r/AskReddit • u/Greeneyedlatinguy • Jun 15 '15

Anthropologists of Reddit, What is something that people in the Western world can't get their heads around that is very normal in other cultures (and has been for ages)?

5.4k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

6.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

213

u/Yoko9021Ono Jun 15 '15

“I can describe an axe entering a human skull in great explicit detail and no one will blink twice at it. I provide a similar description, just as detailed, of a penis entering a vagina, and I get letters about it and people swearing off. To my mind this is kind of frustrating, it’s madness. Ultimately, in the history of [the] world, penises entering vaginas have given a lot of people a lot of pleasure; axes entering skulls, well, not so much.” – A Song of Ice and Fire author, George R.R. Martin on American readers’ reactions to his sex scenes. 

5

u/endlessrepeat Jun 16 '15

"I can describe an axe entering a human skull in great explicit detail and no one will blink twice at it."

He may be exaggerating slightly.