damaged society

[liquidspace]

Do you feel that today's images portrayed via music videos is damaging to society generally? I am talking about the soft porn that makes up a large proportion of the latest music videos. These are basically women in underwear gyrating suggestively etc.

[WaldoMcFroog]

I think it probably sexualises children earlier than they should be, but I don't see that it should particularly noteworthy for adults.

However, into that pot you can add teenager's magazines, billboards, Heat and similar, many movies, those saucy minxes at the Salvation Army etc. I don't think music videos are the sole point of blame.

[liquidspace]

but music videos are so 'in your face' if you are a youngster today. Apart from being on a computer it probably takes up a lot of their time, watching these videos and they seem to be becoming more and more graphic all the time, the boundaries are being pushed. You turn on to watch a bit of music and you see naked flesh in front of your eyes!

[jake-the-peg]

I think you have to be a bit clearer by what you mean by "damage society".

The question seems to imply that there is some sort of "Right" version of society than is broken when it changes and I don't think you can say that.

You could say "weaken society" I guess and mean that people making up society are becoming more isolated, that the bonds between them are being weakened.

But I don't think you can exactly pin that on music videos. Probably a symptom of a wider change in attitudes

I think the reason is effectively an "arms race" to grab the attention of a buying public with a low attention span- we all know sex sells - they were draping bikini clad girls over cars in the 50s

[LeMarchand]

I'm with you, liquidspace! I have no problem at all with porn (don't tell the missus!) but a lot of music videos portray women as not much more than scantily-clad sex providers. I was setting a timer for an evening show one morning and Channel 4 (poss E4/More 4) were showing a vid that where the female singer was pressing her face against a guys crotch in a simulation of fellatio.

I've seen some of the "outfits" that young girls wear to the school disco and I find it disturbing that not only do they choose to wear clothes that wouldn't look out of place in a porno, but that their parents (who would no doubt happily burn anyone suspected of paedophilia at a stake) buy such clothes for them! I also wonder why it seems socially acceptable for young girls to dress in a way that (if they were adults) would be seen as sexually provocative. I guess that there aren't as many "sexy" choices in menswear, but I'd be willing to bet that if a pre/pubescent boy wanted to wear something "sexy" that it would quite rightly be frowned upon.

Surely in a world of equality we should be telling our boys that girls aren't just sexual playthings and our girls that they have a huge choice in front of them; their lives are not just about providing eye candy and gratification for men? Because the sort of videos you mention seem to be telling them the opposite.

Yes sex sells, but if we must use it as a sales tool should we really be using it to sell music to children?

I do agree with Waldo that videos are just one symptom of the rot, though.