Schewed Standards
Submitted by Nick Measures on June 5, 2008 - 11:43am.
As someone who grew up in the UK, Thailand’s attitude to censorship has always been a little bit baffling to me. Whilst I certainly don’t agree with it, I can at least see the logic behind the idea that showing certain imagery, normally of a sexual nature, could have a corrupting influence on us simple souls that make up the general population.
After all, who are we to think for ourselves and as we all know witnessing a bit of nudity would surely turn us all into slavering sex beasts. (I believe it works along the same principles of smoking weed one day and waking up a heroin addict the next).
The trouble is there seems to be a whole load of double standards going on. A friend who recently went to watch the premiere of the new Sex and the City film this week complained that large chunks of the movie have been blurred to save us all from seeing Carrie and friends engaging in lewd behaviour (though I've heard that the press screenings escaped this censorship). It's certainly not the first time this has happened with American Gangster and countless other movies recieving the same treatment.
Yet, at the very same time advertisers seem to be pushing these alleged decency laws to the limit. Head down to the junction at Asok BTS and you can’t fail to notice a gigantic video screen that seems to show little else but a montage of attractive women in their underwear. Nothing particularly new you might say, but it is the director’s obsession for zooming in on the crotch of each model that really takes it to another (frankly seedy) level.
I’ve spoken to a few people who have admitted that it is frankly quite embarrassing to be confronted with a 20ft image of someone’s crotch whilst they head to work so how did the ‘moral police’ let this one slip through?
In reality it seems it’s just the latest in a line of adverts that seem to be following the first rule of the business – sex sells! At least when you buy your ticket to watch a film you are making a conscious choice about what you are prepared to see, a choice it seems that is not offered to those who happen to be passing Sukhumvit Soi 23.
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