By: Lindsey Pruitt

Imagine a society without violence, graphic scenes or crude language. Imagine a society where the theme was work ethic, family, love and ambition and people lived most of their days with a peaceful innocence to gruesome pain, fear and anxiety. Imagine a PG-13 world with only a few R players to mix it up a bit. Have I bored you yet? For most of you, you can’t imagine this world and probably don’t want to. You’re thinking where’s the fun in that? Or How lame, cheesy and prude? For the most part I agree with you, but every once in a while I stop to think that television and media have taken it too far with the shocking, violent scenes. How much more gruesome can it get?

Most of us can’t remember the first time we saw someone shot or killed on television and definitely can’t remember the first time we saw someone bullied or battered. From an extremely young age the television becomes a background to our daily learning environment and whether our parents have the news on or a raunchy Lifetime movie we are exposed to hundreds of scenes that have no business entering the mind of a toddler. Still yet we see them, hear them and honestly, get used to them.

My mom is an extreme fan of Lifetime movies. I know for certain she has seen at least 95 percent of them, therefore growing up, they were always on. I spent a lot of time with my mom, being the youngest and the last at home, so at a very young age I already knew what sexual abuse, domestic violence and jealous murder were. I was a curious kid, and my mom didn’t shelter me from the definitions of these words; I like to think these movies served as a learning device for me if anything. Still yet I can remember one of the first times I saw a sex scene and being uncomfortable and thinking “should I be watching this?,” but curious nonetheless I didn’t stop watching. And for me this is how it started. I had become accustomed to violence and sex and sometimes both, so these things didn’t shock me as much. Now granted, it wasn’t like I was watching porn or horror flicks so that shock factor would come later, but by the time I was 10 years old my little eyes were used to some pretty adult content.

I guess this is what writers of television and cinema know about our generation. They know that we have already had our fill of murder, sex, drugs and other violence. They understand that “American Pie,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and others are old news to us and that to really get to us, to really thrill us they have to get more bloody, more violent, and more disturbing content. In comes “TRUE Blood,” “The Last House on the Left,” and the “Saw” movies just to name a few.

Now I love a good thriller movie, but blood dripping down the screen and horrible sexual violence does not thrill me in the least. Yes, it scares me and I suppose this is half the point but, I feel like in exchange for actual good compelling story lines, we are given cheap entertainment. I am a hard person to scare, because most of these cheap horror films have been done over and over but I am an easy person to disgust, even though that isn’t what I am seeking. My roommate and I recently rented “TRUE Blood” because we had heard it was good and we are both “Twilight” fans. Bad idea. If you are looking for a stimulating show with excellent acting and suspenseful endings, go rent something else. This cheap excuse for entertainment is reserved for the low IQ’s and sexually deprived fiends. The humor is elementary and stereotypical and the storyline is just plain stupid. The fact that this show has been as successful as it has is an unfortunate portrait of the intellect of our population. I gave it one and a half episodes and then went to bed.

Laying there trying to fall asleep I began to feel sorry for the kids that will accidently walk in on one of the violent sex scenes this show has or worse, sit and watch it. Kids that start out with that kind of content are starting out with a caliber much more powerful and dangerous than my Lifetime movies and I have to wonder what material they will go seeking when they are my age. How much worse can it get?

When children grow up watching these scenes of literal moral degradation in the comfort of their homes, that behavior becomes all too normal to them and they are more likely to copy and imitate it in their own lives, especially if they feel like the shows are cool or popular. This behavior is not shocking to them; it’s a fuel for their everyday conversation and imagination.  I know this because I am a product of this culture. Fortunately, I grew up in a home that taught me right from wrong and my television was monitored besides the occasional Lifetime movie, which in comparison to current television and cinema might as well be Barney. Unfortunately, not everyone has the luxury of a moral family and good upbringing. It would be easy as a little kid to twist this content into a partial reality. This happens all the time. As usual the advantages of commerce will outweigh the advantages of goodness so the billion dollar industries of rated R movies and television aren’t going anywhere, but I have to ask: in exchange for less violence, crime and heartbreak and a potentially better society overall would YOU sacrifice the rated R?

Again, many of you would argue that cutting out all rated R showings is way too strict and that some of the best and most insightful movies are born and bred in the world of rated R. Frankly, I agree. Some of my personal favorites are a little violent, a tad bit kinky and certainly filled with other adult content. My point is that life in general is rated R, that terrible things happen and danger exists everywhere so why enhance it and potentially influence that enhancement through television.  Yes, rated R is necessary to tell some stories and to get the full picture but when did rated R blur the lines with rated X?  If you are confused just watch the rape scene from “The Last House on the Left” or the first episode of the oh so insightful “TRUE Blood.”

When did rape become entertaining, violence become normality and rated R become far more than just restricted? When did our culture become so conditioned for this entertainment and when will producers, writers etc. stop pushing the envelope?