[fluffy bunny]

(Just providing a potential topic for discussion cos I'm bored). Apologies if the arguments aren't well structured- I'm doing this on the fly.

I think this stuff's gone too far, shattering the naievity of our youth.

OK I'm not a tellytubby fan, but why did it get blasted for having tinky winky in purple and carrying a handbag? So what?
What happened to the days of Rainbow (a kids tv series where George, Zippy and Bungle all went to sleep in the same bed at the end), Noddy (where originally Noddy and Big Ears went to sleep in the same bed), Captain Pugwash (who hung out with some imaginatively named characters such as Shag the cat). U got a yonger brother or sister? When they were scared they came and asked u if they could sleep in ur bed? Totally innocent?- not according to todays TV! But to lose that loses a certain something for me between myself and my younger brothers.

Why won't tv show repeats of shows that are nowadays potentially racist (after all they are a part of our history, and shouldn't be hidden), or reprint books which convey the same message (I hate to think what's gonna happen to all the anti-communist books eg Day of the Trifids in a few yrs time)

Why does every new tv show and recent film have an obligatory black character even in films where it's totally inappropriate due to time setting etc? (no that's not being racist- just an observation)

A woman can make offhand remarks about men, no problem, but a man makes a slight slip with the tongue about women, and he's treated like the scum of the earth. Stuff like this has resulted in the loss of conversation and rapport between male members of teams meant to be close enough to anticpate each other's next moves. Everyone's too afraid to open their mouths in case they say the wrong things and get reprimanded for it. Where has conversation in the workplace gone? Instead we've got people only expressing their true opinions on the internet where they can hide under false names!

OK political correctness is a great idea, but I think it can go too far.

[donquixote]

I agree. Most computer combat flight simulators(whose fans consider historical and physical realism to be extremely important) that concern WWII feature Luftwaffe planes with the swastikas removed. The recent aversion by the film industry to even sideways references to the WTC disaster is another good example. (Like the re-editng of Spielberg's E.T. in order to remove the word "terrorist")
It's almost Orwellian. Except that we don't need some all-powerful central agency to rob us of our freedom of speech...just a bunch of lawyers.

[saintjon]

Maybe those lawyers are an all-powerful central agency... (cue cheesy X-Files theme music http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif)

Seriously, yeah, bunch of crap really. If you want to find some serious promotion of this idea check out www.whatthe(insert (http://www.whatthe(insert) f-word here, can't be tickin' off Fitz!).com.

I think it's funny that someone named Fluffy Bunny is going off on this somewhat Leary-esque tangent. Cool.

[Zsinj16]

Yeah, I'm pretty ticked off with this political-correctness crap too.
Some examples are:

Okay, I'm not a rascist or anything, but when I heard that on the Cartoon Network on the Bugs Bunny Marathon that they were taking out the cartoon where that little black dude was hunting Bugs (you know the one, when that little guy goes around singing "Aihm gonna catch me a rabbit!!") because they thought it was rascist, well I was a bit disappointed and thought they were taking it a bit too far.

Also, now most of you on this board probably know that I hate Pokemon with a passion, but I heard this bit of news about the trading card game that really chafed me raw!! You see, one of the pokemon creatures' cards had what looked like a backwards symbol of a schwatstika (or however you spell the word) on the side of it for the symbol of the class of the pokemon creature.
Well, then, this angry nut of a woman whose child was collecting the pokemon cards called that card with the schwatstika-thingy in, and thus the company had to recall all of the versions of that card and remove the symbol from it!! Jeez!!! What a nutty, ridiculous thing to do!!

And another thing that happened here recently in the name of "political correctness" that was ridiculous was they took the twin tower scene out of the Spiderman movie!!!! Jeez!! Is America going to close it's eyes and ears to everything?!!
I mean, come on people!! We all need to get out of our comfort zones at least every once in a while!!!
Why, I for one am very suprised that they haven't changed the title of the next LOTR movie, The Two Towers, because of these lunatics!!

And another thing that I hate (and I've mentioned this before) whether it's related to political correctness or not, are these religious zealots who believe that those who read fantasy novels and play role-playing games are followers of satan!! I mean, come on!! I'm a Christian myself, but I don't believe that utter nonsense!!
These lunatics are horribly judgemental, and yet they claim to be following the Word of God, and yet God himself said "Judge not, lest ye shall be judged"!

Ironic, isn't it folks?!!

[This message has been edited by Zsinj16 (edited April 10, 2002).]

[saintjon]

PREACH THE WORD BROTHER!!! DOWN WITH THE SATANIC ROLE-PLAYING ACCUSATIONS!!!

[Penumbra]

Your disgust with political correctness seems justified to me. Politics, being people, is basically about individuals who seek power or some kind of an edge over others. When it filters into the arts, it tends to turn beautiful concepts into bland ones and destroys or converts the freedom of expression into something less savory. Writers can talk about it and give their opinion, of course, but I don't know how anything could be done to counter its effects, considering how politics controls wealth which in turn controls the exposure of art.

[alcatraz]

My favorite was always the political correct (or so it's called) version of rudolph the red nosed reindeer (more techical than politically correct, though)

ahhem...

Rudolph the nasally enhanced northern species of the deer family
Had a extremely light emmiting nasal appendage.
And if you ever caught the light.
You would even proclaim it emmited light.
...
...
so on and so forth (don't remember the rest)

People should start thinking whether or not something is intending to be "evil", if it really is "evil", and if "evil" really needs to be hidden. I, as a child myself, think that we could deal with hidden messages of communism in the oh so corrupt doctor suce stories and things of the sort. Banning things makes them unknown. Humans, especially the young, are curious. Again, humans, especially the young, love risks.

"On earth, there is nothing great but man. In man, there is nothing great but mind"
-Sir William Hamilton

How do you spell suce?
-Alcatraz

[wolfshead]

I don't like the sillier PC elements either1 Let's get back to telling good stories both in fantasy TV series and book, and forget about 'having' to add in or modify the rest. TV shows seem to be worse offenders than books, however...I sure am sick of seeing butt-kicking warrior women (who despite being tough always seem to have perfect makeup/hair, skirts up their rear ends and low cut tops!)and the like. Ditto black characters inserted into,say, medieval (or earlier) European settings. The series ROAR, set in iron age Ireland and starring Heath Ledger, had such a character; I wouldn't have minded so much if there had been a decent and even semi plausible reason given WHY this guy was running about the Irish countryside, but he was just plonked into the show with no explanation.

[e-Morgana]

This is the first time I've ever heard ROAR mentioned anywhere. You don't happen to know what ever happened to the series do you Wolfshead? I enjoyed the first few episodes (though I missed the pilot - damn) and then it just seemed to disappear.

[wolfshead]

It just vanished--pulled due to poor ratings. Actually, although it was historically inane, at least ROAR was decently acted and it certainly had the right 'look'. For the ultimate in awful, there was 'New Adventures of robin hood', which also had an anachronistic black chatacter, an episode with an alien, and a marion with a whp and a red mini skirt....