Rattle wrote:
] ] Despite moral watchdogs lamenting Hollywood's vile
] ] tendencies, the studios have actually been cleaning up
] ] their act. R-rated films, once the studios' mainstay, are
] ] on the decline, both in numbers and in lure. In the last
] ] five years, R-rated pics have dwindled from 212 in 1999
] ] to just 147 last year.
]
] Coming soon.. an even less edgy Hollywood.

These numbers may be misleading. It's just a displacement, like DVDs instead of VHS, or CDs instead of audiotapes and vinyl.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/10928137.htm?1c

The "pornification" of America, as Judith Regan, publisher of The Other Hollywood and last year's best-selling Jenna Jameson bio, calls it, has been a continuing process, oozing across the cultural landscape "like lava."

It's hard to measure just how big such a multifarious and shady business really is. Forbes magazine says that the oft-quoted figure of more than $10 billion in sales a year is, like many things about the adult entertainment industry, greatly exaggerated, placing the realistic figure closer to $3 billion.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=497893

In 2002, 11,000 porn films were made, the documentary says, compared with less than 500 Hollywood films.

Let's see what Pat Buchanan has to say ...

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42843

In his second inaugural, George W. Bush used the words liberty and freedom 42 times. And, indeed, if America is about anything, she is about freedom. But freedom from what, and for what?

What brings the old question to mind is the decision by Adelphia Communications, the cable operator that has long refused to carry pornography, to offer triple-X rated programming for the first time in a major media market: Southern California.

Adelphia's fall from grace would be a matter of little interest were it not for the trend it exposed.

"Adelphia joins a marketplace already teeming with ways to procure hard-core sexual content. The Internet has become a carnal cornucopia, with graphic images, videos and cartoons ... EchoStar Communications Corp., the nation's second-ranked satellite TV provider, has offered triple-X programming for several years on its Dish Network. Satellite leader DirecTV Group Inc., owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., peddles fare that falls just shy of triple-X."

Fifty percent of all hotel movies purchased are "adult."

We are in a worldwide race to the bottom, and America is winning.

noteworthy wrote:
] Fifty percent of all hotel movies purchased are "adult."
]
] We are in a worldwide race to the bottom, and America is
] winning.

Ok, everything is polarized then.

So where is my senseless violence?

noteworthy wrote:
] Fifty percent of all hotel movies purchased are "adult."

The question that needs to be asked after that statistic is quoted is how much of the moive to hotel patrons typically watch. If they aren't watching a full hour and a half then its an apples to oranges comparison in terms of media products.

Tangentally, there are several important distinctions between porn as a media product and R movies as a media product.. I don't think that most R movies in America are sex movies. I think they are primarily violent movies. In either case, they aren't porn, they are primary entertainment. People don't watch them because they want to be aroused.

People watch R movies because the language, violence, and explicitness reflects their culture. They tell stories and they do it in a context that the audience identifies with and is attracted to. Today people are more likely to want films that are a little toned down versus what they were watching in the early 90s. This reflects changing perceptions of identity. You're going to see that change as the era of the roaring 90's comes to a close and the culture shifts.

This has nothing to do with porn. Porn exists in an entirely different context.