BBKristopher.com

Yeah, yeah, everyone's talking about it. Frankly, if Janet Jackson wants to flash her tit on national television, more power to her. I just don't give a damn.

Today, Katherine and I were talking about stuff, and the conversation drifted to the movie "Chariots of Fire". I've never seen it. I think I was about six when it came out. She mentioned having to get a permission slip from her parents before her catholic school class went.

Well, this got me thinking. The only movie I really remember ever having to get a permission slip to see was Kramer vs. Kramer. For those of you who've seen Kramer vs. Kramer, you're probably thinking "What?".

Well, there's a scene in Kramer vs. Kramer where he brings home a women. I don't think we ever actually see them making the beast with two backs, but she does get up and walk down the hall to go to the bathroom and *gasp in horror* for a grand total of thirty seconds, you can see full frontal nudity.

Back to this in a moment.

In high school, on no less then three occasions, I was required to sit through the movie Glory with Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington and Mathew Broderick. A fine, stirring film that. On the other hand, it's full of people getting shot by muskets and cannons, people getting clubbed to death, at least one very casual murder in the middle of an attempted rape, and all those lovely bayonettings.

Three times. No permission slip required.

So, it's perfectly okay to show people getting shot, splattered and bayonetted for two hours, but thirty seconds of tit and bush requires a permission slip.

More on this later.

Now, I'm working on a novel. In it, I have a scene where someone very casually crushes the skull of a sixteen year old girl with a piece of plumbing pipe. I didn't for even a second worry about whether or not it would affect my ability to actually sell the novel. On the other hand, I've gone out of my way to do the 'fade to black' routine with any sex scenes specifically because I'm worried about sexual content affecting the marketability of the novel.

Can I point out just how screwed up all of this is? We casually expose our children to the horrors of violence without a thought, but when some has been singer flashes her tit, we become enraged?

Excuse me, but don't most children spend the first six to nine months of their life gnawing on their mother's tit? Won't half these children we're so worried about eventually have a set of their very own? Won't almost every one of them at some point in their life have sex? Isn't sex a natual, health part of life?

On the other hand, how many children do you know who've seen a bayonetting first hand? How many have seen a person get shot? How many will crush in someone's head with a pipe?

What the hell is wrong with us that we're so uptight about sex and so casual about violence?

Anybody?

Bueller?

Bueller?