Here I am writing about censorship again. Censorship is one form to control a society. In many countries, especially in Asian countries, censorship is vital to safeguard and uphold the morality of its society mainly from being influenced by foreign cultures; Western culture. Hence censorship can be witnessed in films, dramas, books, music, and other forms of media. Though generally there is a universal acceptance on what's right and wrong amongst Asians, censorship is rather subjective. It is no black or white matter. What is considered as "inappropriate" to one, may be "appropriate" to another. This is due to the demographics of the people consuming the media, even when we are all clustered as Asians.
The problem with censorship that I see in our country is beyond this factor. Our problem is that censorship is done irrationally at times. Let's take music as an example. In Beyonce's If I Were a Boy, the word beer was censored. In Rihanna's Cheers (Drink to That), the word bastard was censored. There are many other ridiculous censoring done in music which annoys listeners. It's not because I'm assent to words such as bastards or any other foul words, it's just that censorship should be rational. It should be done beyond the literal meaning of the word itself. It should be done by analysing into the context of the song too.
Though we are not native English speakers, in this nation, most listeners who listen to English songs are well versed in the language. Our vocabulary is beyond a beginner's level. Hence, we can read what's in between the lines. Sadly, those who censors the media for us either underestimate our knowledge of the language or worse, are not well versed in the language themselves. As a result, innocent words like shit and sex are censored for the fear of so-called Western influence, but songs like Akon's Smack That, or many of Pitbull's that sometimes contains detailed lewdness (according to Asian standard) are aired freely without censorship. So, what's there to censor, really?
