One obvious difference between the effects of movie gun violence and those of movie sex is that all those AIDS sufferers etc. are harming (almost) no one but themselves. If the only effect of movie violence would be an increase in suicides, I'm sure there would be no outcry. What has people exercised is the idea that it perhaps leads to killings.

Kishke:

Interesting point. But my understanding is that many die from being infected by the AIDS virus. Am I wrong?

It is, of course, epidemic in Africa.

I actually have a tougher time with Hollywood sex than Hollywood violence. Is it because Hollywood sex grabs me by the ahem while Hollywood violence merely grabs me by the throat? Or is it because I feel no great temptation to go blow people away, whereas the thought of sleeping with beautiful actresses does have a definite appeal and therefore makes me much less comfortable? Beats me.

I wish Hollywood hadn't made it an issue.

I get the sense many people see it the other way. A lot of old classic war films seem to have been rerated from PG or even G to R on my cable system, which baffles me.

As a parent of 3 teens, I consider Hollywood sex definitely more problematic and harmful. It's led to a terrible coarsening of ordinary society. What is often considered normal dress for women and young girls is really heartbreaking.

I wasn't clear. What I meant was that people who get AIDS because of promiscuous sex have only themselves to blame and are harming no one but themselves. People aren't going to get worked up about fools who kill themselves by not bothering to take obvious precautions. Violence against innocents is a whole different kettle of fish.

Kishke:

Good point. Thanks.

Truth is, AIDS in America is almost 100% preventable and so I actually get quite worked up about all these deaths.

But, that's just me.

Kent:

You'll be relieved to know that most Hollywood babes are not as good looking in person as they are on screen. So you can put your temptation aside and rest assured that most of them are just a bunch of inarticulate dummies.

Katherine:

I still hide my eyes, and scrunch down in my seat when a kissing scene pops up on screen.

P.S. I wrote "Body Double" with eyes closed.

I also take back the suicide example. It's foolish, since most suicides are in some sense "against one's will," i.e. the person is generally not in his right mind at the time.

Kishke:

A fine halachic distinction. Thanks so much.

The US murder rate does not correlate very much with violence in movies and tv.

The murder rate in the US almost quadrupled in the brief period between 1905 and 1907. Then it almost doubled between 1907 and the end of Prohibition in 1933. After that, it started to decline, reaching a low comparable to 1906 in 1957. It then rose again gradually, doubling between the mid 1960s and the most recent high in 1980. Now we are back down to 1966 levels. We are decidedly not back to 1966 levels of movie sex and violence.

South Africa's murder rate was recently 47.53/100,000 inhabitants, compared to 5.9/100,000 in the U.S. The S. African rate of HIV infection is obviously also much higher than the American rate. Meanwhile, Japan had 0.5 murders/100,000 inhabitants; Morocco and Singapore had even less. I am guessing that the primary difference between our society and those societies is not the media.

This data is from wikipedia's list of countries by homicide rate.

"You'll be relieved to know that most Hollywood babes are not as good looking in person as they are on screen. So you can put your temptation aside and rest assured that most of them are just a bunch of inarticulate dummies."

The lights are on, but nobody's home?

With few exceptions.