Saturday, July 30, 2005

No Sex Please, We're Americans

You've doubtless heard the hullabaloo over the discovery that the wildly popular Grand Theft Auto game has hidden sex scenes. (And now, this being America, the Federal Trade Commission is launching a probe and a woman is suing the makers because she's concerned it might pollute the mind of her young grandson.)

It's worth reminding ourselves that even though GTA is excessively violent, the game was perfectly acceptable to mainstream America (even being sold in Wal-Mart). Remember, this is a game where it's OK to kill cops, hookers, etc. But chuck in a little bit of sex and suddenly there's complete outrage! As Jonah Bloom (executive editor of Advertising Age) points out in The Guardian:
    [U.S.] Politicians are not upset by the explicit violence in the game - you get to shoot policemen and prostitutes throughout - but by its hidden explicit sex scenes, which can be unlocked by means of an internet download.

    Last year's "nipplegate" fallout, when the merest televised glimpse of Janet Jackson's breast during the Superbowl prompted weeks of media condemnation, gave rise to new live broadcast rules. Yet extreme violence remains a broadly accepted mainstay of the entertainment industry.

I noted just last week the possible consequences to its media of America's "new morality" crusade. I'm pretty sure that this is another clear example of the warped state of mind of post-Janet Jackson America. But this time the violence-versus-sex angle (extreme violence OK, regular sex not) becomes highlighted, raising more troubling questions about just what the hell is happening to American culture. But back to the sex: Bloom points out that the family values crusaders were "upset by the so-called 'hot coffee' modification in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which enables users to have virtual sex with a number of girlfriends; you also get to take them out for coffee, hence the name." Clearly that's too much for the children, though it's apparently still OK to blow away the cops and the hookers.

And what about beyond the immediate confines of the gaming world?
    In US entertainment circles it passes without much comment that the highest rated TV shows, such as the CSI franchise, show blood curdling violence every week, but a recent ad depicting a scantily clad Paris Hilton munching suggestively on a burger was widely condemned. As Senator Rick Santorum - one of the most vocal advocates of conservative family values - said this week when asked about TV's myriad potential offences: "I am more worried about the Victoria's Secret commercials."

(Santorum was quizzed about the Victoria's Secret thing by Jon Stewart earlier this week (here's Salon's War Room take on the interview; and btw, I have only seen CSI a couple of times, but I've found the gruelling depictions of post-trauma blood and gore to be pretty gut-wrenching.)

But here's the kicker - and something that "London Calling" should probably take note of: Grand Theft Auto was designed by a Scot by the name of David Jones, who runs a successful UK software company called Real Time Worlds (formerly DMA Design). (GTA is now sold through Rockstar Games and its parent company, Take Two Interactive). GTA's massive success in the States is unquestionable. It has already racked up "an estimated $600m (£345m) in sales" in the US. (Here's the full story on Wikipedia.) In fact, the videogame industry is one more area of the media where UK firms have had a decided impact on the US market and its culture. Not that you'd notice anything "British" about GTA. It all takes place in a violent, dystopian America - call it Miami, San Andreas, wherever. It's perhaps another good example of the Brits selling back to the States an image (or simulacrum) of American culture - a culture that now seems to be defined by its relentless, extreme, and open violence and where sex was secret and hidden. But at least it was available if you knew where to look. Now the violence remains open, extreme, and uncontrolled - no problem there - but the sex comes with ever heavier regulation, with the clear intention that it should be completely forbidden. Welcome to the latest version of America brought to you by Britain - a version negotiated between the profit-making gamemakers, gamers, and the cultural guardians (both public and private) of America. And why question it? After all, aren't we doing all this for the children?

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