the war on censorship

The issues of what is socially acceptable and what is taboo change every fifteen years or so, but now what we see on television, in the movie theaters, or even at the check-out lane at Kroger is disappointing to some. The whole idea of an outspoken, free-spirited culture seems to be getting out of hand, and out of style. America was the land of dream imaginable, now it seems we settled for inappropriate and degrading images. We often see a television show in the middle of the afternoon that has mild language and brief nudity; or we go to see a movie and a preview for a action film has a flash of a barley dressed woman. Although it is unavoidably true that sex sells, and that companies are out for all the profit they can get, we should be concerned with what our children can see and have access to without an adult there.

Now, to narrow down the enormous genre of what should be censored, or have limited access, I strongly feel that what we see in our daily lives and simple routines have way too much sexual context. I am a young person, and I am more desensitized to sex provoking images than the older or younger age brackets, and I do read most of the magazines at the check-out stand at CVS but everything seems to be ridiculous. I feel there should be a limit to what can be seen at any given time. I am perfectly happy with a black cutout over adult magazines at gas stations, why can suggestive magazines like Cosmopolitan or all those car magazines with virtual naked girls on the cover have the same respect? Some places are way too diverse in their customers to shamelessly display such vulgar images and articles. I would like to see some slight changes; if I cannot change what we have in our magazines, then where they are displayed.

The six pictures I took are just some of the everyday images that bombard us. The pictures are all very different and give off different impressions; for this reason, I edited them uniquely. The picture of the books is done in purples and blues because they usually give off a calm relaxed feel, which is what I wanted to give off. The caption I added was my poor attempt at satire; “Barnes and Noble, not so noble.” We hold bookstores up in our minds as educated places or places that our parents would love to take us, yet there are numerous books that are less that parental approved. We should not be calm and relaxed when we see these books in the open at a retail bookstore.

The picture of the two tattoo magazines was impressive to me because of the fact that you do not even realize the two women are naked because of all the tattoos, and then when you do, the pictures take a completely different look. They change from art and showing off their tattoos to soft porn and more edgy. I chose to edit the picture in a soft finish and reduce the colors because the image already has a lot going on, but also because of the amount of skin and innuendos you have to swallow. The caption I added, “Beauty is in the eye of the book holder”, just came to me because of the fact of all the tattoos would make some people think the women are not attractive or sexual; others would think the women are beautiful. It reminds us that beauty is not absolute.

The third picture of the Gap Body model was at the mall. Everyone at the mall gets sucked into shops because of their displays, but Gap is showing a woman in her bra and this picture does not seem so radical. But think about it, a woman in her bra is being shown in the middle of the mall, at a well-known family clothing store. It struck me odd so I took the picture at the bizarre angle to make it even more intriguing. I also made the lighting darker and added a glow to it because the picture itself was way too bright to seem to be sexual. I added three words to the picture; “Pushing and pushing” because these ideas and the item the picture is selling just seems to push the limits as far as we allow them. We do not rest on any standard for too long.

The picture of the St. Pauli Girl beer was done in a simple way. I wanted to keep it simple, yet convincing because it says a lot. Again, I chose a blue color, but a brighter blue because the three boxes show some variations. The first box is bright, cheery and draws you into the photo, then as you go through the next two, it get darker and greyer. Many things are like this, they seem all cheery and good, and then they turn dark. The caption on this photo says “imported from sexual brain”, it may not make total sense, but it does not have to. We import beer, models, cigars, and everything that relates to the sexual ideals. Importing the minds behind it would make sense as well.

The L’Oreal picture is clean cut and I got the caption from the top of the box. I kept the picture almost the same as the original because it has innocence to it, yet the woman is using her eyes and face to make you find her attractive. Although this picture is not purely about sexual content, it does say something for how America sells products. If this box had a girl looking straight at the camera with no suggestive eye language, no one would pick up the box. The colors in the picture are icy, cooler tones because her eyes and face language are way too steamy.

The last picture is my favorite. It is a commercial shot and I made it into a tri-photo. Each photo has a different color hue because it is such a commonly seen ad and the colors make it pop more into an editorial shot with feeling behind it. The shot seems nonsexual but when you think about it, it is doing the same thing the L’Oreal picture was; using subtle sexual thoughts to sell a product. This picture takes a more obscene place in my mind, however, because the angle of the model’s face and the sky line next to her. The caption in the picture says “Maybe it’s just Maybelline” coming off of their tag line “Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline”. I chose it because maybe it is just Maybelline, maybe not.