First Comes Sex…

August 28, 2008 on 12:00 am | In Marriage, Sexuality, Television  Email This Post

When I was a kid, all the sitcoms showed married couples sleeping in separate beds.  Evidently, it was unseemly to show married couples sharing the same mattress, lest the idea of “sex” pop into anybody’s mind!

These days, it appears that TV finds marriage unseemly - but not the sex.

A recent study by the Parents Television Council shows that marriage gets little respect on network television.  Instead, extra-marital, kinky sex, partner-swapping, and pedophilia are more likely to get center screen.

The report said that visual references to practices such as voyeurism and sado-masochistic sex outnumbered married sex references by a ratio approaching 3 to 1.  The report contends “Behavior that once was seen as fringe, immoral, or socially destructive has been given the imprimatur of acceptability by the television industry and children are absorbing or even imitating it.”

When parents want to identify and block such programs via the V-Chip, they’re lulled into complacency by the inaccurate and inconsistent designations, such as “S,” signaling sexual content.

The programs the Parents Television Council included in their report were from four weeks of scripted shows on the major networks at the start of the 2007-2008 season.  ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, and NBC, the networks in the study, all declined to comment.

It’s disgusting that the so-called “family hour,” the first hour of prime-time TV, which draws the most young viewers, contains the highest ratio of references to non-married sex vs. married sex.

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The Moment of Truth

February 6, 2008 on 7:00 am | In Television  Email This Post

In a never-ending supply of lows, TV’s newest contribution to the destruction of dignity, modesty, and compassion is on the Fox Network, entitled “The Moment of Truth.”  The basic concept is to have people admit to immoral, illegal, embarrassing, stupid, crass or just plain dumb behavior while attached to a “polygraph,” which purports to determine whether the answer given by the contestant is “truthful.”  Truthful answers are rewarded by cash, up to a half-million dollars.  It’s sickening to see what some folks will destroy in their own souls and relationships for money - even a lot of money.

The New York Times (January 25, 2008) described a scenario on the series’ premiere show: 

‘Ty, a personal trainer, said ‘yes’ when asked if he has delayed having children because he is not sure that Catia, his wife of 2 1/2 years, would be his ‘lifelong partner.’  After he replied, a disembodied female voice delivered the verdict:  ‘The answer is….(long dramatic beat) TRUE!’  The camera panned to Catia, who stopped smiling and murmured ‘I’m dying here.’  Her friend, April, turned to her and asked in a semi-whisper ‘Is it worth $100,000 to learn that?’”Well, financially, it wasn’t worth anything because when Ty was asked whether he had ever touched a female client more than was strictly necessary, his “no” was determined by the polygraph to be a lie, and he lost all his winnings

This is sick stuff.  All truths ought not to be spoken.

There is a new film out with a plot that I believe appropriately condemns society for caving into the basest part of human nature.  There is a “bad” guy who murders people and puts their lingering, torturous death on the Internet live.  The more people who log on….the faster and more horrific the victim’s death.  What happens?  Well, more people log on.  The parallel is inescapable.  Shame on Fox, but more so, shame on us.

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