Vulgarity In America - A Response
This essay previously published 02/02/2004, by me elsewhere on the internet.
Many of you know that I am to be a new father at the end of May. My wife is blissfully pregnant with twin boys. I already am getting concerned about the excessive vulgarity in society. Not for my sake because I have a wicked and somewhat trashy sense of humor. But for the sake of my two boys, I already find myself getting disgusted and outraged at the attitudes of other people.
There are several cases where I have seen vulgarity recently, or a nonchalant attitude towards things that are not appropriate for children. Last weekend, I had the privilege to spend my Saturday at Kaiser Permanente while my mother was having a broken leg set and a cast put on due to a fall she took at work. As I entered into the particular department where she was being patched up, I had to wait for her to be released from treatment. I’m sitting there trying to read, and I am treated to the noise of Tim Robbins threatening Robin Williams with a handgun, while Robbins shoots his wife. The dialogue went something like this: “GET THE F*CK ON THE FLOOR! DON”T F*CKING MOVE! SHUT THE F*UCK UP!!” You get the idea. I look around, and there are parents and kids sitting there in the waiting room watching the movie on the TV. We’re talking toddlers and a whole assortment of kids from infants to teens!
Nobody appeared to be even remotely bothered by the display on the TV. So, I go up to the receptionist and I say, “Thank God I didn’t bring any kids in. You really think that movie is appropriate for kids? Maybe you should change the channel.” She glares at me like I’m some sort of an idiot! Don’t these parent care about exposing their kids to this crap? Doesn’t the hospital have some sort of policy against this?
In another instance in September of ‘03 I was on a one of the many beautiful beaches in Maui. My wife and I traveled there with another couple to Maui to take in some great snorkeling. So we’re sitting there on the beach soaking some rays in when a gaggle of women walk onto the beach and sets up camp. They plop themselves down, dead center of the beach, right in front of the access path coming down from the rocks.
Nothing odd so far, I think to myself. I tilt my head back, and close my eyes and our friend, Jim says; “Man! Look at that!” I look up and see three of the six ladies remove their tops and they run down to the water and wade out.
Meanwhile I look around and there are about two-dozen couples of the male-female variety, sitting on towels minding their own business. When the topless women get out of the ocean, they lie down on their towels while their lady counterparts proceed to rub sun block all over the prone women’s bodies and breasts in a slow rhythmic sort of way. You know, in a way that people ought to do behind closed doors? Then the couples, all three of them start making out and grinding on each other. They’re a bunch of lesbians putting on a show for the heteros or the breeders in a disgusting attempt to show all of us that they are normal in their behavior. This is a public BEACH! There are kids running around seeing this! People are getting up scooping up their kids and hurriedly leaving. I’m no prude, but enough is enough. We ended up leaving too. Needless to say, the gaggle of lesbians was able to claim one of the most spectacular snorkeling beaches as their own. Why must we be forced to watch a bunch of lesbians, in heat, doing the bump n’ grind on the beach?!? What is wrong with people?!? The hetero couples didn’t find it necessary to act this way. If they did, the beach patrons or the local authorities wouldn’t tolerate it. What makes the gaggle of lesbians any different?
This brings us to the Super Bowl. Anyone see Janet Jackson’s, and Justin Timberlake’s performance? Anyone see Kid Rock and the other rappers before hand? They were all grabbing their own crotches and then Timberlake yanked out Janet’s silicone enhanced, fake boob with a tassel on it at the end of the number. What gives? There were KIDS WATCHNG THIS! Janet and CBS claimed this was an accident, that it was all unintentional. Then WHY was JANET WEARING A TASSEL?!?
What is wrong with society? No one cares about the impressionable young minds out there? It seems that everything is over sexualized on TV anymore. It’s as if the people engaging in this vulgar kind of behavior are saying, “We’re in it to create controversy, get into the news, to make a buck, get noticed, get in your face, and screw you and your morality if it bothers you.” The people engaging in vulgar activity do not care about anyone else. They care only for themselves and their perceived freedom of self-expression in spite of others moral and decent behavior. I’ve got news for you. If you or your kids own one Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, or Britney Spears CD, you are complicit in condoning, financing and encouraging vulgar behavior. Madonna, Christina Aguilera & Britney Spears get honorable mention here as the idols of millions of teens and pre-teens who saw them French kiss at an awards show recently.
