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The Censorship Post
Online discussion with several people on LJ has led me to consider my position on censorship. So, I'm going to take a break from the usual quiz spam and fanfic to air my own musings on the topic.
The event that most seriously crystallized my thinking about censorship occurred in the early 90s, when I was in graduate school, studying film at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I was taking a film production course in the company of about 10 other grad students and 100 undergrads. One of the projects was to produce a five minute 8 mm film, which produced the usual mixed bag of bad to mediocre film student excesses. There were, however, a few exceptions, including a quite lovely experimental film reflecting on human sexuality, a film that happened to include full frontal male and female nudity. I thought nothing of the screening of this film in class, but a vocal group of undergrads, exhibiting the same hypocrisy evident in American mainstream film, found the male nudity too much and launched a protest aimed at the filmmaker and the professor. In a low water mark for undergrad behaviour, one young woman-and I use that noun advisedly-had her mother call the Dean of Arts and Science to complain.
I found it astounding that a group of young adults who had chosen to study a creative art form at a respected school failed to want to explore new viewpoints and experiences, and instead expected to be protected from that art. I was appalled that people of the same age I was when signing petitions denouncing the Victorian views of the Ontario Censor Board were calling on the films of their fellow students to be censored.
At the same time that this academic brouhaha was taking place, two more things happened. First, Canada Customs started systematically harassing shipments to two gay and lesbian bookstores, Little Sisters in B.C. and Glad Day in Ontario, on the grounds that the customs officers considered books of homoerotica obscene. Second, I stumbled into fandom and the world of slash. For me, censorship issues became even less academic and more something that could affect me directly with cross-border shipping of zines. I think it's worth noting that as slash writers and readers, we have a hobby that, if it was more in the mainstream, would no doubt come under intense pressure for censorship. We are saved from having to fight that battle by the low profile of our pursuit.
In spite of the fact that the fight against censorship means also defending a glut of gratuitous nudity and violence in cinema and the double standards for male and female sexuality that permeate North American society, I think it's a stand worth taking. Laugh at a producer's insistence that a T&A shot is integral to a movie's narrative if you wish, but recognize that an increase in censorship on such grounds will result in a chipping away of your own rights. I'm not advocating the removal of a rating system, but a rethinking of the current system. There needs to be a recognition that the MPAA's ratings often have far more to do with the economic clout of the major studios than with a real desire to protect the public. And finally, it's important that the debate continue, that individuals and groups, like the Little Sisters book store in Canada and the ACLU in the U.S. continue to launch constitutional appeals against censors to ensure that the small minority who would take away all freedoms to protect us from perceived evils do not prevail.
The event that most seriously crystallized my thinking about censorship occurred in the early 90s, when I was in graduate school, studying film at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I was taking a film production course in the company of about 10 other grad students and 100 undergrads. One of the projects was to produce a five minute 8 mm film, which produced the usual mixed bag of bad to mediocre film student excesses. There were, however, a few exceptions, including a quite lovely experimental film reflecting on human sexuality, a film that happened to include full frontal male and female nudity. I thought nothing of the screening of this film in class, but a vocal group of undergrads, exhibiting the same hypocrisy evident in American mainstream film, found the male nudity too much and launched a protest aimed at the filmmaker and the professor. In a low water mark for undergrad behaviour, one young woman-and I use that noun advisedly-had her mother call the Dean of Arts and Science to complain.
I found it astounding that a group of young adults who had chosen to study a creative art form at a respected school failed to want to explore new viewpoints and experiences, and instead expected to be protected from that art. I was appalled that people of the same age I was when signing petitions denouncing the Victorian views of the Ontario Censor Board were calling on the films of their fellow students to be censored.
At the same time that this academic brouhaha was taking place, two more things happened. First, Canada Customs started systematically harassing shipments to two gay and lesbian bookstores, Little Sisters in B.C. and Glad Day in Ontario, on the grounds that the customs officers considered books of homoerotica obscene. Second, I stumbled into fandom and the world of slash. For me, censorship issues became even less academic and more something that could affect me directly with cross-border shipping of zines. I think it's worth noting that as slash writers and readers, we have a hobby that, if it was more in the mainstream, would no doubt come under intense pressure for censorship. We are saved from having to fight that battle by the low profile of our pursuit.
In spite of the fact that the fight against censorship means also defending a glut of gratuitous nudity and violence in cinema and the double standards for male and female sexuality that permeate North American society, I think it's a stand worth taking. Laugh at a producer's insistence that a T&A shot is integral to a movie's narrative if you wish, but recognize that an increase in censorship on such grounds will result in a chipping away of your own rights. I'm not advocating the removal of a rating system, but a rethinking of the current system. There needs to be a recognition that the MPAA's ratings often have far more to do with the economic clout of the major studios than with a real desire to protect the public. And finally, it's important that the debate continue, that individuals and groups, like the Little Sisters book store in Canada and the ACLU in the U.S. continue to launch constitutional appeals against censors to ensure that the small minority who would take away all freedoms to protect us from perceived evils do not prevail.
no subject
I know...
I just want to do like Bill Engvall does and hand them their sign... ::growls::