and will they still be taboos in the late 21st century?

i think the real taboos was rockstars & politicians & film stars & sportspersons sex lives.. but everyone's over that now. i think religious banners r today's new taboo.
then some emperor - maybe pope benedict vii, if he's crazy enough (he doesnt seem panic-y *AT ALL* about playing with fire with islam, i swear its just an attempt to convert & bring islam under his fold) or the pope after, will start up some ancient gladiator games & bloodsport. thats an idea, thatd b real taboo.. like that hasnt happened in centuries.


"thoughts from above hit the people down below / people in this world, we have no place to go." ~ new order.

Any religion other than Christianity

Racism... in a comic context - what you can/can't laugh at

Bisexuality

Taboos are born out of ignorance - get educated people ;-) xx

What exactly do you think a taboo is?

"Of course I know w-it's a kind of cake?"

The taboos, as in the actual taboos, rather than "ooh, it's a bit naughty because the tabloids told me so", are going to stay the same: cannibalism, rape, paedophilia, necrophilia, extreme body manipulation... anything that reminds people that they're just a sack of mutable meat and bones, basically.

Nah, some taboos are entirely legitimate and very healthy. It's a good thing for societies to have some kind of moral code that doesn't just depend on cold rationality. It brings people together. The idea that something is "just wrong" sucks in some ways, but the alternative is probably worse. Taboos mean I don't have to prove beyond question that children will be adversely affected by being buggered in order for people to know that it's wrong.

Possibly authentic lasting love (marerophilia). And individual originality.

__________________
Marerophilia:
A depth of love that youth can seldom appreciate or communicate;
A love that never can die for it is a wild seed living inside us, and it is what it is;
Love: that which bonds the reality of one's being to the mystery of the unknown;
Wildflowers: evidence revealed."
~~carefulcarpenter

If I tell you to fuck off and die, will you feel validated by it?

I think (some!) taboos sort of die out when generations do. There are a lot of things that are pretty normal and acceptable amongst the younger generations, that you might not wish to discuss in front of the older ones.

Bisexuality is a pretty good example. Most people are fairly accepting of homosexuality, and those who aren't have been beaten over the head with the PC/equality frying pan enough to know better than to publicly criticise it. But bisexuality is still that odd thing that's just floating around with not a lot of recognition and a whole lot of doubt surrounding it (I'm not saying I feel doubtful of it, just that this seems to be the general situation these days).

Racism is a good example too. We've gone from it being acceptable, to entirely unacceptable, and the "what we can/can't laugh at" thing that Rachy-Rach mentioned is the perfect way to describe where we're at right now. I just watched a clip of "Kramer" of Seinfeld having his well-publicised racist outburst, and this is probably a shameful thing to say for a big ol' lefty like me but I wasn't actually sure where I stood on that, and whether I felt that was any worse than some of the (non-race-related) horrific outbursts of other heckled comedians. I think one thing that makes this really difficult is how self-deprecating some races can be of their own people, and how much this muddies the waters. I realise there's a important difference with that, but whether it's helping at all to clarify the whole thing is another story. I think we mostly err on the side of caution, but the fact that I - and probably many other people - find some (certainly not all) race-related humour funny demonstrates the fact that there's a definite taboo involved.

(Man, I'm coming over a right ol' racist homophobic twat in this post. I swear I'm not really like that. I say all of this with the best of intentions, and anyone who's familiar with my posts on here should hopefully know that.)

Whether these things will continue to be taboo, I couldn't possibly say. I think the bisexuality taboo might be gone within the next 20 years. The racism taboo is likely here to stay, but might get a little slacker over time after there's been more distance from the terrible things of the past.

Bisexuality seems to upset straights and gays alike. I think the problem is that, in understanding homosexuality as an "acceptable" orientation, we've avoided the issue - that orientation is a construct. A lot of people insist that anyone with a preference isn't bisexual, just confused about what they want, when really, they just don't like being unable to slot someone into the gay or straight pigeonhole within seconds of meeting them. I just find that weird, personally, so I don't think it's inevitable that people will always have a problem with the notion of preference rather than orientation.


Over the race thing, I just saw that CYE where Larry gets accused of "firing the black man"... do y'all seriously let minority people get away with that kind of thing over there?

Things that make me uncomfortable (and I think are taboos among a lot of people), but I can't think of any reason they're wrong, are:
The thought of elderly people having sex
The thought of any of my relatives having a sex life (though that's probably natural, most people feel the same?)
Extreme BDSM - like burning each other and mutilating body parts/licking toilets and the like
Open Relationships/polygamy
Completely unattatched casual sex.

1. sexual orientation as a civil right
i don't think people are up in arms about homosexuality anymore, we've (and by we i mean Americans) accepted the "we're here, we're queer, get use to it" epithet of the 70's and we are use to its existance, but not equal existance with the "mainstream", but i think the public is very divided on sexuality being a civil right

2. sociocultural equality:
including race (what is your "race" vs your nationality. did you come here illegally or legally and when/under what circumstances), gender (have women really achieved the equality promised by the ERA? or is gender equality just another thing we say we've accomplished. do americans really even feel like women are equal to men?), and class (what class are you? what class do you identify as? and the difference between those two ideas. is the John Edwards story of "two americas" true? if so what can we do to fix it/do we really want to fix it? is the middle class dissolving and why? and the general distribution of wealth in this country)

3. the "war on terror" (if that's even what we're calling it anymore):
were we taken to war on false pretenses? did the bush administration knowingly lie to us about that? how the global community reacts to our war efforts, and the eventualy fact that we're going to have to, as a country, give an institutional appology for this blunder/failure (depending on how you see it/how it turns out). and nobody likes admitting they're wrong..

4. religion:
i think this is only taboo because Americans, as a whole, are so glaringly ignorant of world religion. i think much of the religion currently adhered to, by Americans (or atleast the Americans portrayed in the political media be it fundamental christanity, trends like kaballah, or just being "spiritual" in some capacity) are total bastardizations of the actual faith. no REAL christian belives that all mulims are evil terrorists and that fags kill god, and no REAL kabbalist only drinks Madonna's special kaballah water, and no patchuli-burning hippie can justify their crappy interior design skills as "feng-shui".
and because religion is so deeply personal, it's easy to offend someone by misunderstanding their faith. and when you don't know alot about their religion, it's easy to conform to stereotypes or assumptions, or just say something stupid. if Americans had to take religious literacy tests, they'd overwhelmingly fail. the Muslim faith is one of the fastest growing in the world, and i highly doubt most Americans could name the five pillars of Islam.
and when you don't know what you're talking about, especially when it's a weighty hot-button issue like religion, you're just setting yourself up to say something stupid -- and American's often do.

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