Censoring (was:DD&Co #15)

[Jørgen Andreas Bangor]

Wes:
> Also I didn't mean to imply I approved of the censorship.

No, I understand that. I may have sounded a bit rough when I answered 
you. I didn't mean to, although I certainly meant what I said in the 
letter.

I my, not at all humble opinion, Disney's censoring is mostly plain 
stupid, and I certainly don't want them to make Egmont use the same 
policy. I don't mean that just any kind of stereotypes may be used, 
though, but I do think the people of Egmont are able to chose their 
material without anyone telling them how to do it.

As David said, we regard these old stereotypes, f.ex. Gottfredson's
Thursday, or Barks' Norwegians, as old cliches. They aren't meant
to do any harm, and I can't possibly see why anyone should be 
offended by them. Everyone knows that Africans doesn't act or look
like Thursday. BUT, I do not think that any kind of sterotypes may
be used, as I said. Images of groups of people, whether this is 
because of colour, religion, or whatever, with the purpose to hurt
them in any way, make me feel sick. None of the sterotypes used 
in Barks' or Gottfredson's, or Herge's for that matter, stories are 
of this kind. They are just old cliches, and should be viewed in a 
historical light, and not just be pretended as nonexisting, like Wes 
said.

> Perhaps if Barks had it to do over again, maybe he wouldn't have 
> included such Degrading Stereotypes of Norwegians in "The Lemming with 
> the Locket." ;-)

I wouldn't want him to. I think they are funny :-)

I certainly think it's a shame that some of Gottfredson's stories are 
banned just because of some touchie souls. I do have these banned 
stories in Norwegian (yes, it's mostly in that strange Italian format, 
but still), and some time ago I would have thought that this was enough. 
After having a read a lot of Barks stories in the original language, I 
have indeed changed my mind (I found that I actually need the Carl Barks 
Library in Color, so I have been subscribing to it for a while now :) 
Everyone who has read Geir Hasnes' letters to this list will know why. 

Well, after having thought about this matter of offending/not-offending
stereotypes, it struck me that I'm not so sure I really know what
I'm talking about. I belong to a group of people that has never been
rated as less worth by any other groups, so I haven't experienced this,
as some other of you (or your older relatives) may have experienced
(well, the romans used to call us barbarians, but they were probably
right, and the Swedes may have something to say, but they are Swedes ;). 
But, anyway, most, or probably all, Norwegians, and this probably goes 
for most Europeans, are so educated that they know the difference between 
an old cliche which is just meant to be a good gag, or not meant as 
anything at all, and something done in a matter to hurt someone. I have 
never seen a Disney story misused like f.ex. Darwin's theories.



   Jorgen