Monday, May 05, 2003
Baise-Moi
[In early 2002, the film 'Baise Moi' was given a R-rating (suitable for adults, ie those over 18, only) enjoyed a brief season in Australian cinemas. The Christian Right, which has a fairly substantial voice inside Australia's conservative Coalition parties, went into high gear hystreria to get it banned. They succeeded - the fim's classification was revoked. An independent cinema in Sydney, Australia, attempted to show it again in 2003 - without sucess]
I am amused to hear these saintly, ‘middle-aged’ (in mind, rather than body) ‘ladies’ prattling about ‘rules’ and ‘laws’ that are designed ‘to protect us/someone else’.
What these dear ones seem to forget is that it was a legally-constituted body (The Office of Film and Literature Classification) who gave the film an R-rating in the first place. In fact, it is THEY who are acting both illegally and immorally, by engineering the reversal of a decision which was made after due consideration not only of The Law, but also of The Rules and Guidelines ‘proper to a civilized society’.
Doubtless these ‘guardians of public morality’ believe that they are acting in the service of some ‘higher law’ — read ‘totally negative morality’ — originated several millennia ago by a gaggle of howling lunatics in the hills of Israel and currently promulgated both by the bible-toting hillbillies from the slab churches in ‘the bush’ and by the smooth operators of the cathedrals of ‘the big smoke’.
I am amused to hear these saintly, ‘middle-aged’ (in mind, rather than body) ‘ladies’ prattling about ‘rules’ and ‘laws’ that are designed ‘to protect us/someone else’.
What these dear ones seem to forget is that it was a legally-constituted body (The Office of Film and Literature Classification) who gave the film an R-rating in the first place. In fact, it is THEY who are acting both illegally and immorally, by engineering the reversal of a decision which was made after due consideration not only of The Law, but also of The Rules and Guidelines ‘proper to a civilized society’.
Doubtless these ‘guardians of public morality’ believe that they are acting in the service of some ‘higher law’ — read ‘totally negative morality’ — originated several millennia ago by a gaggle of howling lunatics in the hills of Israel and currently promulgated both by the bible-toting hillbillies from the slab churches in ‘the bush’ and by the smooth operators of the cathedrals of ‘the big smoke’.
