Gay kissing is slightly worse than severed heads, welcome to America

by Alexander Sliwinski { Apr 11th 2008 at 12:49PM }

Parent-oriented video game site WhatTheyPlay.com had a poll earlier this week which caused the site's own editor to post W.T.F. on his personal blog. The results of the unscientific poll showed that respondents were almost equally disturbed by the idea of a "graphically severed human head" as they were by "two men kissing" in a video game. Respondents were actually far more offended by a man and a woman having sex, which received 37% of the vote, while dropping the F-bomb only received 10%.

As GamePolitics points out, the results are in line with traditional American values and legal precedent, which holds sex to a different First Amendment standard than violence. We're not judging one way or the other, but we know what actions might cause us to pause (possibly take a photo) if we saw them on the street and which would have us calling the cops.

[Via GamePolitics]

Tags: davison, morals, poll, society, taboo, what-they-play, whattheyplay

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)

albinogoldfish @ Apr 11th 2008 12:54PM

I love surveys.....

James @ Apr 11th 2008 11:49PM

I was going to say something witty and funny in this comment but I have so many things to reference I'm just gonna leave it to your imagination
*insert your laughter here*

Well I'm done for the day :P

Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force) @ Apr 11th 2008 12:55PM

Can we PLEASE start publicly mocking the moral majority yet? PLEASE?!?

Fernando Rocker @ Apr 11th 2008 12:59PM

Sheppy made me feel like a perv because I have a crush on Hermione =(

StrangeBum @ Apr 11th 2008 1:04PM

Why Fernando?

It's all about the Luna!!!!

Fernando Rocker @ Apr 11th 2008 1:08PM

I don't like girls with radish earrings =(

McWeen @ Apr 11th 2008 1:11PM

Her zaniness is her charm though. The other is just a bookworm.

rv @ Apr 11th 2008 1:26PM

Well if you are over 18, you certainly are one.

Chyld989 @ Apr 11th 2008 2:45PM

"Well if you are over 18, you certainly are one."

But as of Tuesday, then it's okay...right? RIGHT?

Glen @ Apr 11th 2008 12:55PM

This is all a result of our Puritan history. We're so stuck up about sex, and it's quite sad.

GreyFox @ Apr 11th 2008 12:57PM

I'm here in Canada and I still don't understand how this has permeated American culture for so long. Sad.

WiiSports Machine...Fernandos in disguise PSN: Killjebus @ Apr 11th 2008 1:04PM

Ah yes the Puritans. Whipe out an indiginous culture, enslave another...yeah, thats FREEDOM alright.

Man sometimes I wish the South had won the Civil War. That way, all of this conservative 19th century BULLSHIT would be for the most part confined to South of the Manson Dixon line.

Thanks Mr. Lincoln, thanks alot.
JK on the last part of course...well 99$ kidding.

vidGuy @ Apr 11th 2008 1:16PM

Shit, the only reason the Puritans came to the Americas in the first place was because England and the rest of Europe wasn't going to take their crap. Stop gambling, drinking, prostitution, and loose religious convictions? No way!

Jeremy White @ Apr 11th 2008 1:20PM

WiiSports Machine, I've read two of your posts and I think you're the most annoying person that I've ever seen to post on the comments section. I'm almost one hundred percent certain that this is not the South's fault. Being a homosexual is still taboo in our society and that's nothing you can fix by screaming, "BLAH BLAH I'M AN IDIOT LOL I DON'T KNOW WHAT IN THE WORLD I'M TALKING ABOUT."

Fernando Rocker @ Apr 11th 2008 1:22PM

"I think you're the most annoying person that I've ever seen to post on the comments section."

I second that motion.

rv @ Apr 11th 2008 1:30PM

Wtf are you guys talking about. America is nothing compared to countries like Iran, where public kissing is taboo.

StrangeBum @ Apr 11th 2008 1:32PM

What the hell, I'll third that motion!

