# Movie/TV morality: American vs. foreign **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 8, 2000, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-tv-morality-american-vs-foreign/17207 "2000-01-08T22:33:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-tv-morality-american-vs-foreign/17207/1 "2000-01-08T22:33:00Z")
I’ve heard on occasion how American movies or TV shows are censored abroad more for violence and cruelty than for explicit or implicit sexuality. Is this so? (My older brother, the most bellicose and hotheaded person I have ever known, has traveled in Europe; when I told him about this he said foreign audiences are kept ignorant by their governments, so much so that in Turkey they don’t know that a woman–Sandra Day O’Connor–was appointed to the U. S. Supreme Court. In a sense, I asked for an apple and he gave me a live hand grenade.) If cruelty and violence were criteria for censorship, TV shows like _Dallas_ and _NYPD Blue_ would never be distributed in other parts of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Konrad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f475e1/32.png) [@Konrad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Konrad)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-tv-morality-american-vs-foreign/17207/2 "2000-01-08T22:44:00Z")
I know that in Poland some American TV shows are either not shown or have scenes cut out of them (during the day). I think that after 10pm or so they can show whatever they want. I’m pretty sure this is only done because of violent content since they allow more nudity and I’ve seen translation where they actually add in swearing to make it more realistic. (In american TV shows people get really angry at someone and call them a jerk… yeah right) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-tv-morality-american-vs-foreign/17207/3 "2000-01-08T23:00:00Z")
To Konrad: Have you ever seen the volume _Completely Mad,_ by Maria Reidenbach? In the chapter “That’s Entertainment?”, she notes that with TV _we,_ the viewing audience, are the commodity being sold; and the real consumers are the advertisers. (This was why shows like _Hee Haw_ and _The Beverly Hillbillies_ were axed in 1971.) From what she wrote, it’s easy to extrapolate about swearing and partial/total nudity being left out of the programs in the U.S. Why the violence and cruelty are left _in,_ is not clear to me at all–unless the rationale is that the American audience/buying public is just so many million armchair sadists. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![mazirian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@mazirian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazirian)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2000, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-tv-morality-american-vs-foreign/17207/4 "2000-01-09T00:09:00Z")
In Finland American movies are rarely censored, the video may be few seconds shorter than the theater version (and it’s always the violence). Explicit sex in American movies??? LOL And yes, there is swearing on Finnish TV. Sandra Day O’Connor wasn’t exactly the headline news here (and probably not in Turkey either). Finland elects a new president in February and four out of seven candidates are women. Speaking of Turkey; wasn’t there a female Turkish prime minister not so long ago? Tansu Chiller or something… * * * There’s no limit to desire but desire’s needs. -Grendel’s law ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2000, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-tv-morality-american-vs-foreign/17207/5 "2000-01-09T05:43:00Z")
I’ve noticed that whenever you see a man and a woman in a domestic situation, or holding a baby in a commercial, they will be wearing a wedding rings. I brought this up a long time ago, and another poster (I can’t remember who it was) said that he had seen an ad in _Adweek_ that featured a man holding a baby. In the version of the ad used in Europe the man was not wearing a wedding band. It was airbrushed in for the American version. I went to France in '96, and was stunned when I saw a woman in a commercial soaping up her naked breasts. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2000, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-tv-morality-american-vs-foreign/17207/6 "2000-01-11T00:24:00Z")
A couple of comments to Mazirian: My older brother has for many years given me worthless notions dolled up as fact–or presented with the attitude that I must believe them–or he will knock my block off. (He has had this attitude since we were kids; I’m 50 now and he’s 51.) He also told me that _Mad_ will print satirical articles only after the subject of the article pays the magazine $100,000; if he had said that in public he would be likely sued for slander. I don’t know how much time he spent in Turkey (he was in the Air Force for 20 years). But then again, when we were kids he told me that if you soak a pine cone in water long enough, it’ll turn into a pineapple (hey, what did _I_ know? I was only about nine…) About your name: it must not be a Finnish name; according to Mario Pei’s books, Finnish does not use the letters, _b, c, f, q, x, \* or \* z._ ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2000, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-tv-morality-american-vs-foreign/17207/7 "2000-01-11T00:42:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve heard on occasion how American movies or TV shows are censored abroad more for violence and cruelty than for explicit or implicit sexuality. Is this so? As other posters have said, in general, in Western Europe, sexuality is not the problem, but violence is. > [@](#): > > (My older brother, the most bellicose and hotheaded person I have ever known, has traveled in Europe; when I told him about this he said foreign audiences are kept ignorant by their governments, so much so that in Turkey they don’t know that a woman–Sandra Day O’Connor–was appointed to the U. S. Supreme Court. Your older brother is an idiot. Most Turkish people don’t know because they couldn’t care less. That’s like if I said that american audiences are kept ignorant by their government, so much so that they don’t know the name of the prime minister of Canada or the president of Mexico. * * * Quand les talons claquent, l’esprit se vide. Maréchal Lyautey ---
**Author:** ![mazirian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@mazirian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazirian)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2000, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-tv-morality-american-vs-foreign/17207/8 "2000-01-11T23:31:00Z")
> [@](#): > > About your name: it must not be a Finnish name; according to Mario Pei’s books, Finnish does not use the letters, b, c, f, q, x, or z. Yup, you’re right, on both counts. My real name is Martti, “Mazirian” is just a handle, which I borrowed from Jack Vance’s _Dying Earth_. ## Older brothers… I have a kid brother (4 yrs younger) and I’m always pulling his leg (or trying). It’s just the way of the nature I guess, but perhaps I should stop while I still can. I’m only 25… 🙂 There’s no limit to desire but desire’s needs. -Grendel’s law