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AIBU?

To think that not much is shocking any more? Not much is really controversial?

29 replies

AwfulMaureen · 13/02/2014 15:21

Just thinking about how not THAT long ago, nudity on stage was a real and on television too....people could make political statements and really shock...they could wear something highly unusual and be the centre of attention.

Now we're all like "Yeah yea...seen it all before."

Is there anything that would shock these days? Apart from violence? I wasn't even shocked in the 90s when I watched Shopping & Fucking the stage play...which features violent male sex....AIBU to think we've fucking done everything now?

OP posts:

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meganorks · 13/02/2014 16:02

Have you ever read an AIBU thread? MNers are shocked and outraged by everything. I was shocked and how many things other people find unreasonable!

AwfulMaureen · 13/02/2014 16:03

Oh I know mega but you can't compare MN to the real world.

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Pigletin · 13/02/2014 16:05

Oh I know mega but you can't compare MN to the real world

Comment of the day

Joysmum · 13/02/2014 16:07

meganorks I was about to post the same thing. There are many professionally offended people on here and in real life too.

I guess the difference now is that most people write about how offended they are but don't take action.

CoffeeTea103 · 13/02/2014 16:07

Well said mega

CogitoErgoSometimes · 13/02/2014 16:10

Some things that were shocking are no commonplace but I think there is plenty of things that invokes shock & controversy that didn't used to. The dos and don'ts of smoking for example. Once seen as a harmless if revolting pastime... now smokers are treated like lepers. The 'dirty old men' of old that used to grope young women were an annoying but harmless fact of life ... now they are clogging up the courtrooms. We used to take pride in digging great big dirty holes in the ground and sending hundreds of men down to get the coal out... now we are horrified and appalled by any means of producing energy that results in noise or mess.

So YANBU but we're always going to find new things to be shocked and appalled about.

mrsjay · 13/02/2014 16:15

i watched that wpc programme yesterday a nice afternoon show in the first 15 minutes they said queers and showed prostitution you would never get that on heartbeat

AwfulMaureen · 13/02/2014 16:38

Can we please not compare the kind of things I'm talking about to the culture on Mn? It's really not comparable. I'm talking about things like gay sex...once something people would not even acknowledge as a real thing...now not shocking at all...a lesbian kiss on Brookside was a real scandal...now it's normal )thank God) to include gay relationships in soaps.

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AwfulMaureen · 13/02/2014 16:39

I suppose I am talking about the media in terms of television, film and theatre....also popular culture.

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Kleinzeit · 13/02/2014 16:44

Try smoking a cigarette on TV. Even in a drama set at a time when most people smoked.

AwfulMaureen · 13/02/2014 16:46

Oh yes...can't do that anymore! But what about NEW stuff that shocks? I can't think of any...I suppose the stupid fashion of necknominating is a new thing but it's a stupid thing...not like the battles fought by marginalized people to be accepted in society. That's the kind of thing I'm thinking of too....

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DadOnIce · 13/02/2014 16:48

Something will shock our "unshockable" generation the way that my parents were shocked by gay sex. We don't know what it will be yet because we are not 70 yet. :) Maybe it will be something new.

AwfulMaureen · 13/02/2014 17:32

Oh I don't think it's only 70 year olds who are shockable! Middle aged people too...

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Oblomov · 13/02/2014 18:02

Can't remember the last thing that shocked me.

LaGuardia · 13/02/2014 19:07

I went to see The Wolf of Wall Street this week. I remain shocked.

RalphRecklessCardew · 13/02/2014 19:11

There's an Agatha Christie where a young couple bond over a shared dislike of jazz and black people. Except that's not the word she uses. The scene is meant to be cute. We're meant to like them. Some things (thank goodness) have become a lot more shocking.

JonSnowKnowsNothing · 13/02/2014 19:16

I find it sad when you find a story tucked away in the paper about someone being sentences for killing a child, or something equally terrible. There is one today. I might find it, but it's a DF link. It saddens me that that's so commonplace it's not top news. Maybe I'm naïve.

thenightsky · 13/02/2014 19:17

I was shocked to see the headlines in a local paper today... Man in court for having sex with his girlfriend's staffordshire bull terrier

HearMyRoar · 13/02/2014 19:20

Things shock but they are different things. Open racism or homophobia would be pretty shocking on TV these days I think. Sadly sexism doesnt seem to shock as much as it should.

ChocolateWombat · 13/02/2014 19:22

It's a funny thing, because we say we are not shocked any more, because we all claim to be so tolerant. The one thing people ARE still intolerant and shocked by, seems to be people with strong religious beliefs. any Christians and MUslims say that their faith is the only way to God. People don't like that and find it shocking I have found. The funny thing, is that although Christians and Muslims disagree about the way to God, both understand the other, when they say that they don't want multi faith worship, for example.

SouthernComforts · 13/02/2014 19:25

The stories of babies and children being abused by parents are far far too common now. Sometimes I think I've already read it and skip over it when it's actually a new case.

I am shocked at places like North Korea and how they live.

I'm shocked by terrorist attacks.

SouthernComforts · 13/02/2014 19:29

Oh and killing animals. Stories about hundreds of pets left in houses etc but also killing elephants for ivory, slaughtering dolphins etc.

scaevola · 13/02/2014 19:29

Death.

ChocolateWombat · 13/02/2014 19:31

And I am shocked by those pictures of famine and the impact of disaster. Not enough to do much about most of those things though. Yes, the constant reporting of disaster and the huge scale we see on our screens sadly makes us feel both impotent and also so familiar with it all, that it doesn't shock us.

I am shocked when a friend tells me about a personal crisis, such as a divorce or terminal illness. This personal, small scale stuff shocks me more than the big scale stuff , rightly or wrongly.

Mrswellyboot · 13/02/2014 19:34

awfulmaureen maybe I live in a backward area but everything is a scandal here! My mil was in shock for days after watching a soap episode with sex scandals and at work they are a big bunch if old fashioned gossips. I think it depends on what circles you're in.

When I was at Uni or taught abroad with young people, nothing was shocking. Everyone was opened minded.

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