Obie @ Apr 11th 2008 1:54PM

People would be surprised how much America has in common with Iran. The "land of the free" is actually far,far from it.

Korova @ Apr 11th 2008 1:59PM

"Being a homosexual is still taboo in our society"

Jeremy, you are obviously not from New York, LA or San Francisco or any large city in USA. Its not so much taboo as an oddity at most.

The pole is sad, but probably representative of parents who are control freaks and are afraid that their children will be spoiled by outside influences. Some kind of farm and forest mentality.

Mom: "Honey, Billy just decapitated the cat!"

Dad: "Well, at least he didnt kiss a boy!"

JakubK666 (Ninja Defence Force) @ Apr 11th 2008 2:03PM

If I remeber American History correctly,if South Won, we'd still have slavery.

If we still had slavery, black people would revolt and take over the world.

And so we'd end up with a dystopian society where everybody speaks black and adds "nigga" at the end of every sentence.

I'd rather have a homosexual taboo.

PS: j/k don't start up a racist flame.

upz @ Apr 11th 2008 2:12PM

To be fair, this seems to be a GameFAQs-esque poll where you vote for one choice only. The results could be skewed any of several ways since people were only asked what offended them the most. A truly objective, spin-free headline would've stated that more people found gay kissing MOST offensive than severed heads. If we asked people to rank the order of offensiveness of each of the four choices and tabulated based on a point system, we might end up with a drastically different result.

jcd @ Apr 11th 2008 2:36PM

So, yeah, an opinion is not a 'motion', but yeah, wiisports sucks

Dan @ Apr 11th 2008 8:27PM

This is obviously a website for pacifist heterophobic parents?

Trickob @ Apr 11th 2008 10:11PM

@ dan

as opposed to being an aggresive homophobic website? yeah, i guess your desrcription of this site is more accurate.

t_m @ Apr 12th 2008 11:16AM

I don't know if wiisports machine is annoying... all his posts are always so greyed out that I can never read any of them.

But i do wonder why he keeps bothering to post if no-one can read his comments??? I'd ask him to answer, but I doubt I could read it.

jaredgood1 @ Apr 11th 2008 12:57PM

It's stupid, but at least the wording gives the owness of the stupidity to the person answering it (as in "what do you find offensive" vs "what offends you more").

Ghen @ Apr 11th 2008 3:08PM

You know, I really don't find any of those 4 offensive. Where's the 'none' option?

IcedOmega13 @ Apr 11th 2008 12:57PM

So, then I suppose a man and a man having sex was the obvious winner.

ncdign @ Apr 11th 2008 1:07PM

I think two men having sex with a severed head of a woman while saying the F-word would be the ultimate no-no.

riggs @ Apr 11th 2008 1:14PM

Depends on what the severed head is doing ;)

Dac @ Apr 11th 2008 1:18PM

ya. your right thats much more offensive, and they didn't even ask us if there was a goat or donkey present.

endlessoul @ Apr 11th 2008 1:57PM

"Depends on what the severed head is doing ;)"

The Aristocrats!

ChooChooCharlie (Brawl: 1504-5357-9285) @ Apr 11th 2008 1:58PM

@ ncdign:

Photoshop time?

EMOruffino @ Apr 11th 2008 2:39PM

i think the that a penis crafted onto a mouse with two men having sex with a severed head of a women is more socially acceptable then without the penis crafted mouse.

Croove55 @ Apr 12th 2008 5:00PM

Endlessoul just won the topic.

tc @ Apr 11th 2008 12:57PM

we need to find the reset button for society

JakubK666 (Ninja Defence Force) @ Apr 11th 2008 2:06PM

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/writing/images/pbf032adreset.jpg

Mr.ESC @ Apr 11th 2008 3:16PM

I think I found it
Oh shi-

http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/119/4268498597ax9.jpg

WiiSports Machine...Fernandos in disguise PSN: Killjebus @ Apr 11th 2008 12:59PM

I am so sick of this puritanical NONsense. Its Aok for a child to go to a Family park where they can watch a live action crusifixion and flogging....BBBBBBUT show a nipple on TV and they go KayRazy.

