Innocence is dead.
We're in the
year 2000, and nothing is innocent anymore. This is why
I wish I lived in the 1920s. Yes, admittedly, life was not perfect then either, but at least there was some
purity then, some sense of
virginity and
virtue.
Innocence didn't just have a heart attack and expire. It suffered a slow and painful demise, finally to expel it's last dying breath just about the turn of the century.
The disintegration of innocence throught the years is most vividly represented in the different media, which represent (and also have a hand in forming) the inclination of the people. Let's take a look at the evolution of several media through the years:
-
Film
1939 : Gone with the wind (U.S.A)
1959 : Ben Hur, Some Like It Hot (U.S.A)
1975 : Rocky Horror Picture Show (U.S.A)
1987 : Fatal Attraction (U.S.A)
2000 : Baise-moi (France) - (baise-moi means fuck me in French)
(All box-office hits)
-
Television
1950's : I Love Lucy
1960's : Gilligan's Island
1980's : Love Boat
early 1990's : Beverly Hills 90210
late 1990's, 2000 : Oz, Sex and the City
Music
1931 : All Of Me (Sung by, among others, Frank Sinatra) - "You took the part that once was my heart, so why not take all of me?"
1950's : Let's do it (Sung by, among others, Dee Dee Bridgewater) - "Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it... Let's do it, let's fall in love."
1969 : Lemon Song (by Led Zeppelin) - "The way you squeeze my lemon, I'm gonna fall right out of bed"
1987 : I Want Your Sex (by George Michael) - "Sex is natural, sex is fun, sex is best for us one on one"
1994 : Closer To God (by Nine Inch Nails) - "I want to fuck you like an animal, I want to feel you from the inside"
2000 : Kim (by Eminem) : "Now shut the fuck up, and get what's coming to you....Bleed, bitch, bleed"
Where do we go from here?
Gamaliel, you're right, to a certain extent. Of course I was taking it to extremities here. I could have put Pocahontas as a 90's movie, but that would have just been silly. I was making a point, only one sided, admittedly, but you do have to admit that Kim would hardly have been possible 15 years ago.