The other day I was watching Sex and the City. The episode where Harry moves in with Charlotte and leaves his teabags all over the place. And walks around naked. Even though I can’t remember the episodes scene by scene, something was wrong with this episode. Something was missing. Harry’s naked butt. It had simply been cut out.
(from approx 2:00)
When I was driving home from school with some friends, the song “Young, Wild & Free” was played on the radio. And so, 4 girls in a car, we of course sang along. But at a certain time we song solo. We belted out “So what we get druuuunk, so what we smoke weed” – but apparently they get *beep*, not drunk, and they ‘sleep’, don’t smoke weed, at least as long as they’re on the radio.
Same goes for the song “Rack City” that on YouTube is Rack City Bitch and in the radio is Rack City Chick. Kind of a difference.
Watching the Hangover was also a perforated experience. Waiting for the epic scene where the bride’s brother, Alan, turns around in his sexy thong (or lack of same), we could keep waiting, cause apparently Alan’s naked butt had been cut out – just like Harry’s.
The things is, I notice these scenes have been cut out because they are in fact memorable due to the controversial in seeing something as private as another person’s naked butt. You notice the words have been changed because of the controversial in swearwords. We notice things that stand out or are different. So we notice when they’re missing, because we exactly noticed they have been there before.
Since I, as mentioned, am not from the US, I have a different perspective on things. It seems like in the US it is still a taboo to show things that are kind of sexual (or just plain naked things), and play certain words concerning alcohol, drugs, sex or swearwords. Where I come from – this is not the case. We don’t have nearly half as many “beeps” in our songs. And we definitely do not cut out the naked butts in tv-shows or movies.
Although it might spare some kids’ ears and eyes, if you grow up not seeing these things like naked butts or knowing they’re cut out or words are changed because it is a “taboo,” the things might actually become more tabooized. You could think nakedness is ‘wrong’ and singing about getting drunk is not allowed. Although there are so many aspects of this, which I will not bring up here, I believe general openness to these things is the way ahead. Show it all, play it all, and trust people for their better judgment.
tabooyah 