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Censorship and Parenting
Annah Moore
www.RightSideOut.net
[12-15-2004]
This rant is a response to this article: http://www.kvue.com/sharedcontent/fe....2bc90454.html.
Okay, so WalMart wants to be "family friendly". Fine. WalMart wants to sell rock music. Great! But who decided that "family friendly" equals censorship? Alright, I can understand that there are a lot of bands out there who don't mind their creative efforts being changed in order to sell more units. For example, you say, "Hey, we've got this great album, but the word **** is on it in five different places. WalMart won't let us sell it there because of that. So what should we do?" What would you do?
I think part of it depends on where you want to make your compromises. You could release a "clean" version of your album that would sell in stores like WalMart. But if you're going to do that, why bother puting the offensive words in the songs in the first place? Why not just record the album without any "offensive" words so you don't have to spend more money having two different versions of the same record manufactured. Fine and dandy! Problem solved for you!
But what if you believe that these words are necessary in order to properly project your creative point to the listener? Then, because you won't compromise your creativity, you compromise your potential sales. WalMart, or whoever, won't sell it because it's not "family friendly". Problem solved. Right?
Okay, so my real beef with this issue is not the artistic/financial compromise issue. It touches on an issue that I believe is getting progressively worse in the United States. It's to do with PROPER PARENTING. If you read the article referenced above you would know that this lawsuit against WalMart is driven by the "fact" that mother and father bought this CD for their 13 year old girl and they all listened to it on the way home together only to be offended by the word "****" mentioned in the music. The result was two offended parents who likely took a look at the CD case, seeing no label for "offensive lyrics" and saw their golden opportunity to cash-in: lawsuit against WalMart! Woo hoo! We're going to be rich, dear!
Wow. What upstanding citizens. What straight-forward and caring individuals. I'm sure their daughter appreciates all the attention she's getting at school now because of this. They sure must care about their daughter because they are going to great lengths to hire a lawyer to sue one of the largest corporations in America over... over... over a WORD.
If these two parents are so passionately concerned with protecting their daughter from "offensive" words, why then did they not take the CD home and listen to it first, before letting their little girl hear it? I can hear their response now, "But Annah, if the CD only had an 'offensive lyrics' sticker on it... or if the words had been removed from the CD... then we would still be a perfect little family!" Shah. Right.
So what I think people like these two are saying is that teaching their child isn't their responsibility. It's WalMart's responsibility. It's the record company's responsibility. Obviously, they are placing the blame on WalMart, demanding removal of the CD from store shelves to "prevent other families from hearing it". WTF!? Now they are taking responsibility for protecting other people from hearing the word ****? What the ****!? When did they decide to become the Word Police? And who are they to censor what people hear? Hopefully, the judge who hears this ridiculous case will toss it out. We can only hope.
This makes me wonder, what do these parents do to their daughter to "protect" her from hearing what they consider "offensive" words? Is it really possible to keep a human being from hearing curse words all their young lives? And if they really could do that, what would the true consequences to the child be? In hiding a child from things, it seems that the child would only be more drawn to the things they were kept from. This is quite common, actually.
I have a 13-year-old son. I don't hide him from the world, or the world from him. He hears me say "****!" when the word needs to be said. He understands that it is not something that should be said around people he doesn't know, and only on certain occassions. He is a very smart young man. He has a great deal of respect for his parents, his family, his friends, his teachers and anyone who treats him with respect in return. Hearing "offensive" words has not harmed him, nor has it made him better as a person. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it has not affected him in any way whatsoever, other than to offer him more choices of words to choose from when he feels exremely emotional. I grew up the same way and I believe that I am a very good person, responsible and respectable - even though I say (and write) the word **** from time-to-time.
Offensiveness is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder
But for two people to demand that a store take a CD off their shelves to "prevent others from hearing it" is taking it to the extreme. They have no right to speak for anyone else. They sure as **** goddamned shitty hell don't speak for me!!!
