Viewer advisories and the laugh test

I think it was Karl Marx who said that all dialectical systems contain within themselves internal contradictions that lie at the root of change and development. These contradictions build up or reveal themselves gradually, but the changes that occur tend to be abrupt, when tension has built up enough.

Breaking free from the jargon, what it really means is that rules and policies that once seemed reasonable, start to make less and less sense as conditions change. These conditions include human consciousness. We begin to see the world in a different light, and the rules and policies that are with us begin to look more and more ridiculous.

Now, follies and absurdities can be the tiniest things found in the most unlikely places. But they will illustrate something that speaks to a larger issue in Singapore.  I came across one last week.

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Around 12 midnight last Thursday (18 September), I turned on the television, only to discover I was on Channel 5 instead of Channel NewsAsia. I was about to change the channel when I caught a brief announcement prior to the airing of an episode of the series, Janice Dickinson Modelling Agency. This announcement, inserted by Mediacorp, warned viewers that the show to follow contained "adult themes".

"Adult themes" in Singapore's censorship-speak is almost always used to refer to gay and lesbian content. Our God-fearing Christian bureaucrats cannot even bring themselves to use accurate language but have mandated euphemisms. 

Intrigued, I stayed on Channel 5 to watch the show instead of going over to the news channel.

Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, the Janice Dickinson Modelling Agency is a reality show with the camera following former supermodel Janice Dickinson as she runs her new business. A typical episode has her models (male and female) parading in various degrees of undress for clients to select, followed by scenes of photoshoots and runway shows, often with a lot of skin.

Here are some stills from the series, to give you a flavour of what's on screen:

What could it have been? Two possibilities come to mind: The episode that I caught had a towel-drop scene and a coming out scene.

Towel-drop. Janice Dickinson supplied 3 girls to be number bearers at an International Fighting League (IFL) event in Portland, Oregon. Prior to the fight itself, the models were to be towel girls at the weigh-in. One of the IFL fighters mischievously pulled the towel down during his weigh-in, exposing himself to the media. Desiree, one of Janice's models standing next to him, got extremely upset over the exposure, and her inability to continue doing the show after that -- she was an emotional wreck -- would be the human drama in that episode. (See, however, my comments at right).

The towel drop was blurred out in the final cut that was broadcasted, as you can see here. (Click the image for the clip from Blinkx)

Shown on television, Desiree is the girl at left, walking off

 
But I know my readers want to see the real thing, so I did a bit of sleuthing and found it on brightcove/perezhilton.com. (Click image for the clip)

Not shown on television

Coming out. The other reason why an "adult theme" warning might have been issued was the 5 minutes of the episode in which Janice was shown asking one of her models, J P Calderon, whether he would agree to pose for the cover of Instinct magazine. This was an attractive modelling job, giving the guy a great career boost, but it came with a catch: Instinct was a gay magazine, and the cover model would also be featured in a story about himself being gay. That meant that J P Calderon had to come out as gay in order to get the job. He thought about it and later agreed. 

Calderon was in street clothes when he was shown speaking with Janice over this; later he was in a swimsuit for the photoshoot. On the right is the final photo selected for the magazine cover (Feb 2007 issue), and below is another ogle-worthy pic of him.

Which of these two elements triggered Mediacorp's "adult theme" warning? 

I really do not think the towel drop triggered the "adult theme" warning, especially as the boxer's genitals were blurred out. 

Much more consistent with what we know of Singapore's censorship policies, would be that it was the coming out of J P Calderon that triggered it.

The Media Development Authority (i.e. the state censors) have on previous occasions fined TV stations for airing documentaries and talk shows wherein interviewees spoke of their being gay. Just earlier this year, Mediacorp was fined S$15,000 for airing another reality show with a gay couple in it (see box at right). The broadcaster must have taken the lesson to heart and inserted the "adult theme" warning into this episode of the Janice Dickinson Modelling Agency for this reason.

J P Calderon

Does such a policy not fail the laugh test? Here is a series with models in underwear (sometimes less) every other minute. The camera lingers on their curves -- in the stills above, note how low the camera angles are -- and the whole point of the business is to sell lust. You can show any amount of skin, albeit on a late-night slot, and no warning is necessary, so long as it is heterosexual skin. But the moment someone, fully clothed and sitting on a couch, declares himself gay, it's a transgression that people should be forewarned about in case they suffer shock. Marx must be chuckling in his grave.

© Yawning Bread 

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