My mom grew up in the 60s in a very strict Catholic household, so she is pretty close-minded when it comes to progressive ideas and freedoms of our culture. She's one of those feminist moms who thinks that everything is about the oppression of women, from the way The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy portrays females to the way that they are "objectified" in shows like America's Next Top Model. She's a bit of a racist, the type who says they aren't but doesn't want to work with ethnic backgrounds. She's still a nice lady despite what all of that sounds like. However, she frustrates me to no end because while I am still in college, I still live at home because financially, I am not secure. I am not so much Catholic as I am just a do-gooder. I have very progressive thoughts and an open mind, and we constantly clash because I hate racist remarks, actions, and attitudes.
So, it's last night, watching cable, and my mom can not contain her remarks on the freedom of sexuality. She wants to get rid of sex on tv. She wants to get rid of booger-picking on tv. She doesn't think people should be allowed to say bitch on tv or wear their pants low or anything.
If television was the way my mom wanted it to be, it would the Andy Griffith show only with a female sheriff, a female deputy, female Opie, female everything. I can't stand it. I can't stand listening to her comments about the way that she thinks black woman (American Idol's Paris) YELL their songs, instead of singing their songs, and then she adds that they should be disqualified for doing that--that type of singing should not be allowed. She doesn't even hear it, it just seems like it's been ingrained in her head to CENSOR anything that she doesn't like, regardless of the feelings of others. Is this the way our government acts now?
So, as you can see, my mom would be a wonderful new addition to the FCC in their eyes, because she just hates everything, and I think that she has an unreal view of what would happen if everything that she wanted was censored. Does anyone experience this with their parents or whatever being of the same generation? Since we grew up in a completely different generation, do you think that when it's time for us to succeed those in office at the FCC right now, that we will be the prudes in our child's eyes?
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it seems like people keep trying to erase all the problems that wouldn't even be problems if we just accepted them.
btw, extremely funny post.
I know. We can't erase all the problems, but my mom thinks that would be a good idea. If we erase everything though, there will just arise new problems and conflicts to erase until we have no culture, no entertainment, just a Big Brother watching everything that we do.
It used to be that I couldn't remember when people blatantly said "bitch" on television, but it is so commonplace now that I don't even notice it anymore. When it happens, it's just like: "eh, there it is."
It seems as if you're mom is pro-woman, more so than closed minded. Also, when people get older, their hearing grows more sensitive, so it may seem as if Paris is singing on television to those of us who are fortunately young enough to still hear, but to your mother, it may be like a dying cow ready to give birth to a 900 lb baby cow.
But I do feel your pain, my mother complains about almost everything the generation of kids do today.
No, she is close-minded. I'm talking about a woman WHO HATES Andy Griffith! What is so wrong about that show? It was made back in like the 1950s? She can't stand anything. She has no tolerance.
Paris has a great voice. My mom doesn't even hear her singing. She just she's a black woman on stage, and is like, Oh Lord she's going to scream. It's just her way of making it seem like a black woman can't sing as soft or as well as the other girls.
Yea it's annoying. I tell her to open her eyes all the time, but she refuses.
Well, my parents don't censor me, well, they banned using "unlady like bad words" so I'm fine with that, better for me, they teach me to use good grammer. As for the FCC, though they do censor some good stuff, some stuff does DESERVE to be censored, like the super bowl incident.
What is unladylike in their opinion? Don't you feel like that's oppression in itself? Like saying, okay a guy can use these words, but you're a woman, so it's not appropriate? I'm just asking if they would do that to a son as well and say it's ungentlemanlike.
I don't even think the super bowl incident was all that bad. I think if it would have been on cable, it woul have been like whatever, but because it was on national broadcast television, it became this big epidemic, blown out of proportion in my eyes.
You have to admit, though, for all their faults, the FCC, ESRB, and their equivalents in other industries have good intentions. The problem is, they think making new laws and restrictions will make up for their lack of enforcing the existing ones. For example, the ESRB is currently in a debate over whether to ban violent video games because children are being "corrupted" by them. Now, whether the children are even being "corrupted" is entirely beside the point - it doesn't matter what it does to the kids, it's the fact that it GETS to the kids in the first place. There's already a law in place that says kids can't buy M-rated games. But instead of cracking down and enforcing that law and shifting every bit of blame onto the negligent parents who don't bother reading the M-rating on the games before buying them for their kids, the ESRB is feeling shaky because people like your mother (not necessarily her, but people LIKE her) are campaigning for a certain course of action in a matter they don't understand. The FCC has similar problems with what they allow on which channels - and whom they allow to watch those channels - but it's all the same deal. As human generations progress, we consider more and more things "okay" - for example, in the 1900s, it was considered crass and vulgar to show a picture of a woman in her nightgown on a poster. It's not that any one generation is right or wrong; we just change. As for your mother's racism, well, racism is flat wrong, and if she actually does hate black people in general she should be ashamed, but her preference for white people's singing voices is just that - a preference. Feminism is a different story - it's okay to an extent, because women need to be treated as equals to men, but anything that oversteps equality is just dumb narrow-mindedness, not one iota better than racism. Neither race is better, neither sex is better, we're all just different and we have to live and die with that in mind.
Amazing. You are one of the first well written comments that I have yet to read. This is excellent. I like the video game twist to this, because my mom hates video games. I remember when I was younger and my step brother wanted Tekken, and she was AGAINST it from the start, wouldn't let me play it, and it was just TEKKEN. Now it's like fighting games involve tearing each other's hearts out and stomping on their head, watching the guts explode all over the ropes--it's insane and awesome, all at the same time. It IS up to the parents, and it's a shame that the FCC can't see that or the ESRB. If they ban certain video games, then that is a direct violation of rights, but that's all that seems to be going on lately--the government violating our rights and the public just letting it happen. You're right: the ESRB needs to focus on the parents and vendors who allow their children to buy M-rated products. They are the ones at fault, not the people who can handle it. The only video games that should be outlawed are those like Stay Alive, because as soon as video games come to life, that's definitely a no-no: people should go to jail for that.
how do i delete this :[