US Politics |OT|

[SanAndreasX]

Jumpin said:

On the topic of horseshoe theory.
I do see factions of leftists making puritanical arguments against the sexual revolution all the time. Even wanting to get sex, nudity, and romance out of media. So, I absolutely believe in horseshoe theory and consider all of these puritanical factions to be ideological enemies of freedom of expression.

If Paul Verhoeven-like films aren’t being made anymore, then there’s a problem. His films have always been controversial, but that was the beauty of the 80s and 90s - controversial media was permitted, and widely distributed without having to worry about being extinguished by the puritanical movements. Now even streaming services are falling victim.

I don’t generally fashion myself a slippery slope thinker, so five to ten years down the road, I don’t want to ask the question of how long until new films featuring nudity and sex will only be viewable on sites like pornhub?

And conservatives across the south are legislating against PornHub. 

Honestly, there are things on film and TV today that you could never have gotten away with in the 1980s. "Controversial" media was fought against at every turn. Terry Rakolta, the aunt of Ronna McDaniel, was infamous for campaigning against the advertisers of Married With Children in an effort to pressure the network to take it off of TV. 

Other than some racial and sexual tropes that are considered taboo nowadays, I don't see much in 80's movies that you couldn't make today. I mean, you're not going to have a movie like Revenge of the Nerds where the "hero" uses a mask to trick the female lead into sleeping with him instead of her boyfriend (which is considered a consent issue and is classified as rape by deception in many jurisdictions), but was there really a burning need for that kind of content?

Last edited by SanAndreasX - on 29 March 2024