A clutch of complaints by U.S. viewers that the Athens Olympics opening ceremony featured lewd nudity has incensed the Games chief, who warned American regulators to back off from policing ancient Greek culture.
Gianna Angelopoulos warned the Federal Communications Commission watchdog, sensitive after a deluge of outrage when singer Janet Jackson’s breast was exposed at a Super Bowl game, not to punish NBC television that aired the Games.
Male nudity, a woman’s breast and simulated sex were the subjects of shrill complaints about the opening ceremony on August 13 which were posted by the FCC on its Web site.
“Far from being indecent, the opening ceremonies were beautiful, enlightening, uplifting and enjoyable,” Angelopoulos wrote in a weekend commentary in the Los Angeles Times titled “Since When is Greece’s Culture Obscene?”
“Greece does not wish to be drawn into an American culture war. Yet that is exactly what is happening,” she said.
…
“As Americans surely are aware, there is great hostility in the world today to cultural domination in which a single value system created elsewhere diminishes and degrades local cultures,” she said in her commentary.
“In this context, it is astonishingly unwise for an agency of the U.S. government to engage in an investigation that could label a presentation of the Greek origins of civilisation as unfit for television viewing.”
My money’s on the Greeks in this war, largely because they’ve stood the test of time.
5 comments on “Culture Wars – FCC vs. Olympics”
Americans are so weird about nudity. Blowing people’s heads off? No problem. But a breast?! The horror!
it goes back to our (unfortunately) puritanical roots.
why religious fanaticism is such a big movement over here, i will never understand. there’s a direct inverse relation between sexual openness of a society and the number of unwanted teen pregnancies. this is proven. and yet american fanatics persist in criminalizing anything even remotely sexual or sensual. why deny the beauty and practicality of a natural process? it makes no sense.
but then again, not much in this country makes sense. i need to move…lol.
Move to Canada! : )
Oh, I know. The perception that a naked body is always something sexual is really bizarre to me, I can’t get my head around it. My most recent ex lives in the US, and he told me once he’d never seen either of his parents naked. I found that so strangely fascinating, but he freaked out when I started asking questions : P
I figure, we’ve all got one set of parts or the other (except in the case of hermaphrodites, of course), so what’s the big deal? It seems unhealthy to keep it all hidden away, as though it’s bad or shameful or dirty. No wonder so many people have warped views of sex and sexuality.
care to marry me real quick so i can get out of here? i’ll cook for you! 😛
Sounds like a good plan to me.