Sunday 2 December 2012: Unusual Double Standards Debate

Me again. I'm baaaaaack. Yeah I'm not that excited either.

Anyway, something topical, but also true. This rant is one that I have prepared a while ago. I'm not sure how long it will be, but yeah ... I will try.

So to start this one-sided debate I will point out that key evidence in this rant is taken from the American song 'Hummingbird Heartbeat' sung by young smasher of windows Katy Perry (my Justin Bieber rant may follow at a later date), and the rather countless number of American adventure / excessive use of a gun films.

So. The American media industry seems a little undecided on how to deal with several things; the sexualisation of content (film + music), or excessive violence or implied violence (again in either film or music). The reason for this discrepancy (and this rant) is that American music (and indeed, I should point out, varying levels of music internationally) have overly-sexualized and therefore inappropriate content and/or thinly concealed euphemisms (EEEWWWphemisms). I have also noticed the sheer number of films with little other content than big. muscly, trigger-happy gentlemen running around shooting stuff (and not in a film way - that would be film-ception, and too complicated for most audiences, my Year 11 music video was a testament to that. It's late Saturday night when I'm writing this, and I don't have an internet connection at present. This means it is rather difficult for me to continue with the song side of this rant accurately and with specific evidence without a lyric sheet and I don't have one (as yet). So with the films (which again, as there is such a large number of films this refers to, will have vague and non-targeted evidence. English department shoot me.

So, the number of films in which people are allowed / encouraged to run around with guns that are made by the American Hollywood is simply  - well, every Hollywood film. My point here is simple -  what the hell?

Men can run around with guns in a film given a PGR rating, and yet cannot swear, or even imply sexual action (although the Steven Moffat based references to 'dancing' in Doctor Who are established by him as euphemisms, and yet Hollywood films seem almost scared of the content (and you CERTAINLY wouldn't catch anything of that sort on American TV. It's like the US are trying to kid themselves into thinking that they're innocent, when a commonly-acknowledged fact by people is that 'Sex AND Death' is the kind-of doorway to loss of innocence (or the Journey from Innocence To Experience, if you will). It seems broadcasters are unaware these things generally occur together. You can't complete half a job, and then just leave it. Either don't touch anything that could even possibly constitute a possible loss of innocence, or completely blow the audience out of the metaphorical water.

The lyric sheet I have obtained follows. The song that I will yell at is called 'Hummingbird Heartbeat' by Katy Perry. Ugh. Even writing it makes me ill. So I won't. Google it.

Assuming you've now done this; very quickly now, we can see where this argument will start.

Referring to the above sheet, the euphemisms ('Taste of your honey', etc.) are so blatant that you may as well just say sperm.

Then people know exactly what you mean. But then, problem is, you aren't commercially viable (not that Katy Perry was ever commercially viable), and the bigwigs cut you off.

Which brings me back to the 'Why The Hell Do They Do That?' argument. WHY?? It's not like they need to prove anything to anyone about being 'grown up', and even if they did, that wouldn't be the way to do it.

So what it seems to me is this; films can have violence, and music can be crammed with sexual innuendos and euphemisms, but neither can have both (if you follow).

So you should now see what I'm saying. My 'loss of innocence' argument still applies here, and just shows that the US media industry needs to get its shit sorted. If it doesn't, people like me will yell at them on forums like this (except they will be forums that people read), and so will be boycotted, and/or forced to change.

And that's all I have to say about that.