I’ve tried to keep my blogging addiction in check by getting out in the air, taking walks, and dusting off my rollerblades but so many thing continue happening around me that I’ve got to talk about them.
I was in a line just the other day at a video store (Yes there are a few of those still in existence) and a woman was standing a few people behind me. From her place in line she began instructing her teenage son on movie choices.
She was holding their place in line while her son was trying to figure out what movie to choose for their family to watch that evening.
Here were her instructions to him and the words that made me rush to have to pen this blog, “Violence and horror are ok but no sexuality.”
Violence and horror are ok!
This probably won’t be an issue for many of you but it is for me. I spend an inordinate amount of my time in the presence our youth and I’m often perplexed by their collective level of desensitization to violence. When I am storytelling, or simply conversing, with these same children and I begin to speak on issues of love or relationships they act as if I’m introducing them to something salacious.
These stories and conversations that I’m talking about contain the most innocuous content you could possibly imagine but their dissonant responses betray any appreciation for a resonance towards the amorous.
This topic isn’t new. I’ve had conversations over the years with many parents and organizations about the acceptance of violence in our children’s video games but the covering of eyes when certain “inappropriate” scenes make their way to television or movie screens.
How can we accept little boys yelling at video screens, “Kill’em! Kill’em! Kill’em!” and then cover the eyes of these same kids when witnessing two consenting adults engaged in a warm embrace or sharing a tender kiss? The question isn’t rhetorical. I’d really like an answer.
I know the mother I was standing in front of in that line had the best of intentions in mind concerning the movie she and her family were going to watch that night but telling her teenage son “violence and horror are ok but no sexuality.”
Really?
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