Stand firm
by the Rushdie affair and censorship in the light JANE KELLY looks at some of the issues raised censorship against of de-regulated TV.
pomography ordinance in the US. at present then believable Dwarul wits American radical feminist on the one hand and Angela Carter, British novelist and feminist on the other. Dworkin argues that pomegraphy is an "institution of male supremacy'. prpagan- da for and a tool of sexual suppression of Catherine Mac Kinnon who introduced the anti- SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 14 April 1989 of what should he done about it is a vexed one. the debate becomes very beated, as the session at the Women for Socialism conference proved, with the question of censorship at the heart of The parameters of the pornography debate are represented by Andrea Dworkin, an that open images of lesbians and gay men are How should socialists and feminists respond to all this? Although much interesting and im- portant analysis has been undertaken in relation to the representation of women in the mediatin- cluding film, TV and advertising), the question And when it comes to pornography proper then No, it's not a question of public disquiet, but stereotyping is not the real concer. Muterial dealing with controversial issues, inclusting sexual issues, but not limited to there, will be banned. We know from the Soction 28 debate food tin, hailerter, An ange channe 4 introduced its infamous red triangle to desig- nate late-night films with a lot of sex in them, rather what is thought to be gond for us. And despite the evocution of feminist concerns: "The BSC intends to crack down on commer- cials which reinforce sexual stereotypes and en- force a laste and decency requirement on advertisements, the truth is that such low down on the list, with rescheduling at the bad language and sex Pornography viewing figures doubled! liable to be censored. women Soft porn from the Sky? dividual freedom reign - but not when it comes the statistics do not support this view of public opinion. Far from being the first reason for com plaint, the representation of sex on TV is rather calling for censorship is ambivalent shout what cem about the stereotyped portrayal of women on TV, using arguments developed by feminists when analysing sexist imagery and preparing to regulated airwaves. Market forces and in- to sex. Evoking a mythical 'public disgust', scx and violence, inevocably conjoined by Mary Whitehouse and the censors, are to be banned from our screens for our own good. However, Parliament, received more than 5000 letters of Out of that support, both financial and moral, The campaign claims that there are direct links hetween violence against wornen, sexual abuse of children and pomography. But it has no clcar theoretical framework, and while not directly Atthe same time we have the new Broadcast- ing Standards Council (BSC) expressing con- decide for us what we can watch on the new de- fined to the Rushdie affair. Claire Short's bill against Page 3 nudes, ridiculed for the worst of reasons by most Tory and many other MPs in tions of Rushdie's book. Other Labour MP's on the left have called for the Blasphemy Law to be extended to all religions, with only a hand- Ful correctly demanding its total abolition. For this law is not just a quaint, anachronistic left- over from feudalism. Ir was used as recently as the mid 1970% against a homosexual poem The confusion over censorship is not con- support from women who favoured censorship. the Campaign against Pomography was set up Amongst Labour politicians too the Some, with more than half an eye to their con- stituency, have echoed the Iranian denuncia- divisions have been unexpected —and confused. Images of women about Christ in Gay Newt. action should be taken. HALINE DIN oppression of posed to the apposed to all ones, and we are also op- all women. in cluding within schools includ ing Moslem religious other oppressed groups on the basis of politics, Thus, for example, we should argue that we are the same thing as race. The left has to determine its support or otherwise for demands of black or misplaced anti-racism. Feeling, quite rightly. that the Moslem community in Britain suffers fusion in response to Moslem demands for religious and single-sex schools. Religion is not of which anti-racism is only one component. as being opposed in principle to any form of censorship. Others whose past record might have led one to expect something better, have ship - John Berger and Dilip Hiro for example. Some of the confusion arises from a racism, such intellectuals respond in an am- bivalent way to the Islamic attack on The Satanic Verses. There has been similar con- accuracy!) in that case, now present themselves come down in favour of a kind of self-censor- Allen play Perdition. Some who favoured cen- hacked