Standards and Context

I have always wondered about some of the written and unwritten standards practiced in US. A joke goes like this.

A cop spots a young girl on the back seat of a car knitting a sweater and a young boy on the driver seat listening to music at night around 11'o clock. The cop approaches the car and asks what is going on...The boy replies "she turns 18 at 12 o'clock and we are waiting for that!"

Once someone is past 18 yrs old, anything goes between consenting adults in general. One sees all kinds of relationships like a 20s something guy marrying a 40s something women, a 60s guy marrying a just 18 women, same sex relationships, etc. Yet if you are the President (Clinton) messing around with an adult intern or a Governor (Spitzer) engaging in paid sex, all hell breaks and severe consequences follow.

The latest controversy is with this children's show hosted by a young singer Katy Perry.



The whole country objected to the dress of this women so much that the show has to be canceled from the Sesame Street show! If you look at the video, you will notice that the dress is somewhat edgy, but not vulgar or obscene. Yet it is banned here because this comes as part of a children's show and parents want their children to grow up free from sex and violence.

I could not resist but contrast this with some of the Indian TV shows. We recently subscribed to Tamil channels on TV to entertain my mother. It is incredible to see what our children grow up watching. The costumes, dance moves, projected personality of women in the serials and the general violence in the movies and shows are shocking. It is like people are desensitized to human feelings and pain systematically from the childhood. We routinely see images of people hurt in accidents and a crowd standing around and watching them as if it is a movie. I believe not rating our TV shows and lenient movie ratings contribute to such insensitivity to hurt and misery in life.