Lower tolerance for nudity; greater tolerance for graphic violence?

[The Burgomaster]

In my lifetime, I have seen a lower tolerance for nudity and a greater tolerance for graphic violence and gore and by the MPAA ratings board. 

In the 1970s and maybe even into the 1980s, it was more common to see female (and to a lesser degree, male) frontal nudity in R-rated movies.  In recent years, however, it seems like if there is more than, at most, a very brief shot of any frontal nudity, the movie gets an NC-17 rating.

On the other hand, DAWN OF THE DEAD, THE EVIL DEAD, and other graphically violent/gory movies were released unrated ("absolutely no one under 17 will be admitted") in the 70s and 80s to avoid getting X ratings.  Now, many, many R-rated horror movies are as gory, and in many cases, more gory than their unrated predecessors.

The movie THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED covers some of this ground. 

Why do you think the focus has shifted away from graphic violence and toward graphic nudity?  Is it because the gore is all just visual effects, and the nudity is "real"?  Have our morals changed?  Does anyone care?

   

[Andrew]

I am much more comfortable with nudity than violence. Comical stuff, like "Dead Alive" and "Story of Ricky" do not phase me, but realistic bloody violence is not something I enjoy.  I've seen enough of the real thing, and I am not excited or motivated by it.

Now, I must admit that I prefer female nudity to male.  There's something inherently fun about a woman running while naked. However, a naked running man causes me to suffer from a bad case of the flopping horrors.

[Trevor]

I am much more comfortable with nudity than violence. Comical stuff, like "Dead Alive" and "Story of Ricky" do not phase me, but realistic bloody violence is not something I enjoy.  I've seen enough of the real thing, and I am not excited or motivated by it.

Same here. I was never in service but I did live through a civil war with my Dad being in the army and later the police, so the real thing was part of my everyday life growing up: I'm sure that messed me up a little mentally. I don't enjoy violence in films unless it is the good guy / girl beating the #2 out of a bad guy.

There's something inherently fun about a woman running while naked. However, a naked running man causes me to suffer from a bad case of the flopping horrors.

LOL!

[tracy]

I guess I'm an old fuddy-duddy.....but I'm so sick of everything having to be so graphic and loud and in-your-face. Crude and vulgar humor and so freakin' much awful language is also ruining movies.

[alandhopewell]

     My personal take is that (generally) neither one is necessary to the tellling of a good story, and (again, generally) oftimes distracts from the endeavour.



     She didn't need frontal nudity



     and he didn't need blood and gore to get their points across.

[Bushma]

     My personal take is that (generally) neither one is necessary to the tellling of a good story, and (again, generally) oftimes distracts from the endeavour.

I couldn't agree more!  I enjoy watching movies with my kids and its really hard to find some good bad movies which don't have nudity, thankfully there isn't too much realistic gore in them. If I knew how I'd love to get a movie and copy it to my PC so I could edit parts out. Like two headed shark attack, the two half naked girls making out is too much for me to allow the kids to watch.

[BoyScoutKevin]

That's fine, but what about me?

Somewhat simplistic, but a bit of truth to it.

American: bothered by too much nudity and/or sexuality, but not bothered by too much violence.
European: bothered by too much violence, but not bothered by too much nudity and/or sexuality.

I use to think like the American, but a violence has been ramped up, and I mean not the total violence, which seems to have declined, but the graphic nature of the violence, I am begining to think more like the European.

And I am glad that Andrew mentioned this. When we talk about the subject of nudity, I presume we are talking about female nudity, and not male nudity and/or underage nudity, whether of boy and/or girl. The former, of which, seems to be increasing, but the latter, of which, seems to be decreaing.

[Umaril Has Returned]

I am much more comfortable with nudity than violence. Comical stuff, like "Dead Alive" and "Story of Ricky" do not phase me, but realistic bloody violence is not something I enjoy.  I've seen enough of the real thing, and I am not excited or motivated by it.

Now, I must admit that I prefer female nudity to male.  There's something inherently fun about a woman running while naked. However, a naked running man causes me to suffer from a bad case of the flopping horrors.