down from total support for Rushdie, the Tories" immediate response was to defend position of a ban on the right of Gerry Adams: and others to express their point of view on the North of Ircland. Perhaps the proximity of Ireland compared to Iran had something to do with it, or maybe the racist attitude of the British Goverment led them to abhor the Ayatollah's death threat to an (albeit Pakistani) British writer, while conveniently forgetting their own The Rushdie affair has also produced some unexpected divisions amongst the left inteller- tuals, resuscitating the debate about the Jim sorship (because of accusations of historical in- know better) are supremely pragmatic when it comes to censorship. The left Although Howe and Thatcher have since him to the hilt, in complete contrast to their im- Within the space of a few months we've seen the Government ban on Sinn Fein's man Rushdie's freedom of expression; the setting up of a new TV watchdog the Broadcasting Standards Council (BSC), under the watchful eye of Lord Rees- ly filling of deregulated TV with soft porn: remember the ad Italian bousewives do it on TV'? The Tories (and in some cases people who should right to free speech and support for Sal- Mogg, and much discussion on the like- Religion and race however, cannot afford to be. use of censorship. Page 8
that it fits into commercial breaks decision to cut by several minutes and half hour slots. Anyone who saw Under Fire in the cinema and on TV will have noticed the political the ecstatic celebrations as the vic- Managua, Some films have also suf- Tered censorship in the cinema, for example Mishima's Ai No Corrida or Pasolini's Salo. These last have suffered from over-zealous Labour councils such as Islington, Hackney and Camden who, responding to demands of their women's commit- We cannot allow the bourgeois state, in whatever form, to decide for us what we can pressed groups have the right to express their opposition to texts, images etc, but not to call for the banning or censorship of materials, (let booksellers) even when these are offensive to the burning of books and the suppression of 1988, show scheduling 323, bias 118, violence 21, torious Sandinistas entered and cannot write, read and view. Equally, op- alone the murder of the author, publisher and one or another group. The history of censorship is the history of repression. In Nazi Germany avant-garde ast went hand in hand with the im- prisonment and murder of lesbians and gay men, Communists and Jews. We must stand 1 Figures of complaints from week ending October 2 Christopher Dunkley, Time Out, 26/10/88- •BSC Mover to Curb TV Ad Violence" by Jo Vale, Elizabeth Wilson, Interview with Andrea had language 16, sex 12. (Figures from 'Sex on 7V", * Colin Shaw, Director of BSC, Campaign 24/2/89. Dworkin', Feminist Review 11, June 1982. toes, refused certification to such films. * Angela Carter The Sadeian Women 1979. Why women need firm against it - all of it. Campaign 24/2/89. SURGEDAL BRAIN ONCARS WHEN IMI NOT LYING I'MA - blood-red lips and nails, lipstick rising out of its holder, the car being stroked - a take-off of sophisticated workings of contemporary adver- tising. It uses consciously, over-the-top sexism 70n imagery, but combined with locations and sexual references which play on women's fears and fantasies in a subtle and uncxpected way. In particular the 'film noir" setting of dark al- leyways and arches through which the woman appraches the red car (at this point signifying the man) links together sex/romance with danger/adventure. Our defences are lowered as we Inugh at the overt sexist imagery: simul- taneously we unconsciously consume the im- Adverts like this, programmes like Lord Rees-Mogg's favourite Allo, Allo, soaps like "Dallas' are not the target of Recs-Mogg. Nor should they be. But neither should we accept the right of the BSC to decide what is and isn't tims of the moral climate. These cuts include ing sequence of Three Days of the Condor thus prehensiblel) and even cuts to shorten a film so "decent". For the kind of cuts already under- taken in TV feature films will be the real vic- scx scenes, violence (such as the whole open- rendering the film's dramatic form incom- RE Censorship ages of our oppression. Taking a right of reply m altim for tomography. came an had harm of rapher 'may not think of himself as a friend of cause he begins to approach some kind of rapher, like the devious fellows who write love Carter is explicitly opposed to any form of both more pervasive and more dangeroux: far from exposing reality, it rests on the myths of our society about male and female soxuality, women; that may be the last thing on his mind. But he will always he nur unconscious ally be- emblematic truth, whereas the lackey pomog: censorship. She points out that hard pom ex- poser the ugly