Doubly Bad Taste TV

So, jolly japes, it was all a wheeze to highlight the shortage of organ donors, both in the Netherlands and across the world. It’s a serious problem, particularly for some ethnic groups due to cultural/religious taboos re donation and some genetic predisposition to certain types of organ failure. I personally had an Indian friend whose kidneys were in a shocking state from the time he was born. We’re not in constant touch any more but I hear through the grapevine he’s desperately in need of a transplant now and because of the shortage of suitably typed donors his wait may be a long one, perhaps longer than he has left.

So why was the BNN show doubly bad taste? Well, for one I think that the premise was flawed, organ donation should not be about shock tactics and practical jokes. It’s a decision that each of us has to come to in our own time and with the support and understanding of our family and partners. The effect of this show was to increase the profile of the issue, but for how long. And now that the shock value of this grotesque (albeit fictional) show has been imprinted onto the public consciousness, what next? It would be difficult to create a more outrageous format to raise the profile of the issue again.

However I think the most telling part of this whole saga is that everyone believed it. I believed it. I don’t feel aggrieved that I was taken in. I don’t feel like I was taken for a ride, shown to be a sucker, drawn along with the public outrage like so many others. No, I think that in today’s climate of multi-channel TV, lowest common denominator formats and desperate battles for the next winning formula/cash cow there are production companies out there who will stoop to any depths to get noticed. I, like everyone else, believed this show was actually going to make good on its promise of a kidney by popularity contest. Why? Because the standard of television has sunk so low.

Satellite TV does bring choice to a certain extent, allowing previously marginalized special interest groups a voice in the visual media. It allows programme makers the opportunity to experiment with the cutting edge. But only on a fraction of the channels out there. For the most part it’s repeat after repeat of the same shows, often decades old. Funding for new material is spread thinner and thinner so in the same way that record labels will ditch an artist if they fail to chart regularly, only formats with almost guaranteed returns get funding.

There are some wonderfully talented and innovative programme makers out there. We in the UK for example have a fine and long-standing tradition of public service broadcasting. The BBC’s charter had (and I believe still has) clauses to the effect that it is the duty of the corporation to educate and inform, as well as entertain. Even other channels, notably Channel 4 produce inventive, entertaining and thought-provoking dramas, documentaries and reportage.

It would be interesting to see the audience figures for the show. In one respect I hope they were good and many people considered organ donation because of it. On the other hand I’d like to believe people were so repulsed by the concept that they switched channel. I suspect the former.

When we are all so ready to believe that a TV channel and production company would actually make such a programme, what does it say about the public’s perception of the TV we watch?

©2007 Alexander, more of my ramblings and other stuff at alexsuze.com, or drop by my MySpace Account.

Bad Taste TV

“I’ve…. seen things you people wouldn’t believe, hmm. Attack ships on fire off the Shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate … all those… moments, will be lost, in time, like tears… in… rain. “
Roy (Rutger Hauer), Blade Runner (1981)

When I die, assuming my organs are viable they will be offered for transplant to anyone who needs them. This body will be of no use to me any more and of no comfort to those who are left behind. What I hope to leave to them is happy memories of me. It will be my final gift to the world that created and nourished me over the span of my years. It will be a gift because no money will change hands, nor will my name be picked out in lights. Such an act is neither unusual, heroic or self-serving. Thousands of people all over the world choose to do this, to give blood, plasma, ova and embryos for research. Some give their time to help the vulnerable, sick and dying. Some even give their lives to protect the vulnerable and their names are never recorded. It is therefore the very least I can do.

So what has this to do with bad taste on TV?  BBC News Story. You notice I’m not giving a link to BNN or Endemol.

So these “contestants” will attempt to persuade a terminally ill donor that they should receive her organs. There’s even some debate about the suitability of the organs for transplant in my opinion as the unfortunate donor is dying of cancer.

Of course the network and the production company seem to think that it’s OK because they’re “… acting in a shocking way to bring attention to this problem.” Strangely enough I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’s another case of a TV company looking for a headline grabbing format.

If it raises the awareness about the chronic shortage of organs for donation in the Netherlands and across the world, good. But that is no justification for a program which allows members of the public to play God with the lives of three strangers.

