There's Porno in that book!

[Ronny]

Jemima,
i haven't traveled abroad, but friends who have say that that is one big difference between Scandinavian countries and the US. Motion pictures which involve nudity and sexual activities are acceptabe for the whole family where you are, but are "R" rated over here in the US and are for adults only. That seems to true across the whole US; we are much more strait-laced as a Country.
Peder

I've heard that as well and as I saw mentioned earlier I think we are very accepting of violence but not of sex. I have seen people go to extreme measures to shelter their kids from any mention of sex and yet violence they seem ok with. I don't really understand why that is.

 

[Miss Shelf]

I think the whole "violence is OK' thing strated with roller derby and wrestling on TV. After a while, you get "desensitized" to it. But sex on TV and movies is a relatively new thing, so we're taking longer to accept it.

Also, some people feel that violence on TV is "okay" because it's done by actors, with fake blood and rubber knives and blanks instead of bullets. They forget that kids don't realize it's not real. There are still people who object to Wile E. Coyote cartoons because of the violence in them.

 

[Scottishduffy]

I have heard that from a few friends who live in other countries as well. In the US, we get riled up over sex. God forbid the little children know anything about sex, meanwhile letting your 3 yr old "Independence Day" is just fine (I knew people who did). In the US we tolerate violence, but not sex. Whereas most other places seem to be the opposite. Tolerant of sex, but not violence. Which I think is the better way to go.

 

[Miss Shelf]

Forgive me if I sound old-fashioned, but I fail to see why it's necessary to depict sex in movies that aren't porn. To me, sex is something two people do in private, it's not a spectator sport. The movies did very well for over fifty years without sex scenes, and the more I see of movies today, the better old movies look.

 

[Ronny]

Well I think exposure to violence would be much more damaging than exposure to sex. I also think that you probably would do better with providing more information about sex to kids than trying to hide it from them, especially as most of them will probably be having it one day whether they read the book or not. Whereas hopefully they won't be out committing violent acts.

 

[SFG75]

I haven't seen the review committee process in my teaching career, but our district has a policy whereby parents sign off on books that the teacher feels could contain objectionable words or material. We've only had one person object in the last six years that I have been teaching. In the end, they agreed to read the book. With that being said, a recently released government study has found that a little over half of American teens have engaged in oral sex. With numbers like that, I doubt a book that depicts fantasies and other things can do much harm, let alone be THE explanation as to why teens do the things that they do.

 

[Peder]

The movies did very well for over fifty years without sex scenes, and the more I see of movies today, the better old movies look.

Ms Shelf,
Well, yes and no. Early on the movies headed straight toward sex, until the League of Decency was formed and objected. The result was a Hays Office that reviewed and approved movies. Sex has always sold, and the movies have always known it. Just weren't able to get away with it as much as they wanted. And today again the controls are slowly coming off and we are headed in that direction again.
Peder

 

[SFG75]

Here's a story about "the good old days" of literature.

A teacher whose last year coincided with my first, told me this story. During his early years of teaching, the first one being in 1972, he was given the task of teaching American literature to sophomores. He went to his first parent-teachers conference and a burly, overall wearing farmer sat down and glared at him. The school then had a population of about 550 and there were about a dozen pregnancies. I don't know if it was something in the water or what, but it was an epidemic. The farmer stated bluntly and very loudly: "You are to blame for these girls here gettin' pregnant!." The teacher was aghast and demanded the man to clarify his remarks. The farmer then related to the teacher how he caused these pregnancies by having the kids read The Scarlet Letter. The teacher then asked what he should teach instead and the farmer said: "You should teach Shakespeare, now that there is some real reading." Yes, Shakespeare, as if HE were any more "pure" in writing his stories than Nathaniel Hawthorne. I think of this story and I laugh. The sad thing?, we have people whos still believe this kind of thing.

 

[Prairie_Girl]

Oh good dog! Yes, lets teach the teenages that reading about sex is bad and dirty. Because, you know what? Most teenages dont have enough to worry about, they don't have enough problems to discuss with there therapists in ten years. Lets add to them.

 

[SFG75]

Oh good dog! Yes, lets teach the teenages that reading about sex is bad and dirty. Because, you know what? Most teenages dont have enough to worry about, they don't have enough problems to discuss with there therapists in ten years. Lets add to them.

LOL-Thanks for posting this. It's amazing how the real problems in society play second fiddle to minor things like this. For all we know, the context of the book is that the girl comes to accept, but perhaps not act out on, her desires. I'm amazed at how an act without being taken within the context of the book, is somehow judged by itself as an indictment of the given work.

 

[Jemima Aslana]

Here's a story about "the good old days" of literature.

A teacher whose last year coincided with my first, told me this story. During his early years of teaching, the first one being in 1972, he was given the task of teaching American literature to sophomores. He went to his first parent-teachers conference and a burly, overall wearing farmer sat down and glared at him. The school then had a population of about 550 and there were about a dozen pregnancies. I don't know if it was something in the water or what, but it was an epidemic. The farmer stated bluntly and very loudly: "You are to blame for these girls here gettin' pregnant!." The teacher was aghast and demanded the man to clarify his remarks. The farmer then related to the teacher how he caused these pregnancies by having the kids read The Scarlet Letter. The teacher then asked what he should teach instead and the farmer said: "You should teach Shakespeare, now that there is some real reading." Yes, Shakespeare, as if HE were any more "pure" in writing his stories than Nathaniel Hawthorne. I think of this story and I laugh. The sad thing?, we have people whos still believe this kind of thing.

That's just hilarious. Besides it's a mite hard to put Shakespeare under American Literature. Such a moron. Pffft here we see a story of how a woman was punished for adultery... isn't that a good thing? Then again, apparently not since hushing things up work so much better. Pah!

 

[SFG75]

That's just hilarious. Besides it's a mite hard to put Shakespeare under American Literature. Such a moron. Pffft here we see a story of how a woman was punished for adultery... isn't that a good thing? Then again, apparently not since hushing things up work so much better. Pah!

Yep, old Billy Shakespeare grew up in West Virginia. Yep, keeping secrets makes it so that no one sits around and gossips about it in a small town. Good point there Jemima.

 

[WoundedThorns]

i've read plenty of books with sex in them. my sister's bones had kind of a graphic oral sex scene. it surprised me.

i suppose the question is, would you rather have your kids read about it, watch it, or hear about in school. sex is unavoidable

 

[WoodenCoyote]

I think its ok for there to be a little sexual content in books assigned to students in highschool or college. That said, I'd prefer it to be part of the advancing plot, not just porn for the sake of itself

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

I think that it's fine to have porn in books, and I also think that it is equally fine for parents to impose an informed ban on some books for their children. Weither you let your children read certain books or not is totally up to you, but I don't feel that book /content/ should be censored in any way.

 

[Jemima Aslana]

Well, the dear ole farmer is in his good right to demand that his own ids never touch The Scarlet Letter again, but from there to blaming the teacher for some pregnancies because he taught a book about a woman being punished for overstepping the rules of society - I don't see any logic there, sounds to me like the man never read the boom himself but rather heard that it's a book about a woman who committed adultery and nothing more. And he can't have read much Shakespeare either.