I’ve been thinking a lot about issues of censorship lately.
\n* the Birmingham Repertory Theatre closed the play ‘Bezhti’ after mass protests by the Sikh community. The play, written by a Sikh woman, featured a scene of rape in a Gurdwara (essentially a temple space), which was the basis of the protests – it wasn’t the depiction of rape, or criticism of Sikh culture, or presentation of Sikh elders as deeply flawed individuals, it was the use of this sacred space that had people up in arms. (At least, if you believe the protesters were being genuine, and I for one do.)
\n* the BBC screened ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’ which commits the crimes of foul language and disrespectful depiction of Adam, Eve, Jesus and God. (Jesus: “I suppose I am a bit gay.”) Massive, organised public outcry from an apparently small Christian lobby (over the television broadcast, note; they have no problem with the ongoing west end run).
\n* Prince Harry snapped wearing a Nazi outfit at a fancy-dress party, to immense international condemnation
\n* Anime “Puni Puni Poemi” is banned in New Zealand for its depiction of rape of children, even though it was intended as a barbed and condemnatory satire of exactly that the kind of unsavory content
\n* a local blogger is sacked from his job at a bookstore for making negative comments about it in his blog, even though the bookstore chain has previously traded on its support for the principle of free speech.
\n* a Dutch film-maker was killed, apparently in retaliation for his role in making and promoting a film enacting criticism of misogyny in Islam by an (ex?-)Islamic woman
\nThere are other incidents, but those are ones that come to mind right now. In their particulars, they are all quite different and raise different questions, but they all point towards the confusions bound up with the idea of censorship.
\nI’m not even close to a coherent, resolved opinion on any of these issues. They strike me as a particularly difficult area of ethics and morality that will always be with us, because there will always be a ground where the worthy principles of freedom of expression and protection of the vulnerable come into conflict.
\nBut here are some more thoughts.<\/p>\n
\nPuni Puni Poemy<\/b>
\nThe decision to ban Puni Puni Poemi in New Zealand is one I can support.
\nThe key paragraph in the report is as follows:
\n“Although there is a distinct tongue-in-cheek element to the publication, satirising the conventions of this particular style of anime, the scenes described are included in the story, and comprise the main theme of the story. By presenting this activity in a manner designed to entertain and titillate the viewer, the publication encourages a viewpoint that acts such as coercion are to be viewed as acceptable behaviour. In addition the child characters are attributed with adult sexual behaviours, reinforcing the notion that children and young persons are viable sexual partners.” (hmm, can’t find a copy of this to link to. anyone with more google-fu?)
\nEssentially, the office found that even though the material was satirical in intent, it still depicted sexual coercion of and sexual behaviours in child characters in a manner designed to entertain and titillate. That makes it objectionable.
\nI’ve not seen Poemi, and have no desire to do so. I accept that the Office might have gone too far with this decision – that they might have banned something that really isn’t injurious to the public good. But it seems to me that they have applied the legislation sensibly and come to an appropriate decision. I’m prepared to accept decisions I might personally disagree with if the process is sound, and I believe here that it is.
\nThe sexual presentation of children is not something to trifle with, in my opinion, and I have no problem with a Censorship regime that decides to err on the side of caution in relation to this issue.
\nJerry Springer: The Opera<\/b>
\nI can’t support the voices that wanted this restricted from broadcast. I have no truck with complaints over the foul language, and the elements that had been called disrespectful to religion weren’t particularly prevalent. Additionally, Christianity has long been subject to this kind of cultural interrogation – Milton’s Paradise Lost being a classic example – and has, to my mind, emerged all the stronger for it. The assertion that it’s fine on the stage but not on television seems an odd one to me, as well – sure, television is push technology instead of pull, and sure it will reach a much larger audience, but I don’t see how either factor impacts on complaints over the content of such a programme. It is not hard to see how a presentation of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ with its hook-nosed Shylock would have very different consequences in Tel Aviv 2005 than in Berlin 1935.
\nBezhti<\/b>
\nThis one is trickier. An additional principle comes into play, namely the fact that the Sikh community is a minority community, and a vulnerable one. I believe a vulnerable community can be harmed in real ways by certain expressions of criticism, and therefore a higher standard of mindfulness is appropriate in questions of censorship and acceptability.
\nThe main thrust of the protest was, however, over the depiction of a sacred space defiled. This is a cultural gap that I’m uncomfortable crossing – how can I say ‘it’s just a place’? The Koran is viewed very differently to the Bible, such that my culture has no real equivalent to the Koran as a sacred text\/object; and I gather the same principle is at work here. The Gurdwara is not a Church, or a Synagogue, or the like; it is something special in a way my culture does not comprehend, and setting an act of defilement there is deeply offensive to those who treasure the sacredness of the space.
\n(The nearest my own cultural background comes are such artworks as the Piss Christ and Virgin in a Condom – both degradations of Christian iconography.)
\nA further complication – the play was written by a Sikh woman. A minority group within a minority group – and the question arises, who owns the sacredness of the Gurdwara? In supporting the Sikh minority, are we silencing the voice of dissent within that minority?
\nAnd should it matter who wrote it? In real terms, it obviously does, but as a matter of principle, should it matter?
\n(Note – We are not, in this case, talking about a decision by a government. Here, a private theatre company decided to end its run of the controversial play in response to large, near-riot protests. As a practical decision, this was a fair decision; the question does arise as to whether the government should have taken a stand and provided enough police presence to guarantee the safety of those involved. Such a stand could be politically costly in a number of ways and I find it hard to condemn the government for not taking it, even if it may have been the most principled response.)
\nUltimately, in Bezhti, I believe the play should have been given protection and support to carry on, although as noted above I can forgive the government for steering clear of the whole thing. It may be that my culture cannot comprehend the sacred space of the Gurdwara, but that doesn’t mean we must defer to such a principle when there is evidence of dissent – if a Sikh woman thinks the sacred space can be defiled, then clearly there is more going on than the Sikh elders we have heard would like us to believe. As long as the play itself is not injurious to the good of this minority community, and few have suggested that it is, then I cannot support a call for its suppression.
\nBut this position may shift as I think about it some more. This is nothing if not complicated. It fascinates me, as well, because it encapsulates and dramatises some of the everyday concerns that we will be dealing with more and more as globalisation and social tolerance creates an increasingly multicultural world around us.
\nEven though we can’t do terribly much about such situations, little more than writing a letter or two (which is actually quite an influential thing to do in almost all such cases), it is useful for us to try and think these things through. By wrestling with these issues we better understand the difficulties that trouble the entire project of society, and that can only make us wiser and more responsible members of that society.
\nPeace to you all. Cheers to anyone who read this far…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve been thinking a lot about issues of censorship lately. * the Birmingham Repertory Theatre closed the play ‘Bezhti’ after mass protests by the Sikh community. The play, written by a Sikh woman, featured a scene of rape in a Gurdwara (essentially a temple space), which was the basis of the protests – it wasn’t … Continue reading Gay Jesus, Sikh Rape, Nazi Prince, Childrape Satire and Bastardstones<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8D9ZE-32","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgue.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}