MAP Forum

I've been wondering if the Hays code could have had something do do with decline of nudity/sexually suggestive content. I know it's not likely, but it's something I've been wondering. I get these weird ideas sometimes!

If kids didn't grow up with sexual innuendoes, revealing clothing, sexy characters, etc. do you think that may have had an impact? Since they were not exposed to "erotica" as kids they may have not grown to experience these feelings early on. Some of these shows were even prime time television shows, perfect for viewing by children.

Now with everything being so "kid/family friendly" it seems these things have been increasing instead of going down like the delusional claims they state. I think it could have provided them an outlet they do not have thanks (no thanks) to ID verification, parental controls, etc. also limiting their access to content. I don't think porn should be a role model by any means, but total abstinence and lack of access seems to be making things worse, not better. I.E. CP policing and banning causing more rape, child molestation, and even murder to ensure the child doesn't tell when this could have been prevented by making safe outlets available.

I think you're pretty right. The same way early porn exposition makes one grow a greater sex-drive early on. That's why I like the porn industry tbh. It makes minors (and people in general) freer and more sexually active. We must fight for public sexuality in media!

I could see this having an impact. I have noticed in the west that a significant portion of younger people who remember feeling sexual attraction and their libido at a younger age are more kinky, and kink can sometimes go under the radar compared to vanilla sexuality when it comes to censorship or what's assumed to be sexual vs wacky and funny childhood antics. Only by reading experiences and records from different times and places have I found vanilla descriptions of kids experiencing attraction and sexuality, some of them from older MAPs on the forums. Some of this also contributes to sociogenic harm against kinky people in general, the assumption that it's subtly groomed into kids or the result of childhood trauma since antis are culturally myopic when it comes to sexuality.

Yes, to an extent, the Hays Code may have contributed to historical anti-p0rn hysteria, especially in the US. The prioritisation of censoring anything sex/nudity related over the censoring of violence had longstanding cultural effects that can still be seen in US media. Even today, US television broadcasters don't hesitate to show graphic violence, but televised nudity is still so controversial that it is usually not considered advertiser-friendly (in an industry that is funded almost entirely by advertisers, since the US has no national broadcaster).

That said, the Hays Code started being rejected by the early 1960s, with the increase in foreign film distribution, independent film production, and audience tastes for more controversial subject matter. During this period, there was generally no rating system in America, and young people would have been able to see many films (such as horror films) that would have been rated 'X' in the UK and barred admission of children. In the late 1960s, the US introduced the MPAA rating system, as an alternative to 'censorship.' However, in the interest of box office receipts, many producers eventually began self-censoring in an attempt to achieve a certain 'rating.' More info on the US rating system and its affects on culture can be found in the entertaining documentary 'This Film is Not Yet Rated' (2006).

Although the US film industry had a 'voluntary' self-censorship initiative for a few decades starting in the 1930s, many other countries had film censorship boards and ratings committees even earlier than that, such as the British Board of Film Classification. But different countries have sometimes prioritised censoring different things. And it's hard to know whether these censorship initiatives caused cultural changes, or merely reflected the culture. Sometimes there's even a cultural backlash to such censorship programmes, which was seen largely across the west in the 1960s and 1970s.