more on "return of the 7 dirty words"

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 12:38:54 -0500 (EST)
From: Eszter Hargittai <eszter () Princeton EDU>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on "return of the 7 dirty words"
To: dave () farber net

Hi,

I had a related blog post last month, I copy the text below.  It generated
a few dozen comments and it was interesting to hear about some of the intl
comparisons.

Eszter

---
http://www.eszter.com

For underlying links and follow-up comments see
http://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/001031.html

Sing a bleep bleep

Posted by Eszter

The seven dirty words are still a no-no on US radio (unless they're not
sexual in nature, it turns out), but what about other suggestive lyrics?
It doesn't seem clear when things do and do not get censored. Take, for
example, the song Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind. I haven't heard
that one on the radio, but a friend tells me that it is not bleeped out
despite the line "she comes round and she goes down on me". Recall,
however, Alanis Morissettes song You Oughta Know from a few years ago when
a portion of the line "Would she go down on you in a theatre" did get
bleeped out.

Is it a sign of the times that such lyrics no longer get censored or as a
friend of mine hypothesizes, are women allowed to be less sexual in such
lyrics? Are women singing about sexual actions more likely to get bleeped
out than men? It's just a hypothesis. We haven't done a systematic
analysis to answer the question. But it is certainly interesting to
observe who and what gets censored.

For some interesting reading on all this, check out this document from the
Federal Communications Commision. It has some amusing examples of
indecency. Note, for example, the comment about the song Sit On My Face:
_The song was found to be actionably indecent despite English accent and
"ambient noise" because the lyrics were sufficiently understandable._
It looks like those of you thinking your English accent might get you off
the hook better think again!

[Thanks to my friend Shawna for bringing some of the above to my attention
and for pointers to relevant sites.] 

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