And what of the potential recipients afterwards? One may get a viable organ, the others, already ill and vulnerable will not. Are BNN/Endemol going to magic up a replacement, suitably tissue-typed organ for them? Sadly it’s not that easy.

If you really want to help with the problems of donor organ shortage talk to your family about your wishes regarding what should happen to your organs after your death, carry a donor card and register here.

“Chew,” Roy says, again smiling, “if only you could see what I’ve seen with your eyes.“
Roy (Rutger Hauer), Blade Runner (1981)

©2007 Alexander, more of my ramblings and other stuff at alexsuze.com, or drop by my MySpace Account.

Uniforms

I was channel hopping the other day and happened across a re-run of “On the Busses” follow the link if you’re too young to remember the show, or it never aired in your part of the world. Like a lot of comedy of its time it was very peculiarly English in its humour and has dated to the extent that it’s unwatchable except as a TV curio. It’s even gone past the point where I can get nostalgic about being sent to bed before it came on because it was too risqué.

What got me thinking was not the music hall performances and jokes, or the bawdy, single-dimensional humour and even shallower characters, but the uniforms. I can just remember when bus drivers wore uniforms, not just black trousers and a corporate blue shirt, but full uniforms. Polished buttons peaked caps, the works. Same for the police, they still have a dress uniform, but that is incompatible with their role as a modern police force. It’s knife vests and utility belts replacing the jackets and truncheons.

I actually rather miss the uniforms, you knew if someone had a uniform they should be listened too, had some authority. There’s a classic Radio Times cover from the 80s, the week they first showed the apocalyptic drama “Threads“, based on the effects of a nuclear attack on a British city. It was a still of a man carrying an army issue SLR against a chain link fence, his face was bandaged and he wore a uniform. He was keeping some of the survivors of the attack penned up in a stockade. He wasn’t a soldier, he was a traffic warden, even the most hated pavement-pounders in England were seen as authority figures were society to break down.

So what’s the point of this semi-maudlin walk down memory lane? Well, there’s always been a fascination in this country with uniforms, maybe it’s elsewhere in the world too. In the UK it seems to be a very strong fascination with what lies beneath. Is that starched shirt and tightly buttoned tunic holding in a wanton sex maniac? Is that hair, so tightly pinned into a bun on matron’s head concealing a matchless passion that once unleashed would consume any man in its path?

It’s a fascination/fetish that’s reinforced by films and the media, though over time the way in which it has been portrayed has changed according to the decade. Looking back just after WWII uniforms were ubiquitous, police, fire fighters, ambulance drivers, nurses, traffic wardens, bus drivers, bus conductors, bus inspectors, doormen the list goes on.

The horrors of the first world war began the ascendancy of the power of the working man, but did not shatter the structure of British society. The hell of the trenches, the mud, disease and death meant the survivors refused to be subservient to the traditional ruling classes. It did not however lead to revolution as in Russia or the desperation that drove the German people to embrace National Socialism. The order of society evolved rather than collapsed and authority figures remained. Granted the lampooning of authority thrived as it has done throughout English history, but it acted as a safety valve preventing calamitous changes.

The second world war finished the process that the 1914-18 war had started. Now it was open season on authority figures. I’m not going to drone on about the undermining of traditional values, because some traditional values were complete rubbish, no, this is where I return to my original thoughts about uniforms.

The “Carry On” films, The Goons, Python and satirical humour in the printed media and on TV all slowly undermined the authority of uniformed figures. Almost without exception they did it by one of two means. Depicting uniformed figures as objects of ridicule (because they were stupid, pompous or out-dated e.g. The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp Powell/Pressberger 1943) or making them into sex objects.

We’re now at the stage were uniforms mean something different than they did 50 years ago. You can now buy a uniform to go to a party as a naughty nurse or a WPC. You can buy it in rubber if you like. Military style latex couture is both fashionable and widely available on the web.

Our attitude towards uniforms is a blend of the comic and a sense that by say, having sex with that WPC you are somehow breaking out from the confinement that society places upon us all. Maybe you have a thing for black leather trousers, boots, long coats and riding crops? Is it that you want to be dominated, oppressed and shown no mercy? Or is it just a bit of fun?

