Censorship of homosexuality on at least one of our overseas-sourced pay TV channels looks set to continue for some time yet despite a number of gay people objecting to a man-on-man kiss being blurred on the E! channel.
Viewers expressed their concern to GayNZ.com after Sky TV's E! channel blurred over a scene from the movie I Love You Philip Morris of actors Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor kissing. They felt it was unnecessary and conveyed the message that two men kissing is "somehow shameful or unpalatable."
"They don't censor scenes from movies and shows where there is violence and all sorts of gross stuff, why should they think two men tenderly kissing was an affront," argued Raymond of Auckland. "Why would they put a large oval 'modesty patch' over two men kissing?" asked Dominic of Wellington.
Through Sky TV, which has not itself commented on the issue, the American producers of the E! entertainment news programme say the scene was blurred "because of the restraints placed upon us due to the international nature of our programmes and channels."
The E! spokesperson said New Zealand viewers see an international version of the programme that goes out worldwide just hours it is assembled. "We have to ensure our content is compliant in all of the territories that we transmit in, and unfortunately there are some territories that same sex kissing is required to be blurred."
'Reinforces homophobia'
Gay New Zealand television producer Glenn Sims of RedFlame Media says he understands where the E! producers are coming from, but believes that the "conservative sociology" of the American TV marketplace "which got so indignant about a flash of nipple" in prime-time a few years ago is just as much to blame as the institutionalised homophobia of some of our Asia/Pacific neighbours "such as Singapore and Malaysia."
"But we are very lucky, being a tiny market in international terms, to have access to so many TV channels," Sims says, implying that such 'coy' trade-offs might be part of the bargain. But censoring such gay-themed content "reinforces homophobia," he acknowledges.
E! says it tries "to be sensitive to the different requirements of each territory" and claims to be in the process of "overcoming the technical hurdles that will allow us to create territory-specific versions of our shows." The spokesperson would not be drawn on how long that process might take. "I hope it happens sooner rather than later," says Sims.
The full, uncensored trailer for I Love You Phillip Morris appears below.
