Media and Religion

There have been many posts pertaining to the pure eye of the media and its inherent sensitivity to nudity. If goal of the media is to give the people what they want, why does it exclude nudity? Porn is a huge industry that boasts revenues larger than the top ten tech companies combined. It may be one of the few industries that has not seen a sizable impact due to the recession. Earnings have regressed, but not nearly to the extent of other industries. This is partially because of more free porn available on the internet and piracy. Will our love of nudity catch up and infiltrate the media?

Before the rise of Jewish and Islamic religion, sex was free and open. The gods that people prayed to were very sexual. How many stories of Greek or Roman gods having sex have been passed down? Even ancient Hindu temples have pornographic depictions everywhere. The ancient art of Kama Sutra show pleasure and spirituality going hand-in-hand. Then the new testament came along, and for the first documented time, God did not have sex. There is no mention of His sexual organs or desires. One of the first scenes in the Bible has Adam and Eve covering their naked bodies after eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Quickly sexuality became inappropriate. Today the Bible tells Catholics that the people we should look up to (priests) are celibate. It is in our DNA to procreate, and many of those Catholic preists have shown us how unnatural and difficult it is to supress sexual urges.

Our media is a reflection of our society. The United States was founded by Puritans and is still influenced by their works. Although we try to practice a separation of church and state, our Constitution, the building block for American government, mentions God. Biblical teachings and philosophy is so engraned within our society that it shapes the media we deem appropriate. Those who participated in the sexual revolution were seen as renegadeds by most Americans. Nudity is slowly becoming more mainstream (kudos to Hugh Heffner), but it is still looked down upon by our more "moral citizens". Do nudity and religion have a negative coralation? Nudity as a global economic trend is on the rise, and from what I observe it seems like religious people are shifting from strict adherence to loose interpretation of their prospective religous texts. Nudity is on the rise and it may soon infultrate the media.