Annah Moore
www.RightSideOut.net
[12-15-2004]
This rant is a response to this article: http://www.kvue.com/sharedcontent/fe....2bc90454.html.
Okay, so WalMart wants to be "family friendly". Fine. WalMart wants to sell rock music. Great! But who decided that "family friendly" equals censorship? Alright, I can understand that there are a lot of bands out there who don't mind their creative efforts being changed in order to sell more units. For example, you say, "Hey, we've got this great album, but the word **** is on it in five different places. WalMart won't let us sell it there because of that. So what should we do?" What would you do?
I think part of it depends on where you want to make your compromises. You could release a "clean" version of your album that would sell in stores like WalMart. But if you're going to do that, why bother puting the offensive words in the songs in the first place? Why not just record the album without any "offensive" words so you don't have to spend more money having two different versions of the same record manufactured. Fine and dandy! Problem solved for you!
But what if you believe that these words are necessary in order to properly project your creative point to the listener? Then, because you won't compromise your creativity, you compromise your potential sales. WalMart, or whoever, won't sell it because it's not "family friendly". Problem solved. Right?
Okay, so my real beef with this issue is not the artistic/financial compromise issue. It touches on an issue that I believe is getting progressively worse in the United States. It's to do with PROPER PARENTING. If you read the article referenced above you would know that this lawsuit against WalMart is driven by the "fact" that mother and father bought this CD for their 13 year old girl and they all listened to it on the way home together only to be offended by the word "****" mentioned in the music. The result was two offended parents who likely took a look at the CD case, seeing no label for "offensive lyrics" and saw their golden opportunity to cash-in: lawsuit against WalMart! Woo hoo! We're going to be rich, dear!
Wow. What upstanding citizens. What straight-forward and caring individuals. I'm sure their daughter appreciates all the attention she's getting at school now because of this. They sure must care about their daughter because they are going to great lengths to hire a lawyer to sue one of the largest corporations in America over... over... over a WORD.
If these two parents are so passionately concerned with protecting their daughter from "offensive" words, why then did they not take the CD home and listen to it first, before letting their little girl hear it? I can hear their response now, "But Annah, if the CD only had an 'offensive lyrics' sticker on it... or if the words had been removed from the CD... then we would still be a perfect little family!" Shah. Right.
So what I think people like these two are saying is that teaching their child isn't their responsibility. It's WalMart's responsibility. It's the record company's responsibility. Obviously, they are placing the blame on WalMart, demanding removal of the CD from store shelves to "prevent other families from hearing it". WTF!? Now they are taking responsibility for protecting other people from hearing the word ****? What the ****!? When did they decide to become the Word Police? And who are they to censor what people hear? Hopefully, the judge who hears this ridiculous case will toss it out. We can only hope.
This makes me wonder, what do these parents do to their daughter to "protect" her from hearing what they consider "offensive" words? Is it really possible to keep a human being from hearing curse words all their young lives? And if they really could do that, what would the true consequences to the child be? In hiding a child from things, it seems that the child would only be more drawn to the things they were kept from. This is quite common, actually.
I have a 13-year-old son. I don't hide him from the world, or the world from him. He hears me say "****!" when the word needs to be said. He understands that it is not something that should be said around people he doesn't know, and only on certain occassions. He is a very smart young man. He has a great deal of respect for his parents, his family, his friends, his teachers and anyone who treats him with respect in return. Hearing "offensive" words has not harmed him, nor has it made him better as a person. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it has not affected him in any way whatsoever, other than to offer him more choices of words to choose from when he feels exremely emotional. I grew up the same way and I believe that I am a very good person, responsible and respectable - even though I say (and write) the word **** from time-to-time.
Offensiveness is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder
But for two people to demand that a store take a CD off their shelves to "prevent others from hearing it" is taking it to the extreme. They have no right to speak for anyone else. They sure as **** goddamned shitty hell don't speak for me!!!
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