My thoughts are that decent folks don’t want to get involved or to raise their voices for inappropriate behavior because decent folks are afraid. Decent folks are afraid to be called names such as intolerant, bigot, homophobe, square, old fashioned, behind the times, or any other descriptive term in the book. The vulgar people have shut down decency by coercing people into silence and non-action. If the decent people are to salvage society with some semblance of dignity and decorum, we need to band together and not be coerced into submission anymore. We are correct in our morality and demand for decorum in the public square. The others are not. They are forcing their vulgar ways into our living rooms and into daily lives and they are trying to desensitize and condition our kids into accepting vulgarity as a normal thing.
So, what can we do as parents and future parents? What can we do as decent citizens? We are not powerless. You’ll note that the advertisers who plied their wares during the Super Bowl paid millions of dollars to CBS and the NFL to gain exposure for their products during the most watched televised event of the year. It is the hope of the advertisers to earn that advertising investment back by increasing sales of their product. Call the advertisers and complain about the monkeyshines and inappropriate behavior during the half time show. Tell them that you have been repulsed by their endorsement of such vulgar behavior in their sponsoring such garbage. Contact the NFL and tell them you do not intend on watching football next year or that you will not be buying any tickets until the NFL cracks down on vulgar behavior during games.
If you’re in a waiting room at a hospital or any other place and you see vulgar or inappropriate displays on the TV or in their reading material, complain to the management and threaten changing facilities. If you’re on the beach, and a couple goes into heat and they begin bumping and grinding, call the police and lodge a complaint. Call the local chamber of commerce and city hall and tell them that you plan not to visit again unless they get some laws on the books to prohibit such behavior and that they plan on enforcing existing laws. Figure out how you can hit people and advertisers who tolerate vulgar behavior where it hurts them the most, in their pocketbooks. As a tourist and as a consumer, you have all the power in the world over these people. Like a single arrow, anyone of us can be broken. Like a bunch of arrows, we are strong, and our dollars speak loudly. If we all complain and protest in our full numbers, we can do something about it.
It’s time we start speaking out and that we restore decency back into the public square.
Copyright 02/02/2004 by Randy Williams
Use granted to all who identify author
There are several cases where I have seen vulgarity recently, or a nonchalant attitude towards things that are not appropriate for children. Last weekend, I had the privilege to spend my Saturday at Kaiser Permanente while my mother was having a broken leg set and a cast put on due to a fall she took at work. As I entered into the particular department where she was being patched up, I had to wait for her to be released from treatment. I’m sitting there trying to read, and I am treated to the noise of Tim Robbins threatening Robin Williams with a handgun, while Robbins shoots his wife. The dialogue went something like this: “GET THE F*CK ON THE FLOOR! DON”T F*CKING MOVE! SHUT THE F*UCK UP!!” You get the idea. I look around, and there are parents and kids sitting there in the waiting room watching the movie on the TV. We’re talking toddlers and a whole assortment of kids from infants to teens!
Nobody appeared to be even remotely bothered by the display on the TV. So, I go up to the receptionist and I say, “Thank God I didn’t bring any kids in. You really think that movie is appropriate for kids? Maybe you should change the channel.” She glares at me like I’m some sort of an idiot! Don’t these parent care about exposing their kids to this crap? Doesn’t the hospital have some sort of policy against this?
In another instance in September of ‘03 I was on a one of the many beautiful beaches in Maui. My wife and I traveled there with another couple to Maui to take in some great snorkeling. So we’re sitting there on the beach soaking some rays in when a gaggle of women walk onto the beach and sets up camp. They plop themselves down, dead center of the beach, right in front of the access path coming down from the rocks.
Nothing odd so far, I think to myself. I tilt my head back, and close my eyes and our friend, Jim says; “Man! Look at that!” I look up and see three of the six ladies remove their tops and they run down to the water and wade out.
Meanwhile I look around and there are about two-dozen couples of the male-female variety, sitting on towels minding their own business. When the topless women get out of the ocean, they lie down on their towels while their lady counterparts proceed to rub sun block all over the prone women’s bodies and breasts in a slow rhythmic sort of way. You know, in a way that people ought to do behind closed doors? Then the couples, all three of them start making out and grinding on each other. They’re a bunch of lesbians putting on a show for the heteros or the breeders in a disgusting attempt to show all of us that they are normal in their behavior. This is a public BEACH! There are kids running around seeing this! People are getting up scooping up their kids and hurriedly leaving. I’m no prude, but enough is enough. We ended up leaving too. Needless to say, the gaggle of lesbians was able to claim one of the most spectacular snorkeling beaches as their own. Why must we be forced to watch a bunch of lesbians, in heat, doing the bump n’ grind on the beach?!? What is wrong with people?!? The hetero couples didn’t find it necessary to act this way. If they did, the beach patrons or the local authorities wouldn’t tolerate it. What makes the gaggle of lesbians any different?