When a uniform forms part of a Scene in sexual play it can be a powerful totem, a visual shorthand for each participant’s role and a sensual augmentation during the scene. Whether it’s leather rubber, or PVC a uniform can become a necessary and integral part of the Scene.

Well it’s late and I’m knackered but if any of you have thoughts on this I’d be very interested to hear them.

©2007 Alexander, more of my ramblings and other stuff at alexsuze.com, or drop by my MySpace Account.

Mail Order Brides

There’s a trend in this country, amongst a certain type of man, of a certain age, to seek out companionship in a certain way. A tiny number of women do it too but from what I have seen they form a tiny minority of the individuals involved in this activity.

I’m talking about Mail Order Brides. I’m not talking here about relationships that span cultures, nationalities or race, they are to be embraced. My best friend at Junior School was half Cambodian, his mother had been displaced while east and west fought ideological wars by proxy in the region in the 1960s.

I’m talking about middle aged to retirement aged men who have a bit of money in the bank and too much brash jewellery about their person. They tend to drive cars that are loud, both in terms of volume and styling. They have probably been married before and now as their hair lightens and thins, and the rest of their body heads south they seek to rejuvenate themselves, at least in their own eyes, and I suppose the eyes of their peers, by marrying a younger woman. The women tend to be from the Asia-Pacific region, though eastern Europe is now becoming a source of potential mates.

Again, this in itself is not a problem. If true feeling exists between two people involved in a relationship then age is pretty much irrelevant. There are certain practical issues whereby the life expectancy of one partner is way outside that of the other but then again who knows when our number is up? Fate could snatch us away at any time and it’s the time we spend together not the time we spend apart in a relationship that should matter.

I mean I’m guessing here at the motivation I suppose, because the whole idea of literally importing a human being from thousands of miles away from a country whose culture is different and language is alien is anathema to me. It smacks of human trafficking or even slave trading. No I’m not saying the women are treated like slaves or abused.

The argument in favour seems to be that the women (and they tend to be quite young women from the ones I’ve encountered) are willing participants in the trade. They send money back to their extended family and therefore gain from the deal. There it is you see, deal. It’s a commercial transaction not a relationship. While I can see that an impoverished family would benefit from the arrangement it’s based around a financial transaction. Do we regard this as an extended dowry? Is the girl a long-term-hire escort? Or is it a form of permanent prostitution.

I suppose after a time, when the females involved have learned English (while there is a range of language skills many have only the rudiments of English) and got to know the men they have committed to they may fall in love. That’s great, but being isolated by a language barrier and forced to rely on their new husband for communication and support means they are bound to stay with that man. Maybe they don’t feel like this but to me it looks like a prison of circumstance created by the arrangement they have chosen to become involved in.

I’d like to think, for the sake of the women involved that they are content, or as content as they have been conditioned to believe they can be. I just can’t see it though, am I too traditional in my attitude towards relationships? Apparently so. While writing this piece I found a US law firm which specialises in advising US citizens on obtaining a visa for their new bride, the senior partner is pictured on the website’s front page with a beautiful Thai woman in a western style wedding dress hanging off his arm.

©2007 Alexander, more of my ramblings and other stuff at alexsuze.com, or drop by my MySpace Account.

I’m A Sinner

Forgive me MySpace for I have sinned it’s been several weeks since my last posting. Shit how time flies. With working on stuff for AlexSuze.com and boring real life rubbish this blog seems to get neglected. Not for want of something to say, but just through lack of time. Sooooo … here’s a post I put on AlexSuze.com a couple of nights ago, just in case anyone’s reading this. And if you are reading please leave a comment to keep my spirits up *sniff* LOL

I knew I wanted to write something tonight, but I wasn’t sure what to write about. You’d have thought that wasn’t a big ask, but I’m a little out of sorts. Suze has gone out with the girls from work, one of them has a birthday, so I’m in on my own. It’s the first girly night out she’s had in ages and, it has just occurred to me, the first night we’ve been apart in a long time. Boring maybe, but you get used to someone being around especially when we’re as close as we are. She should be back in a couple of hours, but even knowing that the place seems rather empty without her around.

So to keep me occupied I thought … as we always write about adult subjects, and for the most part sex, it occurred to me that I should write about aversions to sex.

