Last night, Paul mentioned that we’d be talking about pornography next week as it has become a prevalent, mainstream media. As I was flipping through the channels this morning, I found a somewhat disturbing example of this. As I was channel flipping, I realized that Ron Jeremy was a guest on MTVLive. Now, the fact that I know who Ron Jeremy is proves Paul’s point that porn is mainstream. I don’t think porn stars were household names 20 years ago. Anyway, it isn’t Ron Jeremy himself that disturbed me (although that may have been enough… YUCK!) but the fact that he was on this show that is clearly geared to teens. We all know that kids even younger than the targeted audience make up the majority of the viewers. It is aired right after school for srying out loud. My grade 6 and 7 students all watch this show and see the discussions as a cultural reference. They learn what is acceptable and unacceptable from shows like this (God help them!). I just have to say I was shockd that he was on the show openly discussing his career and the 4000 women he has slept with, all of which was greeted with cheers by the very young audience. The segment concluded with a contest called Swappy Seconds where two couples from the audience swapped partners and then made out with this person they’d never met for a full minute while Jeremy judged their performance. The entire thing was so disturbing! It was like some kind of training ground for porn stars. I was struck by the casual nature of the discussion and the comfort level with the subject matter so I’m wondering…
Am I an old-fashioned prude or is this disturbing to anyone else? Is the suject of porn just hunkydory and open to anyone or has porn gone a little too mainstream?
Maybe some more light will be shed on the subject this week in class, but at this point, I’m certainly not comfortable with the messages of shows such as the one I just witnessed.
cleffler said,
March 16, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Wow… that is shocking. But you know what, I’m not surprised. I agree I think that porn is becoming way too mainstream which is making it acceptable in society. That is crazy that they were just talking about the subject casually on a TEEN SHOW! I think nudity period is becoming way too mainstream..For ex: have you see American Pie the naked mile…. is there really a need for that may girls to be naked HONESTLY. It seems like most movie now a days have some form of nudity which I think is also allowing porn to become more mainstream. We are desensitized to the idea of nudity and sex by what we see in these movies. The question is how far will this go…. will porn soon be on daily television!?
butterflyxo said,
March 19, 2007 at 10:44 pm
I believe that porn is everywhere. Yes, everywhere. We have to look no further than Much music. While I was taking a little break this afternoon and stopped off at my place I turned on the TV. I watched Degrassi for a bit, and then, channel surfed and somehow ended up channel eighteen (Much). They were showing Spring Break 07 wild parties and the crazy things they were doing. I wasn’t too shocked to see some of the things, of course, they would have been O.K. to see if you were there, but the very fact that they were being shown during mid-day for anyone to have access to was frightening. They showed girls and guys asses, (pardon my language), and they even showed men stripping down to absolutely nothing. They showed girls licking each other and dancing wearing next to nothing. Isn’t this a form of porn whether we want to accept it as that or not? Porn is everywhere, in our lives, in the media, everywhere for anyone to have access to.
kate said,
March 20, 2007 at 4:33 am
Sick adn sad that none of us are surprised by this “teenage porn” phenomenon. IU went shopping over christmas and it had been a while since Id been in a big mall, and that is exactly what I saw….you girls trying to assert their maturity using their sexuality….aaaahhhhhhh
What can you say, we all rebell in our own way and sadly this is the new theme…
Cindy said,
March 21, 2007 at 2:07 am
It’s pretty disgusting that porn is now glorified. I’m all for sexual freedom, but to an extent. I’m not exactly comfortable that it’s being placed in such a positive light but then again whose responsibility is it to censor this information? Is it the networks… or perhaps the parents? I guess kids will be kids and can usually find a way to watch stuff like this, so maybe the stattion should air such things later at night!