Apparently, a famous photograph of Winston Churchill giving his 'V for Victory' salute which graces the entranceway to a WWII London exhibit has had his famous cigar airbrushed out to match the non-smoking philosophy of the age. Not that I am for smoking - far from it - but revising history in this way is just plain stupid. Soon, the next generation won't know what was true. If it's kids they are worried about, I'd be more concerned by Lady Gaga music videos, including the image below where she is in prison wearing 'sunglasses' made of lit cigarettes.
ps, I didn't really want to get into Gaga and censorship, but I should mention the newest Lady Gaga video, which is basically S&M with writhing men and women, shows her in a red vinyl nuns habit, lying on her back swallowing rosary beads. Madonna's stuff was tame by comparison. One of the presenters on Good Morning today said there was only five seconds of the video they could show at that time of the morning.
Strange how Churchill's cigar can be censored, but no one seems to care about music videos which are far more damaging to children.
As somebody once remarked (Theodore Dalrymple, I think) the modern left equates liberty with sexual license.
ReplyDelete"Strange how Churchill's cigar can be censored, but no one seems to care about music videos which are far more damaging to children."
ReplyDeleteExcept you said this in the previous sentence:
"One of the presenters on Good Morning today said there was only five seconds of the video they could show at that time of the morning."
ummmmmmmm.... that's censorship aimed at protecting child viewers.
Sorry Fletcher, I actually agree with your point... I just found that bit amusing ;)
-Frank
OK, fair enough point :)
ReplyDeleteBut I wonder how often the video is shown on C4 at any time of the day? I would be interested to find that out.
No doubt all times and often, along with other horrendous clips that over sexualize our humanity.
ReplyDeleteI'm in total agreement with the emphasis of your post.
I think Gaga's work is great. Telephone was a bit over-cooked, but when you consider the similarities between Poker Face, Bad Romance and then Alejandro, you see an artist still moving towards her best work. It's exciting to watch. She isn't just a singer from the post Mickey Mouse Club generation (though they're excellent vocalists - and even taking a lead from her in choreography) she's a dancer and a film maker.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe children are influenced one jott by Gaga's on-screen antics. The mind of a child holds all manner of sexual themes, conscious or not, that would out perform anything you see Gaga do. If anything, the symbolism she uses speaks directly against the kind of deviancy she's often accused of promoting.
The mind of a child holds all manner of sexual themes, conscious or not, that would out perform anything you see Gaga do
ReplyDeleteOh really? I find that hard to believe. And where would they get that from, pray tell? Something doesn't come from nowhere. Kids are not born with sexually deviant ideas in their heads. If what you say is true then it has still come from media in some form - but Gaga isn't helping.
I had a female friend (married with kids) post Gaga's Alejandro video on Facebook saying it was great entertainment and tops her other videos but that she hoped C4 didn't show it because she didn't want her kids seeing it..
"Something doesn't come from nowhere..."
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, it's part of being human. Ask a child about their nightmares, or dreams that upset them, startled them. Perhaps you remember some of your own? Where did they come from? Nowhere? The concepts, far above your head at the time, now what do they seem like to you? How did you know that stuff when so young? Didn't come off the TV did it? And it's not deviant per see, though a conservative adult/TV executive/censor might regard it deviant if it were directly translated to film/video or any other medium.
You can look at what Gaga does as art, appreciate what the symbols mean within that context and get something worthwhile from it. Or you can judge it at face value, see that the symbol of a nun doesn't match the context you'd place a nun in, doing what you think a nun shouldn't be doing, and rate the whole as offensive.
Context is everything. Gaga isn't making a comment on nuns, organised religion, casual sex, ill-fitting underwear, fashion eyewear or anything else in isolation.
Maybe it's not your dialect? Lots of art out there to choose from. No need to like Gaga if you don't, but this talk of her/media spoiling kid's minds I don't think is realistic.
Brendon,
ReplyDeleteGaga was brought up Catholic.
Ex-Catholic tend to be the worst when it comes to mocking Catholicism.
Madonna's another one that does this.
Fletch is right, kids are not born with sexually deviant ideas. They have to come from somewhere. Those that do tend to have been abused.
That's why "childhood innocence" is not considered an oxymoron.