The human body is a brilliant thing – apart from enabling us to do major stuff like walking, eating and breathing, various parts of our body can also be used for immature fun.
Take the bottom for example. There are tons of alternative words for this piece of flesh. Ass, arse, batty, behind, booty and bum are just some of the brilliant ways to describe it. Sometimes you may have to come to terms with your own bottom while having a shower in the morning. There you see yourself in all your hideous glory. So it’s not like you’d be shocked to see an image of an arse on TV, is it? Apparently so.
NYPD Blue recently showed an episode which depicted a female arse. Not a problem you’d think. Well it is, and there may be some punishment to the network ABC.
America is a glorious nation. It's the frontrunner for telling the rest of the world how to live their lives, a global leader on fighting the war on terror, it won’t let other countries develop nuclear missiles and it's got a leader who won’t sign a piece of paper to cut evil gases emitting into the atmosphere which will consequently see the world imploding.
With all these serious issues going on, you’d have thought that America would be quite liberal to less serious matters. Of course not, anything that could potentially turn the innocence of a child in to a sex-wielding maniac after seeing a bit of flesh has to be stopped.
Though saying that, Jamie Lynn Spears is probably the perfect example of how a bit of nudity can influence girls into committing acts of underage sex with blokes who should know better.
It’s not the first time that America has grinded to a halt after witnessing a bit of flesh. Who can forget Janet Jackson getting her chest pillows out at the Super Bowl? That’s a sight that nobody really wants to see. We’ve had those sorts of problems before, incidentally, although the police officers wouldn’t take our story of our trousers accidentally falling down inside a strip club seriously. What do they know?
So what exactly upset several American viewers and forced them to gouge their own eyes out? After a repeat of NYPD Blue from 2003 was shown, the BBC reports that 'multiple, close-up views' of a woman's buttocks were broadcast before the US watershed. Oooh, multiple encounters showing something that both men and women have. Could it get anymore offensive? Apparently so:
“The scene in the police drama shows a boy surprising a naked woman as she prepared to take a shower. The FCC said it received several complaints about the sequence, which also showed one of the woman's breasts.”
Hmm, we could see why this may cause a few problems – but if reports are to be believed, a warning was issued before the shows going out:
“An ABC spokeswoman said that the program was broadcast with parental warnings and that "the realistic nature of NYPD Blue's storylines was well-known to the viewing public".
We can believe that. When was the last time the police busted a crack den and let the occupants dress appropriately before being sent downtown? Never, that’s when. But because it seems most Americans want to live in a fairytale land which is wrapped up in glittery cotton wool, a fine of $1.4m is going to be imposed on the network that broadcast the scene.
But it doesn’t stop there. The fine will be placed upon all 52 stations that showed the episode. It just goes to show that there's nothing as evil as arses. Which sort of makes hip-hop videos worse than Hitler. We think.
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toolahroolahroolah says
Yep, thats us.
We can’t stand the body, but we do love guns and violence.
Nevermind that about half of what is allegedly our entertainment is barely cleaned up kiddie porn, see spears, lohan, etc, et al, ad nauseum.
Erik says
Speak for yourslef homeboy. Janet Jackson’s body is something everybody wanted to see thats why her superbowl boobs out pictures is the most searched in internet history.
Now pick up your face.
Eros says
Two fingers up in the FCC’s general direction. Have you seen how violent 24 is? But, oh Lord, a naked ass? Save us from this mind-searing abomination!
Matt says
We really don’t care about asses. Seriously. Unless we a great one walking by us – then we’re all over it. It’s those damn old people, they’re obviously the only ones who have time to watch TV all day.
I’m in college, and trust me, we don’t care about seeing anything on TV. We know its not real, and we know what all the anatomy is. And we love every part of it. Except for those fat people. They’re just plain nasty.
George Arndt says
The biggest asses in boobs in my country work for the FCC. The vast majority of American don’t have as much of a problem with nudity as many might think, however. It only the loony right which seems to have a problem with it.
Bob says
For those interested, Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, just wrote a column about ABC and this nudity issue. It is worth a read. The link is
Here .