if something offends you, don't read it / change the channel etc

hmmmmmmmm yes.
often though, it can be beneficial to see something that offends the senses. it wakes us up to what is happening, and we can then try to change things or at least learn something.

mind you, responsible adult persona aside - i just like a good fight sometimes. haha

it really troubles me. because on the one hand, i am not pro censorship. but sometimes i have to ask: what is the difference between exercising power in a direct manner and an indirect manner, really?

im not sure i get you di, censorship removes the control of the individual over what they are exposed to, whereas switching channels is done with personal intent.

I don't understand.

and so this is probably neither here nor there, but I just want to re-iterate, most rape does not occur outside at night by strangers.

oh right. i got the impression the first post was sarcastic, and she is arguing in favour of watching things you really really hate just so you can slag them off and appear intelligent in front of your mates.

carry on then.

donna, i don't really understand either. i'm trying to get at how access to mainstream media is restrcited - only certain peoples views of life are presented in magazines, tv etc. probbly this is dumm, but i wondered if it was as much a crime that in the same way that our society has direct measures of making sure certain people don't take up physical space (such as rape, beatings, murderings of people who are say female, gay, or nonwhite), there are indirect measures of making sure that there voices are not heard either (perhaps inhabiting less conceptual space, but i'm not sure), such as uneven access to resources such as the mainstream media (meaning that many of us can participate in viewing/reading this stuff but often we have very little say in what gets said.) oh i dunno. sorry that was a really long sentence. while allowing room for things like flexibility of interpretation... it still worries me the amount of sexist, racist homophobic images my little brother (13) gets exposed to without even meaning to, and no-one is encouarging him to develop the critical facilities to challenge this stuff. oh crap i sound like maude flanders now "won't somebody think of the children"... but i know how much that stuff can influence a person, as someone who went through high school with major body-image problems thanks to the media. urrggh. anyway. this probably isn't making much sense or is just plain silly.

spectra i was being saracstic with all the statements, all of those statements rub me up the wrong way.

ok i understand what you mean, i agree and i also worry 'bout the children' and what they are and are not exposed to. i think though, that there are many who are prepared to 'fight the good fight' and it is THAT which we should concentrate on. it may sound a bit inane but i do try to express my discontent to various mediums when i get sick of the way they portray only one end of the social spectrum, and also hope i am able to rasie my son with a far more balanced view of the world than is displayed via mainstream tv etc.
your little brother being shown the images we all get bombarded with cant really be stopped im afraid, but you, as the adult, can try to explain to him the difference between 'blindly following media opinion' and learning how to form his own by looking further. i had a small lesson in that myself recently when at my sisters place with her husband and son ( 8 ). my nephew was watching tv and saw an ad on aucklands pollution in which they show all sorts of people miming smoking ( ie: children, pregnant women etc ). he asked what it meant, and my bro-n-law explained, but also followed it up with " but you remember, ben, that we cant believe everything we see on tv, so what do YOU think might be the real reason for this ad ".
ok, a lame-ish example but one way in which we can teach children not to just accept what is said / written / shown by media as gospel.
as for the indirect silencing of certain groups of people, well that has always been done too but once again it is up to us ( meaning anyone who thinks about it )to be very loud about it and bring these issues to the attention of everyone around us. be a pain. i am, hahahaha.
it is disheartening, and it is scarey to see the extent of 'legal censorship' that coasts along without many people realising, and there will always be those who are happy to swallow what is offered without question. but that is the way of our world and i try to take comfort in the fact that there have also always been others who are prepared to question and fight etc.
god, sorry, getting all 'lectury' here. it is a topic that infuriates me too. i get especially annoyed at the way certain media networks are so condescending to their audience,( and 'womens magazines are some of the worst culprits ) and i picture the executives sniggering into their expensive beer glasses ( or chardonnays )as they decide what way to sway public opinion tomorrow.

and yes it is as much a crime to expose one view only ( via magazines tv etc ), as it is to silence certain parts of society.
i think it is also criminal that so-called powerful people get to decide who is 'right' and then portray that world-wide.