Nudity and The Simpsons

While I was away at Ibiza this weekend, it came to my attention that once again, nudity and sex was not something that was hidden nor a subject matter that the media felt shy towards. Since I arrived at the Ibiza airport, there were posters and billboards that solely promoted the ¨discotecas¨around the area. These clubs had posters that looked risque, yet looked acceptable to promote in such a public area or in other words, they were posters I would see around in the U.S. However, once I arrived at the Ibiza hostel, I found fliers that promoted the different clubs with events that would never occur in America. For instance, a club that my friends and I were planning to go to had a stack of fliers and had a description of the events of the night at the club. While nowhere did it say before we bought the tickets for the club online that there would be porno stars at the club, the fliers informed us that there would be a porno filming taking place at the club. This boggled my mind as to how it was legal...or even how it was socially acceptable. That is when it hit me that Spain can essentially get away with anything sexual; there is no such thing as too sexual and too graphic for the public eye. As long as the public is okay with it, the media follows.
One show that I´ve seen here in Spain, once in Toledo and once in Ibiza is The Simpsons. I am not sure why this show is so popular here, however I´ve tried to see why it might be so appealing to Spain. The Simpsons in America is a blunt show in terms of its
dialouge and the events that occur. Since the Spanish people are very direct in their way of manner, I realized this aspect of the show might be appealing to them. What was also interesting was that according to my friend who is fluent in Spanish, the dialouge of the show in Spanish was a lot harsher and direct than it usually would be in America. It was as if they took the American version and changed the words to make the show even more vulgar.
I am trying to get more into the tv shows here in Spain as well as the magazines to find more interesting qualities that I can learn about however it´s been difficult to follow the media here because aside from the language barrier, I haven´t had any interest in reading the newspapers here. I will try to watch more tv and read more through the internet for more exposure to Spanish media.

The Beginning of GRA 345.1

It has definitely been a culture shock transitioning from the U.S. to Southern Spain, and finally to the long awaited destination, Madrid. Even from the first few classes in Visual Issues in the Media, I´ve learned how different the culture in Spain is in comparison to the United States. When I do look at the media here, I try my best at all times to distance myself from being American and having a biased view; through this I have seen both positives and negative aspects in the Spanish media.
The first thing I noticed about the media here in Spain is that it is liberal and opinionated; the media really has no restrictions to how one-sided an argument can be. The newspapers themselves are outwardly left-sided or right-sided, a few being neutral as well. While the newspapers outwardly choose a political stance, the journalists also are not hesitant to fully support or criticize an event, person, or political decision. This is really far from how the news works in the United States where news must be indifferent to sides in order to be valid and credible. U.S. journalists practice the form of writing that tells a story based strictly on facts.
The lack of censorship in Spanish media was also very surprising. I have seen many gossip magazine covers here with topless women on the front cover. Although these women may be on the beach, American media uses censorship even in gossip magazines to avoid vulgar pictures in the media and any sort of nudity. It may be because while America acknowledges sex and sexuality as a big part of our culture, it still feels the need to oppress it in its media. Spain on the other hand embraces sexuality and sex as part of the culture and really finds no need to deny its presence through its media. As of my first month here in Spain, these are the biggest things I have learned and I hope the longer I live here the more I will be able to open my eyes to even more things.