Monday, October 27, 2008

C**sorsh** and the F***t A***d**nt

My friends may mock me, but I find the Guardian, Times Online and the Independent from the UK to be two of the most interesting, good-looking and informative newspapers. Some may call them rags, but where else could you find stories like this or this


That said - on the Guardian music blog today there was a look at iTunes censorship of "dirty words," which has apparently run amok - reaching into the realm of the completely harmless and censoring words such as "hot" (as in Katy Perry's H*t'N'Cold). Not so hot.

Maybe I will never understand, but how does starring out a couple of letters in the words fuck and shit make them safe for sensitive eyes, or - presumably - the eyes of kids who are apparently buying songs off of iTunes with their credit cards (a dubious presumption at best). Because KIDS ARE DUM, and words with starred out letters don't computer in the baby brains. There's no way they can tell what the word C**ks****er should be. 

Words, collections of phonemes with culturally ascribed meanings, are neutral entities. Nothing about the work fuck, is in-and-of-itself inherently offending. I'm not even approaching saying that words have no power - as a bibliophile and recovering English major, I clearly believe that words have power in their employment and in the intention of the user. But really, what good does it do to star-out some letters in "naughty words"? They aren't eradicated, the offending material isn't censored so it plays back normally anyway. All this does it draw attention to the stigmatized words and their "badness." 

It's amazing that the shining light of America rests so strongly on our first amendment, and that individuals from other countries come from thousands of miles away to be here, where the light will shine on them too, and yet, watch the Daily Show, listen to the radio, try to download music. See that the first amendment has its own asterisk, a footnote which after "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;" * reads "*except for f*ck, s**t, c***, c***, t**s, etc. etc."

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