I would much rather my 2 and 6 year old sons look at a nice pair of breasts or even 2 men kissing (so fraking what homophobes) than for them to watch the murderdeathkill shows like CSI or better yet a Soap opera (lots of "morals" there)

The hypocrisys are killing me. I just do not get it.

All of those Conservative/Religious/Rightwing/Family"protection" groups can kiss my Atheist ass...better yet, let me spead my cheeks first so that they can get a dingle ball or 2.

Delgado @ Apr 11th 2008 1:10PM

You're an idiot if you think that truly religious people would fall into any sort of category accepting this. What an ignorant statement.

WiiSports Machine...Fernandos in disguise PSN: Killjebus @ Apr 11th 2008 1:15PM

Accepting what?
What part of my statment is ignorant? I knew exactly what I was typing and that FAMILY PARK DOES EXIST AND IT IS A RIGHT WING CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVE PARK.

I will post the link to the youtube video if you wish.

riggs @ Apr 11th 2008 1:15PM

no offense but do your 2 and 6 year olds type better than you?

Zachary Hinchliffe @ Apr 11th 2008 1:27PM

For once, I agree with you, WiiSports machine. I may not share your distaste for all things Wii, but I sure do hate this puritanical bullshit.

Delgado @ Apr 11th 2008 1:42PM

It was more in response to your "Conservative/Religious/Rightwing/Family protection groups can kiss my Atheist ass..."
Although if you weren't such a massive asshole you might be able to see that.

I am religious, and I do not fall under your blanket statement. I'm not saying I fall under any of those other categories (and I don't), but spirituality and a belief in God isn't what is wrong with the world - it is ignorance, which you are perpetuating. So fuck off, and go spew your idiocy somewhere else.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Apr 11th 2008 2:22PM

@delgado

Preach it.

I'm religous as well and I don't fall into that category. I hate it when athiest assholes lump every person who believes in god in this one group, as if every person who believes in god behaves a certain way. That's not true at all.

Delgado @ Apr 11th 2008 2:45PM

"athiest assholes"

Sorry Vegeta, but I wouldn't lump atheists into a group of "assholes" either.

I'm of the mind that lumping any group of people's opinions (to further your own ideology, nonetheless) together is ignorant no matter who is doing it.

People believe what the believe, and that is cool; however, don't ever tell ME what I believe, and don't be ignorant about your opinions.

WiiSports Machine...Fernandos in disguise PSN: Killjebus @ Apr 11th 2008 3:07PM

Perhaps I was not clear enough. I was NOT talking about religious people in general. Throughout human history countless Gods and Goddesses were and still are worshipped. It was not my intention to group ALL religious people in that statement.

I was referring to Focus on the Family or other family "protection" groups. Whether or not some of you like it, ALL of them are VERY religious, moreso than most of the mainstream NORMAL religious and or spiritual people in this country.

THAT is who I was telling to kiss my ass, the Fundamentalist assholes beit Christian, Muslim, Jew, whatever. Those who say everyone else is wrong and have a ver dogmatic view of everything in general.

I hope this clears some of the missunderstandings up with some of you. It is not my want nor intention to mock any God or Goddess, just those ASSHOLES who claim they are "protecting" the children.

Mr Khan @ Apr 11th 2008 7:45PM

You'd be surprised, a lot of American christians have really lost sight, i mean i know some who are nice and actually follow the teachings of forgiveness, then one who literally, just today, told me "I'd never forgive a gay person!"

It gets pretty fucked up sometimes, where's the love?

BPM [SSBB: 5026 4120 1186] @ Apr 12th 2008 12:37AM

I belive what Killjebus is getting at is the extremist fundies who ruin everything (which they do).

Fact is, extremists of any belief structure take what they believe in too seriously and miss the point of what they believe in.

Many individuals who claim to be Christian go against the teachings of Christ, yet somehow fail to realize this.