To Darken or Illuminate?
Thoughts on policing morality in Indonesian society.
The new Deadpool movie is finally out after months of anticipation. Though I have this moral calling to support Hollywood and the actors by viewing the movie through legal means (aka going to the overpriced theater and indulging the cacophony of clueless movie-goers who are only there because of the hype caused by social media and Deadpool’s awesome ad campaign), I’ve decided to wait it out a few months so I can download the pirated version. Why? Censorship. I do not want to get fragments of a movie when I’m paying full price for a seat with other people at the movies; I want the full movie shown on screen. It’s what I pay for!
And I’ve also heard of disgruntled parents criticizing the movie as being unfit for children. News flash: If you bring your kids into an R-rated movie, you’re bad parents.
In other news, the Indonesian government has once again proven itself as being too quick to act. In response to the presence of a bunch of allegedly gay emojis and stickers which “promote an LGBT lifestyle” on mobile messaging apps (LINE, WhatsApp, etc), the Indonesian government has issued a crackdown against these apps and has requested them to remove the emojis. The basis of the claim was moralistic at best, citing that the stickers and emojis “go against local culture”. But, what this really shows is, once again, censorship.
There’s a reason why my family shunned local TV in favor of cable TV years ago. Sure, we have to pay extra, but the cost is worth the price. Indonesian TV programs are shit. Unoriginal, cliched, and boring as hell. But recently, the censoring agency (yes, we have that) has taken big leaps towards educating the general public about what’s okay and not okay. See, Doraemon, the lovable blue cat robot from Japan, is still a big hit in Indonesia. The anime itself is still on air and it has been for as long as I can remember. The same goes for Spongebob Squarepants. However, as of late, I can’t help but feel that these two innocent cartoons have been receiving some North Korean treatment. In an episode of Spongebob, Sandy Cheeks’ torso was completely blurred out. You know, beneath the astronaut suit, she wears a bikini. In an episode of Doraemon, Shizuka (the lead heroine) also had her torso blurred out when she was portrayed wearing a bikini. Again, an issue of censorship gone completely outta whack.
I am not a fan of censorship. Not one bit.
Censorship is the opposite of elucidation, illumination. It is the hand that flicks at the candle wick, trying to extinguish the light. It is the kerosene that cooks books to 451 degrees Fahrenheit. It is your 4th grade teacher telling you that you can’t read 6th grade books because you’re not “ready” yet. To me, censorship darkens the mind, clouds it, rather than illuminate it.
I am afraid that the current government is too focused on policing everything, censoring everything, because they themselves are not ready to face the reality out there. So, they bullshit themselves into thinking that everything is offensive and has the potential to undermine everything this good, God-loving society was built upon.
Everything is done under the pretext of “morality”. Nakedness is blurred out, as it is feared to taint the innocent minds of the majority. Words are redacted or euphemized with politically-correct terms so that they don’t offend anyone. Visuals that show the slightest hint of being “deviant” are taken action against.
But who is to say that morality is only possessed by one party? Who gets to define what is moral and what is not? Context does.
A naked woman’s body in and of itself is amoral. It has nothing to do with morality, none at all! A woman’s body is natural, it is biological, it something that 50% of us are born with… and some less than 1% aspire to be. Boobs, genitalia, smooth skin, these things have nothing to do with morality. But when put in the context of religion, suddenly these things are closely tied to morality. Oh no, that woman is showing third of her knee in public! She must be stoned to death, that immoral harlot!
The same goes for bikinis. A bikini, in and of itself, is merely an article of clothing one wears when engaging in activities by the poolside or beach. In no such way does it possess a moral quality… unless someone makes it so. This is why we censor bikinis on squirrels, because God forbid a child would want to engage in an act of bestiality after seeing a squirrel wearing a bikini in a kid’s cartoon!
A person’s sexual orientation is also not related to morality in the slightest. A man can love a woman or another man; it is solely his choice, which may be influenced by biological factors. It becomes a moral issue when someone decides “Oh shit, I hate it when my neighbors cornhole every other night” and then makes a fuss of it. And this is why homosexuality is present in more than 100 species of life, but homophobia only exists in a single species.
Maybe instead, rather than censoring everything that “offends” whoever practical obscure referent object there is, it would be better to educate. Enlighten, rather than darken.
Maybe perhaps, rather than censoring bikini-clad women on TV, parents should be good parents sometimes and teach their children that a bikini is simply an article of clothing. That it does not mean “she’s asking for it” and that when a woman wears one, she’s automatically guilty of breaking your narrow-minded dogma.
Maybe perhaps, rather than unilaterally censoring stickers and emojis showing LGBT tendencies (whatever the eff that means), why not accept that such sexual preferences exist and move on with it? It kinda seems like a waste of taxpayer money to be getting riled up over some creative representations of human behavior. Investing in helping young Indonesians race at the F-1 would be a better idea.
Maybe, just maybe, rather than whining like a bunch of babies and hiding under the “morality” pretext all the time, people should just man the fuck up and accept that differences exist out there. There are different people out there, with different cultures and backgrounds and stories. It would be an insult to the human experience if we were to black them out and silence them just because they’re “different”.
