Censorship

Censoring Advertising

One of the most common ways women suffer from censorship concerns the female form and advertising. Advertisements often targeted by censors focus on women's undergarments and menstrual products. The Middle East remains one of the strictest environments for women, as demonstrated in numerous examples of censorship. One of the most conservative examples of censorship regarding female undergarments recently occurred in the Gaza Strip, when the Hamas Islamic movement instituted a strict set of regulations concerning female underwear, which has been banned from shop windows. Mannequins baring lingerie have also been outlawed from storefronts.

The United States remains much more lax about advertising lingerie, but still encounters problems with censorship. Though advertisements for the lingerie chain Victoria's Secret run freely on many channels, in 2010, executives from the FOX and ABC networks censored a commercial from the plus-size clothing chain Lane Bryant. Censors claimed that the large women in the commercial showed too much cleavage; running advertisements by Victoria's Secret in which models had smaller breasts (and therefore less cleavage) did not suffer from censorship. These examples of censorship prevent women from celebrating their sexuality.

A related subject concerns recent advertisements in the United States by Kotex. Network censors forbid scriptwriters to include the word vagina in their series of commercials for the U by Kotex campaign. As Megan Lustig reports in “Women's Wednesday: Censoring the V-Word,” instead of using the anatomical terminology for female genitalia, Kotex had an actress in their commercial use the phrase down there to refer to the vagina. Even so, several networks also refused to air that commercial. This example of censorship perpetuates mystifying female anatomy. When appropriate terms cannot be used to refer to body parts openly, censors encourage women to feel embarrassed and ashamed of their bodies and womanhood.

Censorship and Pornography

The most controversial issue involving women, their bodies, and censorship is pornography. Many assume that all women favor censoring pornography because the industry capitalizes on objectifying women. Many pieces of pornography also celebrate violence against women, degrading women, and placing in women in subservient roles. While many women do campaign for censoring pornography much more strictly, certain factions of women, like those in the Feminists Against Censorship Organization, argue that pornography should not be censored further than it already is. Women against censoring pornography believe that sexual freedom is an important right for all women, no matter how they choose to express that freedom. Denying sexual freedom or awareness (like in the U by Kotex ad campaign) promotes women who are uneducated and unfulfilled in topics about sex. Furthermore, women against censoring pornography also value women executives and filmmakers in the industry because they provide viewers with a woman's perspective in an industry dominated by males in power.

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