Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Needs Help
, started by GnomeTitan on Feb 4th 2014 at 10:50:18 AM
Somewhere on the page, the character Gomez Addams is described as being Spanish. I can see that (although with a vampire wife, with a ghoul, and other identifiable horrors in the family - what sort of an undead monster is Gomez actually meant to be??? But that's a different question.) . Then again, I'm European, so the go-to position on seeing somebody with that Latin vibe going on is to say "Spanish". "The Addams Family" is an American TV show/movie franchise. Devised in the USA, isn't it more likely Gomez is meant to be some sort of Mexican. as that's the natural go-to for an American audience when considering "Latin" tropes? Something to do with the "Day of The Dead" and people buried in glass coffins in their best clothes, so the family can visit - Gomez as a Mexican Ziombie or something?
Edited by AgProv
A part of this trope could be about how much people correlate nudity with sexuality. Generally speaking, nudity seems to be less sexual for Europeans. Yes, it is still sexual, but... somehow less so? It seems to depend on the situation more.
At least I'm pretty sure European countries in general don't censor nudity as much. At least in Nordic countries it seems to be okay even in children's films, as long as it's not sexual nudity.
My point is that maybe Americans look at all the nudity in European works and conclude that Europeans are relaxed about sex, even when the nudity might not be sexual.
(Sorry, I'm not forming my argument very well atm. Really sleepy.)
As a Scandinavian, I would say the main difference (speaking of real life here) is that sex is generally less taboo and treated more as a normal part of life in Scandinavia than in the US. To be clear, this doesn't mean that Scandinavians typically have more kinky sex than Americans, just that we're less afraid to talk about sex or depict it and don't feel the need to mask it with either overly romantic notions or a sterile porn aesthetic. One result of this is that Scandinavian films and TV series will often (to the extent that it's arguably a trope in itself) show sex between people who wouldn't be considered "sexy" enough to get a sex scene in the US (ordinary-looking, overweight, older, etc.) and the sex will usually be much more realistic or, as Americans might say, "icky". In short, I guess you could argue that the trope is truth in television, but only because treating sex as something normal and ordinary seems so kinky to Americans.
I believe I heard that american media censors sex more than european media (and in turn europe censors more violence).
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That is roughly correct, though I don't have a source.
That was the amazing part. Things just keep going.
I don't think citations aren't really a high priority on this wiki, except with quotes.
I know this is true in where I come from (Finland), but it's pretty difficult to speak of "Europe" was a whole, as there are many different regions. (The Nordic countries tend to be more liberal than the Mediterranean countries, for example.) This trope is based on stereotypes and doesn't always correspond with reality, so the article doesn't necessarily need any hard facts to back it up. I wouldn't add any sweeping statements about Europe as a whole, unless you have some source to back them up.
Incidentally, shouldn't there be a parellel trope on American prudishness, as when viewed from Europe that's seen as strange, odd and somewhat risible? The thing about exposed nipples on US mainstream television, for instance.... or you tube videos which are censored if aimed at Americans, with the nudity left intact if published by Europeans.