We’re pretty open in real life about sex, in the right company of course, but not as open as online So writing about the opposite, an actual aversion to/fear of sex, is virgin territory and therefore should be rich in new ideas and trains of thought.

If you Google a few terms you come to the key word coitophobia. Apologies to everyone who hates compound Latin/Greek words, but I didn’t create this term. As I searched through the first few results on Google against the word I came to the conclusion that whoever did simply created another word with little meaning outside the realms of self-help products and catch-all online medical diagnosis sites.

Quite honestly I got disheartened and gave up. The thought of trawling through site after site with virtually the same bland and ultimately pointless descriptions of the condition in the hope of finding a valid and well researched paper got me down. I must be winding down to the weekend early as I’m not usually that easily put off. I found no insight or explanation of any aspects of the condition other than generic phrases that could have described any other phobia. Perhaps I’m expecting too much or I’m in the wrong frame of mind.

Anyway, I suppose the point of this, if there is one, is that the Internet is a wonderful thing, but it’s all too easy to create content by copying it from someone else just to get people to visit your ad-laden site of little or no intrinsic merit. I think I’m on a downer here LOL.

While I’m getting pissed off at sites for not being intelligent and creative I ought to say that I think what really got me was that the people likely to search for terms such as this are looking for help. They are not looking to buy self-help books. Or maybe they are? I suppose the thought of buying the answer to any problem that you have and regard as delicate over the Internet does have a certain comfortable feel to it. The anonymity, the relief at not having to discuss it with your partner, a friend or your family doctor.

It’s a pity then that the sites I read were either just after the Google rank/your clicks for their advertisements, or wanted to sell you a product. Am I naïve? Or does everyone have days when they look at the Internet and think “This could be so much more”?

There are many, many adult bloggers out there producing great content, which is then scraped by idiots onto their own collection of blogs just to get traffic for adverts and scams. And that ticks me off too, bloody lazy, mindless and unimaginative. I’m not talking about online magazine/news sites, but automated RSS consumers that republish without an author’s permission or knowledge. Site’s whose owners have enought technical knowledge to steal, but not enough intelligence to create anything original.

And I was in such a good mood when I got home from work

©2007 Alexander, more of my ramblings and other stuff at alexsuze.com, or drop by my MySpace Account.

Offending Sensibilities

Here’s an interesting news story from the BBC News website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6509127.stm.

The question that springs to my mind is not so much “Is the sculpture insulting to Christianity?”, but “What are these offended Christians actually offended by?”

Is it:

a) The depiction of the “Son of God”  in cocoa based confectionery.

b) The fact that he is shown nude.

c) That The Christ is depicted at all.

Surely art is supposed to make you think and challenge your perceptions and views? Well good art is anyway. There  are some stunning depictions of Christ on the cross, take Salvador Dali’s “the Christ of St John” (http://www.revilo-oliver.com/Kevin-Strom-personal/Art/Christ_of_StJohn_of_the_Cross.html). Is the artist trying to highlight the conversion of the Christian festival celebrating Christ’s resurrection into the commercialised candy-fest it is today? Maybe that has uncomfortable echoes for Christians of the way they appropriated the festival from the earlier pagan Spring festivals like Beltain?

If it’s because the figure depicted is nude then what’s wrong with that? He was buried nude if the Shroud of Turin is to be believed. Though with his hands held modestly across his naughty bits. And who’s  to say he wasn’t stripped naked on the cross as the final humiliation of “The King of the Jews”?

Most interestingly perhaps is the notion that it is the depiction of the Christ that has their hackles up, the prohibition of “graven images” set out in the old testament. It’s a tenet held to this day by the Muslim faith, giving rise to some of the most beautiful geometric art and decoration ever created. Stylised writing on books, mosques and other buildings, all because Islam has stayed true to the words of their God as passed to Moses in Exodus. But I’m assuming that can’t be the case as the news story says it’s the Catholic church that’s having a hissy fit about the piece. The importance of iconography to that branch of the Christian faith is evident for all to see.

 Makes you think doesn’t it. Or is that just me?

©2007 Alexander, more of my ramblings and other stuff at alexsuze.com, or drop by my MySpace Account.

Freedom

Freedom exists only insomuch as government allows it  to. That’s a thought that’s been playing on my mind recently. It’s a general concern of mine, but in relation to this blog it’s specifically concerned with censorship in relation to sexual imagery and writings.