This brings us to the Super Bowl. Anyone see Janet Jackson’s, and Justin Timberlake’s performance? Anyone see Kid Rock and the other rappers before hand? They were all grabbing their own crotches and then Timberlake yanked out Janet’s silicone enhanced, fake boob with a tassel on it at the end of the number. What gives? There were KIDS WATCHNG THIS! Janet and CBS claimed this was an accident, that it was all unintentional. Then WHY was JANET WEARING A TASSEL?!?
What is wrong with society? No one cares about the impressionable young minds out there? It seems that everything is over sexualized on TV anymore. It’s as if the people engaging in this vulgar kind of behavior are saying, “We’re in it to create controversy, get into the news, to make a buck, get noticed, get in your face, and screw you and your morality if it bothers you.” The people engaging in vulgar activity do not care about anyone else. They care only for themselves and their perceived freedom of self-expression in spite of others moral and decent behavior. I’ve got news for you. If you or your kids own one Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, or Britney Spears CD, you are complicit in condoning, financing and encouraging vulgar behavior. Madonna, Christina Aguilera & Britney Spears get honorable mention here as the idols of millions of teens and pre-teens who saw them French kiss at an awards show recently.
My thoughts are that decent folks don’t want to get involved or to raise their voices for inappropriate behavior because decent folks are afraid. Decent folks are afraid to be called names such as intolerant, bigot, homophobe, square, old fashioned, behind the times, or any other descriptive term in the book. The vulgar people have shut down decency by coercing people into silence and non-action. If the decent people are to salvage society with some semblance of dignity and decorum, we need to band together and not be coerced into submission anymore. We are correct in our morality and demand for decorum in the public square. The others are not. They are forcing their vulgar ways into our living rooms and into daily lives and they are trying to desensitize and condition our kids into accepting vulgarity as a normal thing.
So, what can we do as parents and future parents? What can we do as decent citizens? We are not powerless. You’ll note that the advertisers who plied their wares during the Super Bowl paid millions of dollars to CBS and the NFL to gain exposure for their products during the most watched televised event of the year. It is the hope of the advertisers to earn that advertising investment back by increasing sales of their product. Call the advertisers and complain about the monkeyshines and inappropriate behavior during the half time show. Tell them that you have been repulsed by their endorsement of such vulgar behavior in their sponsoring such garbage. Contact the NFL and tell them you do not intend on watching football next year or that you will not be buying any tickets until the NFL cracks down on vulgar behavior during games.
If you’re in a waiting room at a hospital or any other place and you see vulgar or inappropriate displays on the TV or in their reading material, complain to the management and threaten changing facilities. If you’re on the beach, and a couple goes into heat and they begin bumping and grinding, call the police and lodge a complaint. Call the local chamber of commerce and city hall and tell them that you plan not to visit again unless they get some laws on the books to prohibit such behavior and that they plan on enforcing existing laws. Figure out how you can hit people and advertisers who tolerate vulgar behavior where it hurts them the most, in their pocketbooks. As a tourist and as a consumer, you have all the power in the world over these people. Like a single arrow, anyone of us can be broken. Like a bunch of arrows, we are strong, and our dollars speak loudly. If we all complain and protest in our full numbers, we can do something about it.
It’s time we start speaking out and that we restore decency back into the public square.
Copyright 02/02/2004 by Randy Williams
Use granted to all who identify author
posted by Spot at
8:04 PM
1 Comments:
It's all about ME now. Exhibitionism is no longer considered illicit. Do whatever it takes to get your fifteen seconds of attention and move on to the next outrage.
When we lose respect for the law, or even common decency, anything goes.
I blame it on parents who are afraid to be parents and schools which won't give failing grades anymore because it might hurt someone's false sense of self-esteem.
You're right about threatening corporations with loss of income when they support "entertainment" which promotes vulgarity. But are there are enough people out in the world today who are willing to make the effort. It does take work to sit and right a letter or make a phone call.
Do we want decency enough to work for it? And that includes getting the power to make entertainment products that reflect human decency.
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