Political Correctness Gone Mad?

This week The Sun has been banned from the Union. Just another the trend of censorship, has political correctness on campus gone too far? And is this just the start?

It seems to me that a small minority of people are dictating the policy of the university in a way that is not necessarily representative of the larger student body, just because they are happy to kick up more of a fuss. The general inertia of the student population means that this small minority can make their voices heard above what is widely accepted as the opinions of the majority.

Most people will concede that The Sun is a great example of poor journalism and misreporting catering for the less discerning reader, they choose not to read it. Similarly the models who appear in the paper choose to pose for the snaps, which appear on page 3, as part of a career which they pursue, check The Tab’s interview with Page 3’s Emma Kuzaria as an example.

Similarly, the Union has banned controversial song Blurred Lines in recent months, with its critics citing the promotion of “rape culture” as its primary message and flaw. The song has reached number one in 14 different countries and is the best selling single in the UK so far this year. These statistics suggest that those who enjoy the song far outweigh those who find themselves deeply offended by it. Admittedly the lyrics are crass but I find it unlikely that they motivate men to actually go out and rape women. In my opinion associations with rape serve merely to trivialise the suffering of those victims who have actually experienced rape.

This leads me to the use of this phrase “rape-culture”. Firstly, what does this even mean? Some kind of comment on what ‘kids these days’ are up to? It implies an inherent and ingrained vice possessed by the male population as a whole. Personally, although I in no way condone rape or serious sexual assault, believe the bandying about of this phrase, attaching it to any medium deemed offensive by certain groups of people, is dangerous. It serves only to reduce the shock value and desensitise people to something which at its route is a terrible, terrible crime, not a word which should be attached to a shit pop song.

Overall, I believe the apathetic approach of the majority to these debates favours the views of the more extreme and therefore outspoken speaking volumes in itself. I don’t believe it’s fair for the vast majority to be either a) tarred with the same brush as convicted rapists as promoting sexual assault or b) misrepresented by a few outspoken people who claim to voice the views of the student population as a whole.

Not a Sun reader or a Robin Thicke fan myself, I am however, of the belief that a University environment is one in which you should be free to express yourself and do as you will, without a small minority of people being able to censor what is available to those around them. Removal of controversial media should be voted on by a body representative of the whole rather than those who happen to make the most noise.