The Guardian has guidance about swearing – but not other kinds of
sexually explicit material that may offend. Usage relies on editorial
judgment. Readers often write expressing concern about the effect of
such material on their children. While the Guardian is not written for
children, a father of an 11-year-old made a plea for more care. He
objected to the inclusion of a response by Peter Tatchell to the
question "what has been your most embarrassing moment?" in Weekend magazine. He replied "mistaking a sachet of shampoo for lube when having
sex. His bum was blowing bubbles for hours".
The Guardian Readers' Editor.
Chris Elliott concluded;
"I respect his views but I judged the Tatchell quote as something
that reflects a society in which gay sex is no longer taboo and that
jokes of this nature are the standard fare of standup comedians on Live
at the Apollo, week in, week out on the BBC, just past the 9pm
watershed. So the latter would be acceptable to the majority of our
readership, vibrators too. But I had to think about it a bit."
PS Still haven't written my angry email about photos in The Guardian of gay men without faces...
Posts
"PS Still haven't written my angry email about photos in The Guardian of gay men without faces..."
ReplyDeleteI have to say, I always felt the no faces thing was, while unfortunate for what it implies, more a symbolic thing and therefore understandable. A sort of visual shorthand, I guess.
However, I just had a brief search of some newspaper sites for "marriage" articles and many of the ones about straight marriage do have pictures of faces... albeit, mostly pictures of the bride's face while the groom is as faceless as the gays in some. Odd. Maybe it's just men they don't like the look of??
I think it's cause they don't think gay men are out - or are worried about outing someone - even though IRONY they could use a stock photo.
ReplyDeleteIt's like how Pride events are almost always illustrated with a photo of a drag queen - fine, but it's a gay man in disguise.
We have faces, we exist...