America Sucks.

Alright--check to make sure your parents aren't around, and watch this brilliant French AIDS charity ad, that would run pre-watershed on French TV. Note that this video, while not overtly pornographic, is certainly Not Safe For Work.

CLICK

There. Try running that ANYWHERE in America. Perhaps HBO might pick it up; otherwise, not a chance. There's this extreme stigma present in America that fundamentally clashes with its more open and liberal take on sexuality; television shows and movies constantly push boundaries, but never tend to push them too far so that advertisers and censors will take issue. There's a tenuous and, frankly, unfortunate line that it tightroped almost every day in this country between embracing sexuality to its fullest, and denying it entirely.

We can't do this any longer; it's time to fish or cut bait. It's time we either regress to Victorian-era denial of sexuality or move toward the European take on sexuality.

Frankly, I don't really care which. Just so long as this asynchronous dichotomy would quit it.

Question: Did the animated images displayed in the above video bother you at all? Would it bother you to realize these were not particularly disturbing images for French children? If so, why do you think it does bother you?