After the Watershed Hour

(This blog was originally posted on January 4, 2014)

Photo by Rick Hustead

I can remember a time when there was very little if any profanity in books or movies or on television. What little swearing there was would have been bleeped out. If someone cursed during an interview and the word slipped out before the bleep could be superimposed, the individual and/or the network on which the word was heard would likely offer profuse apologies for the offense. On-screen kisses were generally fairly chaste, and if a couple was shown in bed, both partners had one foot on the floor. When Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” at the end of Gone with the Wind, audiences were equally if not more scandalized by that line than Miss Scarlett’s constant machinations to seduce Ashley Wilkes.

These days however, very few words or activities are off-limits on-screen, on the radio or on the page. Even then, it is often possible to discern what is being said or done. I am constantly amazed at the amount of fairly explicit sexual innuendo and even depiction of sexual activity on network television before 9 p.m. A wider variety of expletive language has become more prevalent among public figures, as well: Remember when Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti dropped an F-bomb during a speech to celebrate the Los Angeles Kings hockey team winning the Stanley Cup in June 2014? New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady apparently let one fly in November 2013, and Jennifer Lopez reportedly did the same on American Idol in March 2014. What happened to the idea that public figures such as athletes, politicians and other celebrities should be role models for youngsters? What gives?

According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind, every belief and behavior other than a reaction to the fear of falling and a reaction to the fear of loud noises is learned. First we identify a stimulus (e.g., smell, sound, taste, sight, touch) and associating it with a positive or negative response or experience (knowns). As these associations gradually create our life script (mental script), we continue to behave in ways which we have learned “work” to help us accomplish a particular goal. As our primary caretaker(s) and, eventually, other influential people in our environment, repeatedly introduce us to specific beliefs or behaviors, the critical area of the mind identifies this random data as “knowns” in the SCM.

I doubt that expletive language, sex and violence have become more prevalent or extreme in recent years. Rather, I think our acceptance of and familiarity with them in our daily lives has facilitated our acceptance and tolerance of them on-screen and in books, etc. This isn’t good or bad, just an observation about how we behave and our expectations and attitudes about these behaviors. Sure, Mario Puzo’s The Godfather (film) had very little swearing in it. However, I bet if the film was made today there would be a lot more “bad words” simply because it is more socially acceptable to use profanity in books, movies and on television that it was forty-plus years ago.

Eventually, we become desensitized to that stimulus (e.g., profanity, sexual imagery, etc.) in our environment so that its presence in our entertainment also feels familiar and comfortable. I think that with these words and images now playing such a big part in (a large portion of) society’s subconscious mental script, it would almost feel unrealistic if they were missing in today’s entertainment.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

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