Our blog (http://AlexSuze.com) is primarily a blog of words, and what images do appear here are rarely contentious or potentially offensive. Our words may sometimes touch a nerve or sail close to the edge of acceptability (in the opinion of some) when describing some sexual acts, scenarios or ideas. We try to be though provoking without being unnecessarily provocative.

Freedom in a modern society should be the freedom to express oneself without fear of censorship, or judgement. Thoughts and the exploration of ideas in written form should not have boundaries, even if the enactment of some ideas should never be tolerated in real life.

That said, today I heard a news story which stretched my belief in freedom of expression to breaking point and beyond. A 42 year old British man has committed suicide live on web cam while chatting to on-line acquaintances. The act in itself is a form of self expression, but a whole and heinously selfish one. The reason I mention it is that the people who viewed it were denied their innate right to choose not to watch the end of this man’s life. While I can not envisage a situation where anyone without serious issues would want, or be justified in wanting to watch such an event the other individuals in the chatroom were violated by the act.

I’m sure the guy had his reasons and I feel for him and his family but I can’t condone the actions of someone with so little regard for others and his own dignity for that matter. As the authors of a blog, Suze and myself actually take care in what we publish, and although it’s not to everyone’s tastes we do show some restraint. Moreover we have the decency to flag up the content as adult and on some of the more “intense” or potentially contentious imagery have displayed warnings at the top of the post advising against reading further if the reader is likely to be offended by this or that.

So, while the government in this  country considers clamping down on expression still further it’s notable that it’s possible for someone to inflict an act like ones own suicide on other and traumatise them, yet it may soon be a criminal offence to describe or depict sexual acts where all those involved in the act are consenting.

there’s some interesting reading on this subject here: http://bloggingforbacklash.blogspot.com/

©2007 Alexander, more of my ramblings and other stuff at alexsuze.com, or drop by my MySpace Account.

Losing It?

No not me, Britney Spears. We don’t normally comment on the news, too much naughtiness about for that to get a look in, but sometimes a story just has to be remarked upon.

What is the poor girl up to? It doesn’t take a psychologist to realise she’s in need of some help and support right now. Sadly as with many celebrities she’ll probably not find it amongst her current circle of friends. If the gossip columns are to be believed those friends include Paris Hilton and the partying glitterati who have been keeping Britney from returning to what we know and often love (or at lest enjoy) her for, making pop records.

I’m not a huge Britney fan, in fact I think she has produced some utter bilge. FYI my favourite song to date was “Toxic”, penned by Cathy Dennis, perfect song for her at the time and a very provocative video.

Anyway, back to my point. Yes I do have one. Everyone in the entire world knows Princess Britney has been a little lost for a couple of years, and my heart goes out to her, it truly does. I know everyone calls her trailer trash, and that might be true, but she’s a working mother with two kids to support and her relationships, if they can be called that, seemed destined to fail.

Boy does she pick ‘em though. Everyone in the entire world seemed to recognise K-Fed as an escapee from the band in the Muppet Show. No strike that Dr Teeth’s band was entertaining and talented. The SMS dumping of the hapless Kevin was a classic piece of tabloid fodder, ready made and shrink wrapped to become part of the Britney legend.

The problem with the rich and powerful is two-fold. Firstly they tend to be surrounded by friends/advisors/hangers-on/parasitical freeloaders (delete as applicable) who have agendas of their own. The second is that if they do go off the rails, they have the resources to go waaaayyy of the rails. Consider this. If you or I go on a bender we get drunk, fall down, throw up and either crawl home to bed or have our friends/the local constabulary drag us off. To repeat that the next night and the next … you’d run out of money and/or lose your job, thus limiting the scope of your excess.

When you’re rich and famous you can really trash your career, relationships and reputation by a constant string of drink, drugs or simply hedonistic binges. I for one hopes that Britney gets some real friends around her and that she has access to someone she can trust, someone who has her interests at heart. She needs guidance and celebrity friendships, from this side of the looking glass at least, are the sort that simply reinforces this sort of nihilistic behaviour.

©2007 Alexander, more of my ramblings and other stuff at alexsuze.com, or drop by my MySpace Account.