Censorship
Or, what you don't need to know
07-13-04
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First off, let me start by saying that George W. Bush has done only good things for this country, and the U.S.’s foreign policy is the most logical and sensible I have ever known and all other countries are fools for not fully supporting our presidential administration and their armed guardian angels in Iraq. Ok, ok, ok, I don’t actually think that, I do regret that dubya got in even after losing by a million votes BUT I did get your attention, did I not? (A lot of you are also foaming at the mouth but we’ll have to leave THAT debate till later). What I AM going to talk about, however, is censorship and why it doesn’t need to exist as it does in the world today. I fully admit that I shop at my local Wal-Mart super center. Despite their shady corporate practices I still enjoy randomly stumbling around there at three in the morning, but I am disgusted with some things they did. They recently announced that they would no longer be offering to sell any men’s magazines because they are lewd and inappropriate. This included Stuff, MAXIM, FHM and the like. That proved to be one of the most hypocritical decisions ever made in the history of the world, nay, the very universe. Just keeping in the magazine section, all you have to do is walk two feet to the right and you’re at, that’s right! The women’s magazine section! Not only is there more than three times the amount of woman’s mags than men’s, but on every single one of the woman’s mags, there is a scantily clad woman. “The top ten ways to please your man in bed,” “How to get him to do ANYTHING you want,” “Sex tips for the bedroom klutz!” On what planet is it acceptable for women to receive overtly sexual material in a public store and for men to be denied of the same chauvinistic pleasure? Not only that, but Wal-Mart also only sells censored versions of CD’s. WHY? Why take away the choice from your shoppers and feed it to them? What percentage of people out there enjoy slipknot and not profanity? Beyond that, I ask: What’s the f**king point?!? Now, look at the sentence before this one. Really, study it. Do you know what the censored word there says? Do you realize the horrible profanity that had occurred, or did you say in your head: ‘now what could possibly start with ‘f’ and end in ‘king’?? What could go in that hole? Uhhhhhhh….hey, that’s it!’ I’m not sure that I have ever encountered a censored word or phrase and not known what it meant. So who is this particular censorship for? Some would say that it’s for the children. Wouldn’t it seem that the children who don’t know what comes between the ‘f’ and the ‘king’ are too young or stupid to realize what ‘fucking’ is anyway? After all, despite what you may have heard, it’s just a fucking word, it won’t bite you, it won’t cause your children to become drug-seeking delinquents, and it won’t cause harm. It’s not as if we can invade Iraq by telephoning swear words at them until they give up their country for the sake of their children with virgin ears. Something else I can get (and often do) are DVDs. A huge range of movies can be purchased there. Therein lies another large point of hypocrisy in all of the United States. Sex and violence! That much I can understand, most parents don’t want their children to be exposed to those things until a certain age. So why, is violence SO much more tolerated than sex? Which traumatizes a fourteen year old boy more, a person’s head getting blown off, or some fun bedroom antics? Then why does the decapitation get an R (restricted no minors without parents) rating, and the sex gets the more severe NC-17 (no children under 17)? Why are conservative Americans so afraid of fucking? Why is watching someone receive a shotgun blast to the gut better for our children? In other parts of the world, sexuality is commonplace. This leads to less awkward situations and a more free, enjoyable environment. So as I’m walking through the store, I cannot buy anything that has swearing in it or contains a finger lickin’ good lookin’ female, but I can buy a dvd that contains bloody, gruesome, graphic video of the real crime scene from a quadruple homicide. Gosh, I’m so glad that I live here. I'm Dustin Meehan Please argue with me. (sidenote: when I was typing example women’s magazine headlines, I mistyped one of the headlines so it read: “The top ten ways to please your mom in bed” thank god for editing) |