The Death of Taboos = The Scourge of Writers?

I was thinking about Tennessee Williams the other day, probably sparked by the death of the beautiful Elizabeth Taylor. She was Maggie in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" and was magnificent opposite the equally beautiful Paul Newman who played her troubled husband, Brick.

The 1958 MGM movie didn't make as much sense as the play, because of the Hays Code, which from the 1930's to the 60's (replaced by the MMPA), spelled out what was acceptable and what was unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States. It limited Brick's portrayal of sexual desire for Skipper, his football teammate and best friend, and diminished the original play's critique of  homophobia and sexism. Williams was reportedly unhappy with the screenplay, which removed almost all of the homosexual themes and revised the third act section to include a lengthy scene of reconciliation between Brick and Big Daddy. Paul Newman, the film's star, has also stated his disappointment with the adaptation. It watered down the real suffering of the character set in an unforgiving world.

Much of our drama, in particular, centers on taboos - hidden secrets that drive the psychology of the characters. However, it's harder and harder to find anything hidden with our 'open' society. Do I want to return to those bad old days of secrets and lies? Not as a citizen of the world. But as a writer I find myself digging deeper and deeper to find anything that would shock or trouble an audience. And by shock I don't mean something that comes with a bucket of blood attached. I want to go for a psychological disturbance about something buried so deep it takes the gods of fate to unearth it. 

In "Chinatown" we had "She's my sister - my daughter - my sister.." reveal of incest. Is this still shocking to an audience today? If not, what does it say about our where we now draw the line at what constitutes a disturbing taboo? We're so inundated with scandals in the media that I believe we're becoming immune to it all. Back in the day, writers used the subject of taboos to reveal the truth to an audience. There's no shortage of dishonesty out there, after all, we ARE human. So I guess we have to keep vigilant and be willing to sort out the truth from the lies, and figure out a way to make an audience care.