Category: Censorship in Canada

With all the bad news coming out of Russia, a new censorship law is a minor item, though symptomatic of a state flexing its muscles over people and culture. As reported by the ITAR-TASS News Agency, “Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law prohibiting explicit language in literature and arts, mass media products, at… Continue reading “Sit on it!”

Censorship is often presented as a struggle between artists who want to express themselves and a repressive government. Others take sides, either arguing that they have a right to be protected, or that they have a right to see whatever they want. Striking a balance is challenging. It’s even harder when the material facing censorship… Continue reading Keeping it Decent

All television channels in Canada must meet Canadian content regulations, including “adult entertainment” channels. The CRTC recently noted that three of these channels are not meeting the requirements for content and captioning. The news was reported with the usual level of adolescent snickering that occurs whenever the mainstream media contemplate what might make pornography Canadian.… Continue reading Canadian Content in Porn

A few weeks ago the Huffington Post published a list of “8 Films That Forever Changed Sex As We Know It” (NSFW). These are supposed to be the eight essential films that reflect changing sexual mores on screen. I found the selection odd and limited. A friend challenged me to do better. Here’s my list… Continue reading Fourteen Films that Influenced Cinema Sex and Censorship (NSFW)

In the past few weeks, the health journal Pediatrics has published two studies concerning violence in movies.  “Gun Violence Trends in Movies” found that gun violence in American PG-13 movies has increased over the past twenty years to the point where there is now as much gun violence in PG-13 films as in R films.… Continue reading Viewing Violence

Four theaters in Sweden have added a sexism rating to their movies, resulting in a great deal of publicity for these theaters and a Scandinavian cable channel that also plans to use the rating. It’s a simple pass/fail of the Bechdel test. The Bechdel test is from a 1985 comic by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who… Continue reading Ratings films for Sexism

In recent weeks there has been minor panic in the world of ebook retailing, as big vendors such as Amazon and Kobo overreacted to the discovery of self-published pornography in their catalogues. Their shock at their own content and their reactions bring Captain Renault to mind. Content featuring non-consensual and underage sex was removed, along… Continue reading Editing the ebooks

A couple of weeks ago, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that British Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will begin blocking access to pornography, unless customers specifically request otherwise. The announcement was followed by a predictable flurry of complaints about the technical and legal challenges of doing this, cries of censorship,  and defenses of the idea.… Continue reading Rating the Web

CBC News reports that an accomplished twenty-two year old male ballet dancer was forced out of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet for appearing in gay porn movies. The school won’t comment other than to say that they have a code of conduct for all students. The code does not appear to say anything about the moral… Continue reading Ballet Dancer / Porn Actor Kicked out of Royal Winnipeg Ballet