Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with obscenity

Is 'br****s' obscene?

knapah — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:03:16 -0800

I think the UK television gameshow Countdown just beep-edited out the word 'breasts' from their broadcast. Is this mandated by law or some broadcasting code? Is there some UK 'obscenity' law that prohibits the word breasts before the watershed? This was on Channel 4(+1), so I assume it was the same in the non-timeshifted broadcast, but don't know.

Oh, and if you search youtube for countdown videos you'll find amusing examples of swear words coming up as answers, but 'breasts'?!

Obscenity these un-printable censors

hwyengr — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:03:42 -0800

I'm reading "For Whom the Bell Tolls", for the first time, that I got from the library. Every obscenity is printed as "unprintable", "un-nameable", or "obscenity". Obviously Hemingway didn't write that, and it's annoying. Would a modern printing still have these edits? I'm a grown adult. I am not offended by the work "fuck". I am offended by the disruption in the meter and phrasing, since I have to run it through my mind and figure out the tense and form of the intended word.

Was there any renegade publisher that printed uncensored books? Do the modern printings still do this? The one I'm reading is from the 70s, I think.

Allez au !

ubernostrum — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:37:06 -0800

I'm looking for pointers on whether TV programs which are subject to censoring of obscene language have to also look out for obscenity in foreign languages. So the other night I was sitting up with a nasty cold and watching the hilariously-redubbed US TV edit of a movie that contained a fair amount of naughty language which, of course, had to be dubbed over to protect all the little kids who were undoubtedly up watching it at 2AM.

But there was a scene in a nightclub, where a Spanish-language song was playing, and that got me wondering: if that song contained obscenity, would the censorship regulations require it to be edited as well? I don't speak Spanish so I don't know what was actually being sung, but the beat certainly sounded as if the song had some, um, sexual connotations.

So... anybody know offhand (or have pointers to resources for looking up) how censorship applies to foreign-language content (a term which applies rather loosely to Spanish in the US, of course)? I'd be pretty amused if you could genuinely get away with nastiness by doing it in a different language...

Whacked out manga.

topynate — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 09:10:11 -0800

Trying to find a bizarre and disturbing short manga, featured on Reddit a month or two ago. The manga in question played with the idea of panel art by depicting the inhabitants of each panel from different angles, or slightly ahead in time - a perspective from which they could be seen to be only partial bodies, or horribly mutilated, etc. The overall effect reminded me strongly of art done by sufferers of schizophrenia. It claimed to be a 'part one', so hopefully there's more by now? And who is the artist, and does he (she?) have a website? Bear in mind that I don't know that the manga is Japanese - just that it's stylistically so.

this site could compromise our new hire

frosty_hut — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:57:13 -0800

new employee has some potentially compromising sites associated with her... We have a new employee at our non-profit, I'll call her Dale. She's been featured prominently on the company web site and is being made much of--she's being groomed as the main face of our organization. This is her big kick-off week.

Out of idle curiosity today I searched on her name, and found a web page associated with her--it contains a page that references restroom graffiti, sort of offering it up as a form of found art (it's an artsy site). Personally I think it's kind of clever and it doesn't offend my own sensibility at all, but our org is a pretty lock-jaw/town-and-country/take-me-home-James kind of outfit. Since this site is associated with the person who is our new supastar (they're hosting a meet and greet for her, probably ordering caviar and horse drawn carriages, etc.), it's pretty crude and raw in that context.

Elsewhere on the site Dale mentions in a recent post that she's found a new job in a new city (ours). And her online bio on our organization's site states her connection with this other site, so it's definitely her and not someone else with the same name--and would be easy to find just from that info on our org's web site. (Although I found it another way.)

The board members would have ten hemorrhages apiece if they happened upon this content, and I imagine my boss would be grateful if I let him know about this before he hears about it from one of them.

My impulse is to let our manager know ASAP, but I don't want to look like a tattle tale or, worse, someone who doesn't like the new hire and is trying to jeopardize her out of envy. She did beat me out for the position she's currently in, but I've known for months that it was going to fall out this way. I'm not bitter! But I do feel someone should make her aware, so she can remove the compromising content.

She and I haven't met yet, and I wouldn't want her first impression of me to involve something this unpleasant. Should I email the manager in any case? I was considering using a temporary anonymous address...what is your advice?