Closing Doors
The price of censorship
Ted Barker, staff
In our culture, writing and art are free forums of expression that we should be able to contribute to without fear of judgment or persecution. People need the freedom to report on events and express anything they feel. Undoubtedly there will be ideas that we find offensive or against our beliefs, but because of the fact that these forms of expression should have no limitations, we need to be able to choose how to process what is given to us and learn something from it.
For those unaware of an issue brought to our attention by a reader, an illustration by myself was published in our October 31, 2007 issue of a man eating a dismembered penis. The image, I agree, is grotesque and graphic. However, it merely illustrates an exact scene described in the article, a scene that actually happened and was in turn written about. For every illustration that I produce for the Manitoban, I interpret the text and produce an image to accompany the article. In this particular case I chose to illustrate an element of the article that would provoke the reader to question the ideas of cannibalism and sexual deviancy.
In Tim Herds article: (article name and page) he describes the drawing as being “offensive”, “smut” and “crude”. He then continues to explain the “price of freedom”. The freedom that means: “everyone is free to do the wrong thing.” The freedom that means: “people are free to do stupid things.” I can think of a million stupid things people choose to do, but personal expression, creativity and art are no where near that list.
Art is our field where no taboo should live and where we should be able to explore ourselves and our world creatively. When we censor ourselves we lose the ability to grow as a person and as a culture. If people just brush off someone’s idea they don’t like by saying it is illegitimate or not considered, they are merely closing the doors to their own development and understanding.
Art is meant to be absorbed and processed. Every side needs to be considered and examined in order to reach an intelligent conclusion. I think with today’s fast-cut commercial messages people often just barely process their first impressions before moving on. Unfortunately when this is done with artwork the potential layers of thought and meaning are lost.
In Tim Herd’s article he writes about the Manitoban and that “if they see differently from us, there is nothing we can do.” I suggest that what we can do is take what is given to us and create our own interpretation and response. The response may be negative, which is legitimate, or if we take the time to consider all elements the response may be enlightening. Every aspect and situation in our lives is an opportunity to learn and grow, if we choose to immediately disregard or eliminate what is given to us, our lives can quickly become empty.
Imagine a world in which everything that anybody finds offensive is deemed inappropriate and therefore not allowed. What would we be left with? Think of the things we would be missing now if we had not challenged censorship. We would be living in an artless and cultureless society. This situation is somewhat unrealistic, but can be used as an extreme example of how censorship does not work. How can we choose what to censor? To whom do we need to listen to? Who has the ultimate say of what is appropriate? Instead we each need to learn to find our own way of observing, analyzing and interpreting the information given to us. Although we can’t choose what other people decide to express, we can choose how we receive that expression and we can choose, in turn, what information we return to others.
The beauty of art is that the message is in the eye of the beholder. It is entirely up to the viewer to conclude a meaning. What you get from an art work is what is important and it will be different for every individual. A feeling, be it disgust or delight is what was meant to be evoked. I do admire (students name)’s courage and passion to write a letter expressing themselves. People need stimulation, and emotion is what makes us human. Use your response to further understand yourself and your world. It’s easy to push away what we dislike and ignore others, everybody does it, but do we learn from this? Next time you’re offended by an image or an idea, try asking yourself why rather than turning away.
