Tag: trigger warnings

The FCC Wants Warning Labels for Shows With ‘Transgender’ Content

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering new content ratings for TV shows that depict or discuss gender identity. Doing so would be well outside the FCC’s legal authority, and some free speech organizations warn that such a request could constitute a violation of the First Amendment.

At the direction of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, broadcasters developed content ratings for TV shows, patterned after the ones for movies. The TV ratings span TV-Y (appropriate for all children) to TV-MA (mature audiences only), plus more specific content labels for suggestive dialogue, bad language, sexual content, and violence. They also established the TV Parental Guidelines Oversight Monitoring Board (TVOMB) to administer the new ratings.

The government now suggests those warnings are no longer sufficient.

“Recently, parents have raised concerns that controversial gender identity issues are being included or promoted in children’s programs without providing any disclosure or transparency to parents,” per a public notice the FCC filed in April. “Specifically, the industry guidelines that parents rely on are rating shows with transgender and gender non-binary programming as appropriate for children and young children, and doing so without providing this information to parents, thereby undermining the ability of parents to make informed choices for their families.”

As a result, it continued, “We seek comment here on any changes that can or should be made to the current ratings system to ensure that it is responsive to the issues that parents confront today.”

There are several problems with the memo—starting with the fact that the FCC lacks the authority to create or require new content labels.

The 1996 law did call for the government to create a “television rating code” and an “advisory committee,” unless the private sector “established voluntary rules” to do so within a year of the law’s passage. As the FCC acknowledged in its April memo, “Industry representatives chose to set up their own voluntary system, and the Commission in 1998 found that industry’s approach met the relevant statutory criteria.”

Even setting that aside for the moment, the memo’s phrasing also suggests any “transgender [or] gender non-binary” content is potentially inappropriate for children—after all, why else would it matter if parents were sufficiently warned about it?

This broad scope has First Amendment implications. “If what the Commission is in substance proposing is that any program featuring or discussing transgender and gender non-binary persons be flagged with a content warning, that is the stigmatization and marginalization of an entire segment of the population through the machinery of the ratings system, and it is the kind of viewpoint targeting forbidden by the First Amendment,” according to comments filed to the FCC by The Future of Free Speech, a nonpartisan think at Vanderbilt University.

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University adds ‘trigger warning’ to James Bond novel ‘Dr. No’

An entertainment staple for over 50 years, the suave British spy James Bond has been featured in numerous novels and 26 films, the most recent being “No Time to Die,” actor Daniel Craig’s last as Agent 007.

News broke this past week that the film franchise’s new owner, Amazon Studios, digitally removed 007’s handgun from various Bond actors’ poses. But after fan outrage, Amazon put the guns back … and offered no explanation, according to OutKick.

The Pierce Brosnan pose for “Goldeneye” looked particularly stupid.

Now the University of Portsmouth in the U.K. has included the Bond novel “Dr. No” on a list of 50 books that have trigger warnings, according to The Telegraph.

“Please note: James Bond films and novels are popular to this day but contain many problematic issues such as racism, misogyny and xenophobia,” the university said. “We will be discussing the problems with this text in all of our seminars.”

The school said it “encourages students ‘to engage with teaching texts in an informed way’ through content notes.”

Content warnings recognise the diverse lived experience of students and that there can be content they will find challenging or potentially distressing as a result of their experiences. It is our duty of care to our students to do so. The warning enables students to prepare emotionally, engage more deeply and discuss the issues raised by the content critically and constructively.

Ian Kinane, a lecturer at the University of Roehampton and editor of the International Journal of James Bond Studies, defended the trigger warning.

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BEYOND PARODY: Anniversary Edition of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ Includes ‘Trigger Warning’ by American Professor

A new anniversary edition of George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel ‘1984’ has been released and it includes a ‘trigger warning’ in the introduction that was written by an American professor.

Apparently, progressives in higher education don’t understand the concept of irony.

Trigger warnings are one of the progressive concepts that sprang out of liberal academia in recent years and assumes that the reader is so mentally fragile that they need a warning for material that could somehow traumatize them.

The College Fix reports:

75th anniversary edition of ‘1984’ contains trigger warning by American U. professor

Courtesy of Dolen Perkins-Valdez, who according to her website has “established herself as a pre-eminent chronicler of American historical life” and teaches literature at American University, the intro makes note that “there are no Black characters at all” in the novel.

For a “contemporary reader” such as herself, Perkins-Valdez (pictured) says this gives her “pause.” She also says a “sliver of connection” is difficult with a book that “does not speak much to race and ethnicity.”

On the June 2 edition of the show “America This Week, Live,” host Walter Kirn had co-host Matt Taibbi in stitches pointing out the paradox of such an introduction in a book whose themes include the use of language and freedom of thought…

“So, this version of ‘1984’ has a trigger warning […] here it goes: Dolen Perkins-Valdez [says] ‘I’m enjoying the novel on its own terms, not as a classic but as a good story. That is, until Winston [Smith] reveals himself to be a problematic character.’

“‘For example, we learn of him he dislikes nearly all women. And especially the young and pretty ones. Winston’s views on women are, at first, despicable for the contemporary reader. He is the kind of character that can make me put a book down.’”

Just unreal.

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AMC Slaps Trigger Warning On Goodfellas For Lack Of ‘Inclusion And Tolerance’

AMC has angered audiences by placing a trigger warning on the classic mobster movie Goodfellas, noting that it lacks “inclusion and tolerance.”

The New York Post notes that “AMC Networks added a trigger warning to the classic mob movie Goodfellas — rankling those who were in the film and wiseguys alike.”

The warning noted that “This film includes language and/or cultural stereotypes that are inconsistent with today’s standards of inclusion and tolerance and may offend some viewers.”

It’s a film about the mafia directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, and Joe Pesci. It isn’t supposed to be inclusive.

It is also based on a true story about Henry Hill, the infamous mobster who was associated with the Lucchese crime family of New York City from 1955 until 1980.

Pretty sure that he wasn’t tolerant or inclusive.

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Anger As Shakespeare Plays Infested With Trigger Warnings

Productions of Shakespeare plays in the UK have had “content guidance” trigger warnings placed on them, prompting a backlash.

Recent productions of Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London have seen audiences being forewarned that the plays contain “depictions of suicide, and scenes of violence and war.”

The warnings have also prepared audiences to expect “misogynoir references,” a made up mashed together term for misogyny and discrimination against black people.

Theatre goers have blasted the move as ridiculous.

Actors Ralph Fiennes and Ian McKellen both recently slammed the trend, noting that people shouldn’t be mollycoddled when it comes to theatre.

Fiennes recently noted “There are very disturbing scenes in Macbeth, terrible murders and things, but I think the impact of theatre is that you should be shocked and you should be disturbed. I don’t think you should be prepared for these things and when I was young we never had trigger warnings before a show.”

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