Sleaze culture
What is a “sleaze culture” anyway?
• It’s actually pretty hard to define
– Many of the ‘classics’ include the same sorts of
content identified as offensive by cultural critics
• Shakespeare
• Brothers Grimm
– Myths and folktales
– Few topics or features of content are clear
indicators of ‘sleaze’
• Sex? Violence? Bizarre behavior?
• http://www.thesleaze.co.uk/popular_culture.
html
“Raunch Culture”
• Raunch Culture is a term used to refer to a
subculture which revolves around "raunchy"
sexuality. It evolved out of the sexual
revolution of the 1960s and refers to the later
sexual culture of the 20th century in which
sexually explicit language and themes in the
performing arts, as well as sexually
provocative clothing and expression are
openly celebrated.
– Wikipedia
• Sensational/Raunchy content has been
common in media since early on
– Pornography
– Low humor
• There is a market for sensational content
• http://fora.tv/2008/04/26/The_Crisis_in_NewsBroadcasting_Panel#Broadcasting-The_Tide_Toward_The_Titillating
• http://fora.tv/2008/04/26/The_Crisis_in_NewsBroadcasting_Panel#Broadcast_Journalism_and_To_Catch_A_Predator
• Gradual changes in social mores have also
moved toward more tolerance/acceptance of
‘non-traditional’ morality
– Sexuality
– Drug use
What are the features of ‘sleaze
culture’?
• Content aimed at titillation rather than
enlightenment
– Sex, violence, extreme emotion/conflict
– The bizarre and/or norm-breaking
• Crude representations—lack of refinement
• Celebration of norm-breaking/deviant
behavior
Why are we attracted to ‘sleaze’?
• Arousal
– Evidence shows greater arousal from sensational
presentation that sober one
– Arousal generates endorphin release (pleasure)
• Repression (Freud)
– Catharsis of repressed desires
• Enjoyment from norm-breaking
– Natural resistance to control from without—satisfaction
from breaking the rules
• Happiness derived from seeing how much worse
others have it
• Feeling of superiority to those one is watching
Historical trend toward “sleaze”
• Market pressures toward sensational content
across a wide array of media and genres
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Yellow Journalism
B Movies/Exploitation films
Film after the development of TV
Rock & Roll, Rap
Fox Network
Cable Networks
Broadcast TV after the gradual growth of cable
Yellow Journalism
• Grew from the mid-1800s to the turn of the
century as a result of increased press speed
and the development of mass markets for
newspapers
– Hearst v. Pulitzer
• Developed content aimed at a mass audience,
including covering the police beat, ‘sob sisters’
and, eventually, celebrity coverage
Early movies
• Early on, Hollywood movies often emphasized
strong sexual themes and showed women in
shockingly skimpy clothing
• The studios, under pressure, voluntarily
adopted the Hays Code, which set very
stringent rules for what could be portrayed
onscreen
– While sex was the main concern, rules about the
portrayal of good and bad, crime, etc. also were
part of the code
B movies, Exploitation Films
• B movies were those made on low budgets
that emphasized sensational themes,
especially mob violence and sexual themes
(though they couldn’t actually show much
there).
The end of the Hays Code
• The inroads of television into the film market
led for the need to find something that TV
couldn’t provide
– Sexual and other themes provided content not
available on network television
• Foreign films
• Independents
• Some directors challenged studio censors
– Success in an industry facing financial challenges
undermined the code
Radio
• Radio was losing its audience to TV in the
1950s
• Programming moved from traditional variety
shows, narrative radio to highly targeted
music programming
– Rock & Roll served the purpose extremely well—
targeted to teens, youth and seen as especially
“edgy”
• Ed Sullivan show censored Elvis’ suggestive dancing
Radio
• Success of more sexually suggestive music led
to copy and expansion of format concept and
modern radio was born
• Rap, Hip-Hop is really just a more extreme
form of the same phenomenon
Challenges to mainstream TV
• First ABC, then Fox sought to challenge
network oligopoly
– FCC allowed more risque/violent content to help
challengers
• Success led to overall acceptance of coarser content
• Cable followed a similar course
– Early cable provided sports and premium channels
(premium emphasized violent and sexual content)
– Cable networks provided more ‘adult’ content
than did broadcast
Broadcast TV
• Network TV gradually moved toward more
violent/sexual content in order to try to hold
on to its audience as cable took more and
more away
How do you determine what is
artistically and socially appropriate?
• One set of critics hails the more gritty, adult
content as both more realistic and more
artistic
– Provides a more significant social commentary
• Another set sees the portrayal, whether
realistic or not, as contributing to a cultural
downgrading and undermining of morality
Critically acclaimed television shows
are often criticized for its adult content
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All in the Family (and spinoffs)
Hill Street Blues
Soap
Married . . . with Children
Saturday Night Live
Murphy Brown
NYPD Blue
Friends
South Park
Seinfeld
The Sopranos
The Shield
The Wire
Dexter
Weeds
Sons of Anarchy
How do we evaluate shows?
• When is the inclusion of nudity, sexuality,
violence, rule-breaking, harsh language, etc.
artistically appropriate and when is it pure
titillation?
– Shock value
– Contribution to the narrative
• Is the choice of content based on something
other than pure exploitation?
What do people object to?
• The amount of sex, violence
– In US the sex is considered more offensive while in
several European countries, etc. the violence is
what is considered obscene
• The graphic portrayal of violence, sex
– This is actually the greater concern for most
viewers—a story with one or two graphically
presented murders is more offensive than one
with many that are not graphically portrayed
What do people object to?
• The glorification of violent, criminal, drugtaking or deviant behavior
– Dexter
– Walker, Texas Ranger
• The lack of concern with the positive
– 7th Heaven v. Melrose Place
• The lack of coverage of the important
– Focus on Tiger Woods v. Health Care Reform
Why the concern now?
• The move among mainstream media toward
more shocking, sexual, violent, amoral and
titillating content
– Primetime Network TV
– News
• Rather than mainstream media putting the
brakes on marginal sources/culture, the
margins have driven mainstream toward
sensational, sleazy content
Does this present a problem?
• Offensive social behavior
– Crude language and behavior leads to anger,
conflict, unsatisfying social relations
– Lack of mutual respect, tendency to stereotype
• Self-destructive behaviors regarding sexual,
aggressive, drug-related and criminal
behaviors can lead to unhappy consequences
Does this present a problem?
• Self interest--Lack of trust
– Personal and economic costs
• Lack of self-esteem
– Degrading images, treatment generate psychological
harm
• Coarse representations lead to disrespectful
treatment of others
• Amusing Ourselves to Death
– Focus on the trivial, the bizarre, the deviant distracts
our attention from more important things, reduces
our development of mature attitudes, beliefs