Brits Lead Prude Patrol

In a somewhat weird turn of events, the British have taken the reins from American Conservative morons, becoming ever more vocal in their calls for the censorship of all things comics-related.

Some years back, the Brits pushed for -- and got -- a censoring of classic Tom and Jerry cartoons (the story was covered here in a drafted post, never published), claiming animated, anthropomorphic images smoking cigarettes lead children to do the same. My rebuttal was: Even retarded children who have no adult supervision are capable of distinguishing between fact and fiction.

Just this week, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) had to defend its rating of the Dark Knight, due to more than 80 complaints from slack-jawed "parents" and Conservative "Christians." While the board has yet to cave-in to these prigs, the backlash may have some effect on later ratings -- we will have to wait and see.

Now, the British are upset over a Barbie doll in Black Canary's outfit. The Barbie, from Mattel's Black Label line, is suggested for "the adult collector, age 14 and older," but that is not good enough for the Christian Voice, which also calls for the death of alleged murderers based on "overwhelming evidence" alone - "overwhelming evidence" for Christian Voice means two eye-witnesses. There is a similar organization in America with the same name, but the two claim not to be affiliated. The American Christian Voice openly advocates the discrimination of homosexuals.

If this sounds familiar, it should: other organizations have made the same denouncements based on similar religious grounds. Again, it is important (to them) that we point-out Christian Voice, as well as its American counterpart, claim no affiliations - regardless of the similarities.

The Black Canary doll, which ships in September, is only one of several DC-based superheroines to get the Barbie treatment. Other versions include Supergirl, Batgirl, and Wonder Woman.

To Mattel - and Barbie's - credit, they have fought against the doll's image being improperly associated with adult contexts in the past. We can only hope they do not cave-in to these fascists.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

UPDATE:  This post was hijacked by the Far-Right (US, ISraeli, and UK military).  Hopefully the links have been corrected (for now). - 2018