling Stones to Rihanna or Snoop Dog or whatever it is kids like these days.
Of course, Rock'n'Roll and Rap Music won't destroy society. That was where the "Cultural" conservatives were wrong. But it does encourage young people to act out, to go wild, to do it if they feel they want do. Of course, you can argue (correctly, in my opinion) that teenagers have been acting out throughout all of human history. But at least they'd have the good sense to be ashamed of it in the past. These days, buck wild, immature, selfish desires are celebrated by Western society. Scholastic endeavours? Scorned. Intellectual pursuits? Ignored. Sober, contemplative reflection on your own behaviour? Apparently that's just for squares. The idea that one should RESTRAIN their emotions, think carefully about problems, consider the consequences of their actions.... that's lost on today's youth.
No, I am not a religious fusspot. I'm an atheist. No I'm not an old bitter man. I'm only in my early twenties. No, I'm not some white guy railing on about the "destruction" of my culture (I'm only half-white, and I've lived in many cultures and nations throughout my whole life). But I am a sensible, careful, reflective person. I value stoicism and an apollonian nature. I see the youths of today act like feral cretins. Screaming, shouting, jumping up and down like little animals. I see them abandoning mathematics and science in droves (no wonder half the members of the labs I've worked in are Chinese or Indian, because those societies still value intellectual endeavours). I see a society that developed the technology to travel to the moon, turn its attention to grown men swiping credit cards through the buttocks of a stripper on TV. And I am disgusted.
Do the young people of today really see no worth in intellectualism? In restraining one's emotion? Of suppressing one's desires? Of thinking of tomorrow rather than today? Don't they realize that the pleasures of the flesh, while nice, are petty, passing and infinitely more shallow than the pleasures of the mind, of thought, of calm contemplation?
Doom was rated 15 IIRC (here in the UK at least), and to be honest it probably didn't merit even that - at least not by today's standards.Imperator_DK said:
Are you honestly saying you'd happily let your 7-year old play something like Manhunt, Postal 2 or Mortal Kombat? And just because they were sitting on your knee and you were reassuring them that it was just a game, it would be all right? Games are more realistic than they were back in the 90s when the likes of you and me were young 'uns.
Sure, age ratings are a guideline based on a very loose best-fit graph. Just like voting age or age of consent, they're a fairly arbitrary line in the sand designed so that, statistically, the major bulge of the bell curve will be mentally and emotionally ready. But letting your kid play Postal 2 or watch hardcore porn isn't so much "letting them satisfy their natural curiosity" as throwing them in the deep end of a swimming pool and expecting them to float. It's simply negligent.
Sincerely, Disgruntled of Tunbridge Wells.
Depressingly, mostly accurateKorolev said:
We live a society where being cool is more important than being intelligent, and owning "bling" has replaced genuine achievement. We have a litigious blame and compensation culture; everyone is entitled and an honest day's work is for chumps who haven't figured out how to play the system. As a society, we're fat, lazy and increasingly degenerate and lacking direction.*
What would fix this? In all honesty, a war on home soil.
*(At least, that's how it seems a heck of the lot of the time - in all probability I'm being a little cynical)