– Why in many countries nudity or even sex are more taboo than violence and gore?
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Because keeping the peace is generally easier than keeping relationship promises and both are important to people. So Western society’s developed ideas around physical privacy that are stronger than hiding fantasy violence. Seeing violence doesn’t (generally) make you want to do the same. Where as nudity and titillation etc generally stoke an appetite for sexual variety. And a lot of people don’t generally enjoy their partner looking elsewhere, nor physical comparisons. So we end up with these cultural values: nudity / sex is a bit taboo whereas violence gets a pass.
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Is that true? Other than the US, nudity seems to be less taboo than gore in most places?
I suspect those countries that have strict nudity laws etc. also have a strong religious element.
Got to keep the women in their place.
Because the violence and gore depicted is nothing compared to violence and gore in reality. The closer it gets to reality, then it absolutely is taboo.
Puritanical sexual mores combined with military propaganda. People get inundated with violent imagery so they see destruction of human bodies as normal. People learn to think of nudity as purely sexual and performative, and dissociate from their own bodies as well.
I personally find it upsetting, but that’s possibly to do with being European. I have begun to avoid American movies for this reason.
Because most of us have sex at one point in our lives. But most of us don’t commit murder at some point in our lives. So seeing all this sex and nakedness can speed up the process of something that will happen anyway.
Nudity and sex are recreational pursuits. They tend to make people more relaxed, and less nervous and worried. Violence and gore do the opposite – they are threatening, and make people feel either aggressive or frightened. Relaxation tends to threaten religion. People turn to “god” and authoritarian government when they feel threatened or aggressive. So, nudity and sex are taboo, while violence and gore are welcomed, because these policies support religion and authority, and not surprisingly, religion and authority like that a great deal.
Like the US? Because the priorities were defined by an acceptance of taking up arms and going to war to protect the picket fence way of life based around what the bible said was acceptable and unacceptable. And nudity and sex, despite scandals and suppression running rampant in the old days (and still are), did not benefit that agenda. Rather, it inspired free thinking, which those who built the country on religious belief did not want. Such as what led to the 60’s movement of drugs and creative expression, which confirmed the fears of the conservatives in altering their way of life and causing them to feel “uncomfortable” in their own country. It’s just about oppressing anything that is different, so sex and nudity inspires that kind of thinking. Chastity is traditionally taught by those who are religious and the US is a religious based country traditionally. But the bible was pro violence across the board, so that was okay. Sex without marriage was not, along with (women specifically) not being allowed to be able to express themselves sexually. It’s the same reason women have been so oppressed as well in other ways, while men were allowed to do whatever the hell they wanted. All based on what the bible says.
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