Should YouTube Remove Videos That Degrade Women?
Nov 25th, 2007 | By James Lewin | Category: Internet TV, Streaming Video, Video
The Taipei Times reports that YouTube is censoring its site in Taiwan by removing music videos that are degrading to women:
YouTube decided on Thursday to remove a series of music videos degrading Taiwanese women after angry reports from the Taiwanese public and media.
Over the past months, a YouTube user who dubbed himself “Handsome Hong Kong Guy” (ȶôÊ∏ØÂ∏•Âì•) had uploaded a series of music videos titled “Dirty Ditty” (Á≤óÂè£Ê≠å) on the YouTube Web site.
The music videos of several well-known Taiwanese folk songs included lyrics that had been changed to make derogatory comments about Taiwanese women.
Although YouTube declined to respond when asked whether the videos in question had been removed, users found that while searches for “Handsome Hong Kong Guy” or “Dirty Ditty” displayed results, but further attempts to access the contents loaded messages indicating that the videos have been removed due to violations of the site’s terms of use.
In July of this year, YouTube also removed videos featuring someone singing songs degrading to Korean women.
We can empathize with the desire to remove content that is degrading to women from YouTube. But when you start censoring the site, where do you stop?
If you took away all the booty rap videos, misognystic comedians, tits videos, hot chicks doing stupid sh*t, and Miss Teen USA, you might not be left with much more than the likes of this video:
[…] [via Podcasting News] Link to This Post: […]
[…] [via Podcasting News] […]
[…] YouTube has recently removed music videos from its Taiwan and Korean sites that were considered by some to be degrading to women. Rate This Post: Bookmarking links: Related Topics: censor, censorship, torture, video sharing, YouTube Related articles: Brightcove Gives Up on User-Generated Video, YouTube Intros Multi-Video Uploader, Raises File Size Limits To 1GB, Media Companies Draw Line In The Sand On Copyright Infringement, YouTube Intros International Sites, RCA Small Wonder An Inexpensive Digital Video Camera […]
yes they should delete them
YES
If the women wrestling degrades female and should be removed then the men should be removed also
If it is indeed the oldest sport and enjoyable to watch then leave them
men wrestling should be gone aswell
women wrestling is not degrading
Internet censorship is a fool’s game. And not just technologically speaking. By trying to censor, you mire yourself in all kinds of word games and hypocrisy and often defeat the entire purpose of your existence. In this case, bypassing conventional media standards. If you start acting just like traditional media by censoring content, what makes you any different?
This story is an example of word games. “Degrading” is such a subjective term, it actually means nothing. Is stripping degrading? Is being on Reality TV any less degrading? Is wearing a bra or a burka degrading? Is getting paid less than a man for doing the same job degrading? I think most You Tube videos can be seen as degrading on some level. Hell, you could argue that the entire capitalist system is degrading, as it treats all women (and men) like commodities. Under that logic, as a for-profit company, You Tube should be removed from You Tube. (Not that it would be no real loss.)
This is the WORLD WIDE WEB, meaning that, unlike NBC or CBS, it exists WORLD WIDE, not just suburban, mini-van driving, America. Contrary to popular beleif, All kinds of things not even noticed in some cultures offend onlookers from other cultures, some to the point where they kill people over it.
Who sets the standards? You can’t even get Americans to agree on what is/isn’t offensive or degrading. How in hell can you set a global policy that remotely approaches fairness or consistency? You can’t. It’s like getting 6 billion square pegs to fit in one round hole. The fact that you will get people posting on both sides of the argument here is proof enough.
But by trying, you do one of two things, or both. You either express ethnic/cultural/ bias by forcing one group’s standards upon everyone, which actually makes YOU the racist/sexist/etc. The other approach is to take everything down that offends anyone. Adopting this approach might not even leave us with Normal Rockwell paintings to look at.
Yes female wrestling is degrading to women ! Thats why I don’t watch them makes my stomach feel sick! Men laughing at to women hurting eachother calling it a catfight. Women are not animals ! We shouldn’t physically fight eachother. I really don’t want to be rude and sexsist but I think these videos make women look like animals and the men that like to watch hopeing that the women are going to rip eachothers clothes of are pigs!