The employees in the censor office must be getting paid a lot of overtime lately.
The latest example of censorship that has managed to baffle me once again is the censorship of Madonna’s video “What It’s Like For A Girl.” The video was played only once on MTV and VH1.
The censorship of this video is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen happen to a music artist. Madonna must be getting used to it however, since two of her videos in the past, `Erotica’ and `Justify My Love’, received little or no airtime because of its sexual content.
Some aspects of the video could have been deemed controversial. For example, there was a gun in the video. Madonna pointed the gun at two police officers, and then shot them – with water.
Also in the video, Madonna uses another instrument to give an electrical shock to a man at an ATM machine. They used that same device on MTV’s show “Jackass.”
“Jackass” is also the show that a young child from Connecticut was trying to imitate when he poured gasoline on himself and set himself on fire. Funny, “Jackass” is still on the air. A warning is run before that show, something that they could have done to the Madonna’s video also.
It is difficult not to question the motives of MTV and VH1 for refusing to play this video. One idea that has been held by several women on this campus is the fact that the men in charge at both networks maybe felt a little intimidated by the video’s content.
All of the violence portrayed in the video is directed towards men, inflicted by a woman. Eminem can run a video in which he abuses women and his videos are not censored. Why? Maybe because he is a man.
I do not condone the use of violence in videos run when children are watching. However, I do think that if you are going to run them, you should destroy the double standard.
Madonna’s “What It’s Like For A Girl” video did not, in my opinion, contain enough violence to warrant its censorship. It could have been much worse, and it definitely deserves some airtime, even if only at night.
However, for those of you reading this who have not seen the video, I am sorry if I have just wasted your time. You will never be able to see what I am talking about anyway.