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- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!sun4nl!cwi.nl!waal
- From: waal@cwi.nl (Peter de Waal)
- Newsgroups: soc.motss
- Subject: TV (Was Re: Can anyone tell me about this TV show?)
- Keywords: Are You Being Served?
- Message-ID: <7904@charon.cwi.nl>
- Date: 16 Nov 92 10:13:34 GMT
- References: <1992Nov10.130725.22886@lloyd.Camex.COM> <1992Nov14.004337.4196@sco.com>
- Sender: news@cwi.nl
- Lines: 31
-
- md@sco.COM (Michael Davidson) writes:
-
- >Britain is also way ahead of the US in it's use of television in
- >AIDS education and awareness - something that continues to amaze me.
-
- Funny you should say that. I think that most people in Europe do not
- view British television to be as progressive or as modern as you
- depict it here. I must admit that the BBC have improved considerably,
- but I don't think that they come even close to the openness on
- continental European TV. (Mind you, I am not discussing the quality of
- British versus continental TV programs). I also recall that their
- first AIDS awareness 'commercials' were quite untastefully done: a
- picture of a tombstone and a voice saying 'this is what happens if you
- practice unsafe sex'. Not one word about condoms, or anything else
- that might constitute safe sex. I wouldn't call that an educational
- approach.
-
- This brings me to a question about American TV. Every time I visit the
- US I am amazed by the prudishness of the national networks, while at
- the same time you can watch programs, close to pornography, on most of
- the cable networks. On national TV showing a bra seems to be
- considered pornography, while, for instance, on Manhattan's cable
- network there is a channel that shows escort service commercials and
- a talkshow that's more like a stripshow. In general I get the
- impression that mainstream Americans are quite closeted about
- sexuality -- at least compared to (continental) Europeans -- while at
- the same time the networks are flooded with talkshows on anything
- ranging from impotence to sex with telephones and animals. How come?
-
- --- Peter ---
- "Things fall apart, it's scientific."
-