April 10, 2005

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            _{Nelle’s voice:}
  
  

  Forgive the Paranoid Parents, and Forget Bill C-12
  
  

  If Bill C-12 passes through as a law, then there will be no artistic merit as it states. Artistic expression of any sexual activity will be considered ‘offensive’ and does not contribute to the ‘public good’. A simple question: why wouldn’t it contribute to the ‘public good’? Is sexuality such a topic so ‘immoral’ that it must be silenced? In my retrospect, sexuality is not immoral and there is much knowledge to be grasp from that topic depending on how the masses accepts and reacts to the information being presented in the medium. For instance, the considerations to ban Romeo and Juliet for the reasons that it promotes underage sex is absurd. Yes, there is the aspect of underage sex; Juliet is fourteen years-old and that is undeniable, but the consequences of Romeo and Juliet’s burnt of passion does not advocate their ‘immoral’ activities, if you even consider them so. In fact, from what the concluding scene of the play suggested, it seems that Shakespeare is trying to tell his audience that rebelling against family orders because of the excessive passion for another stranger may not be the best idea afterall. However, one must always keep an open recognition to different cultural upbringings. In some cultures, there are actually teens who are expectant to marry and have children at age fourteen. To ignore this fact is a form of discrimination, a failure to recognize the cultures of others. The banning of Peter Pan is another form of extreme action that lacks rationality. Peter Pan does not promote underage ‘charged’ relationships just because Peter makes Wendy ‘fly’. Obviously, this person has looked too in-depth and found things metaphorical and applied it to a certain reality, which pertains nothing to what the original story line intended. To eradicate such classic movie, and the concept of flying by the presumtpion that it is an allusion to sexual immorality, is the repression of children’s imagination. Will the elimination of Peter’s ability to fly do the public any good? –or make it any worse? I’m afraid not. If Bill C-12 do succeed in becoming a law, then society has actually moved backwards instead of forward to improve humanity. It seems that we are in a cycle where in the 1930′s and 40′s, media had the greatest censorship on sexual activity. Throughout the years, it has crossed lines and redefined itself to show the mass more of what reality consists of. Now it seems we are moving back to how society used to see sexual activity on screen, and depriving the people of artistic expressions and certain truths. How one perceives something as ‘good’ or not is subjected to each individual. There is no ‘public good’ when the ‘public good’ consists solely of individuals. There is always controversies whether one recognizes that or not. But it is a foolish idea to say that rejecting artistic merit because of sexual content is for the good of the people, when repression of the mind is even deadlier to a growing society such as ours.

  
  

   

  
  

  • 7:38 pm
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