My friend, I couldn't have said that better, because if you weren't interested in female nudity like every red-blooded male, we, your male brothers-in-arms be worried about you!  

Violence?
My personal take is that if graphic violence is integral to the story, like "Dawn Of The Dead" or some other movie where it involves monsters or creatures, or a war story, OK then.

But, if it's just to highlight the slashing of someone's throat, or mutilating them beyond repair, or just about killing people for no reason other than to hghlight their suffering as they die NO.  I look back on some of the slasher films I'd seen as a kid and ask myself "what the hell was I thinking"?

[Doggett]

...a naked running man causes me to suffer from a bad case of the flopping horrors.

Perfect.
I knew there was a term for that, now I know.

flopping horrors. 

[pizdatrica]

boys under 17 watch porn, so I don't see what the big deal is. And you can say I'm wrong and stuff but they do, yes, they are horny teenagers, we can't expect them to tell the truth about their age when entering a pornographic website 

Actually I don't see the big deal with someone watching nudity or violence in a movie, people cannot be magically transformed into maniacs just by seeing a tit or some brains on the screen. But whatever, the fundamental evangelical conservative christian families seem to be experts in the subject, so who am I to say otherwise 

[Pacman000]

TV and movies are ways of communicating.  They can carry ideas like any other medium.  If ancient man could learn that tiger's are dangerous from Uncle Grog's hunting stories, then modern man can pick up something from movies/TV.  Thus, I would prefer for these mediums to carry positive messages.  Usually, graphic violence/nudity are not used to enhance a good message.  There are, however exceptions.  Schindler's List probably wouldn't have the same impact if the prisoners were allowed to keep their clothes, and the Green Mile would loose something if they didn't show what happened to people sent to the electric chair.

Having said that, I enjoyed The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, even though I'm not sure if it carried a good message.  And I like The Thing, simply because the FX were cool.  How did they do all that with puppets?

[Hammock Rider]

I was just thinking about this. A while ago I was watching Airplane with some friends and their kids and when the topless blonde bounces across the screen and jiggles alongside the Jello, some of the moms were scandalized. Some of the dads even acted scandalized. I guess they'd forgotten about that part. Amazing how much more common frontal female nudity was back then. Well, maybe not common, but it wasn't such a big deal. I'd like to see a return to that aesthetic.    I'd rather look at a nice set of boobs than a nice evisceration. Kids, and even adults can have nightmares long after they've seen violent acts on the screen. When was the last time anyone had a nightmare about Phoebe Cates popping topless out of a swimming pool?

Ah, it's too bad this country was founded by Puritans instead of hedonists. Imagine what America would look like if Hugh Hefner landed on Plymouth Rock instead of Miles Standish.

[alandhopewell]

I was just thinking about this. A while ago I was watching Airplane with some friends and their kids and when the topless blonde bounces across the screen and jiggles alongside the Jello, some of the moms were scandalized. Some of the dads even acted scandalized. I guess they'd forgotten about that part. Amazing how much more common frontal female nudity was back then. Well, maybe not common, but it wasn't such a big deal. I'd like to see a return to that aesthetic.    I'd rather look at a nice set of boobs than a nice evisceration. Kids, and even adults can have nightmares long after they've seen violent acts on the screen. When was the last time anyone had a nightmare about Phoebe Cates popping topless out of a swimming pool?

Ah, it's too bad this country was founded by Puritans instead of hedonists. Imagine what America would look like if Hugh Hefner landed on Plymouth Rock instead of Miles Standish.

     Pretty much like what it'll look like during the reign of the AntiChrist.

[alandhopewell]

     Morality aside, what ever happened to decorum? There was a time when a gentleman wouldn't look at such things, because gentlemen simply didn't.

    Also, while I can understand that a male will do a Tex Avery merely because a female exposes a body part, I don't think a MAN does. If is one thing to appreciate God's creation, and totally another to act like a glandular twit.

[indianasmith]

In my experience, lust makes glandular twits of us all.