Originally Posted By Mr F A School District(Which I attended as a Child) is Considering a Ban on the Websters Dictionary, due to a Parent being offended by the term "Oral Sex" which is in the dictionary. The full story from the Press Enterprise: <a href="http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_W_dictionary23.466f8d4.html" target="_blank">http://www.pe.com/localnews/in...8d4.html</a> <<The Menifee Union School District is forming a committee to review whether dictionaries containing the definitions for sexual terms should be permanently banned from the district's classrooms, a district official said Friday. The 9,000-student K-8 district this week pulled all copies of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary after an Oak Meadows Elementary School parent complained about a child stumbling across definitions for "oral sex." The decision was made without consultation with the district's school board and has raised concerns among First Amendment experts and some parents....>> I personally can't believe any school district would even considered wasting valuable tax dollars on something like this. It's a DICTIONARY, it's SUPPOSE to include almost all words and terms in the English language.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy I wonder what happens when that parent finds out about the internet!
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Isn't looking up "dirty" words in the dictionary a normal childhood past time? Why do so many Americans pretend to have such a strong sense of morality when it comes to sexual behavior these days?
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones Bart: Aw. Me and Santa's Little Helper used to be a team, but he never wants to play any more since his bitch moved in. Marge: Bart, don't ever say that word again! Bart: Well, that's what she is. I looked it up. Marge: Well, I'm going to write the dictionary people and have that checked. Feels like a mistake to me...
Originally Posted By DAR Who looks at dictionary these days? I suppose some of you are going to tell me people still use the phone book too.
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<Why do so many Americans pretend to have such a strong sense of morality when it comes to sexual behavior these days?>> I don't think it's anything new, and seems to go all the way back to our Puritanical roots. This country has always been totally hypocritical when it comes to anything about sex.
Originally Posted By Lady Starlight Imoho, It is rediculous, about the dictionary's being pulled. There are far worse things than our kid's learing what a certain word means.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "I don't think it's anything new, and seems to go all the way back to our Puritanical roots. This country has always been totally hypocritical when it comes to anything about sex." To this extent? Were there school districts banning dictionaries in the '70s?
Originally Posted By Mr X <a href="http://classicfilm.about.com/b/2008/02/26/tcm-investigates-pre-code-hollywood.htm" target="_blank">http://classicfilm.about.com/b...wood.htm</a> ***Hollywood censorship began after a few sensational scandals in 1922, and the official code was put in place in 1930. Yet the studios largely ignored most restraints during the early '30s, the better to lure Depression-era audiences with sensational, escapist fare. It wasn't until 1934 that the rise of the Legion of Decency helped bring about strict adherence to the production code, also known as the Hays Code. The code barred frank depictions of nudity and dark topics like prostitution, and insisted that evil characters never be allowed to triumph in the end and that the law and order would not be mocked. It was a creative straitjacket that lasted 30 years, and spawned a lot of clever work-arounds until the movie rating system was put in place in 1968.*** <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Hill" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Hill</a> On "Fanny Hill", which holds the record for longest term of banishment in the USA... ***The book eventually made its way to the United States where, in 1821, it was banned for obscenity. In 1963, Putnam published the book under the title John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure which also was immediately banned for obscenity but the publisher challenged the ban in court. In a landmark decision in 1966, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Memoirs v. Massachusetts that the banned novel did not meet the Roth standard for obscenity. In 1973, the Miller Test came into effect, and as a result the ban on the novel was lifted because although it appeals to the prurient interest and at points is patently offensive, the work taken as a whole does not lack literary or artistic value.*** Wow. Banned for over 140 years. That's got to be some sort of a record. Yeah, Puritanical views and censorship are nothing new. Also, I think it ebbs and flows along with the level of religious fervor going on at the time. Sure they're trying to ban science in the schools now (at least in Texas, perhaps as a test bed) but science also took a dive during the dark ages for similar, religiously motivated reasons. Just sayin.
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<I don't think it's anything new, and seems to go all the way back to our Puritanical roots. This country has always been totally hypocritical when it comes to anything about sex.>> I seem to recall reading that in the Puritanical colonies that women often took the husbands to task (church court?) for withholding sex from them and that the courts ruled that wives had that right.
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<It wasn't until 1934 that the rise of the Legion of Decency helped bring about strict adherence to the production code, also known as the Hays Code.>. The term "B movie" is a relic from the Legion of Decency. It originally was used to label movies that had some material that made it objectionable for family viewing, the equivalent of todays PG rating. Of course today the meaning has evolved to mean a low quality movie. An interesting tidbit: The much beloved and today considered very wholesome "Miracle on 34th St." was slapped with the B rating when it was released. Why, you might ask? Because the dashing young lawyer is courting the divorced mother.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Who looks at dictionary these days? I suppose some of you are going to tell me people still use the phone book too.<< I use it to look up dirty last names.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Yeah, Puritanical views and censorship are nothing new." Ummm... we're talking about the ENGLISH DICTIONARY, not Hollywood films or literature.
Originally Posted By JeffG >> "The term "B movie" is a relic from the Legion of Decency." << Although the Legion of Decency did have a "B" rating, I've never seen anything to suggest that was the origin of the term "B movie". Everything I've ever seen on the subject has indicated that "B movie" originated as the term that the studios used to refer to movies that were intended to play as the 2nd film in a double feature. -Jeff
Originally Posted By mele Do they really think that by banning the definition of oral sex that kids will never have it? How could anybody be that stupid?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Do they really think that by banning the definition of oral sex that kids will never have it?<< If they didn't want people thinking about that stuff, they shouldn't have named it a dictionary.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***"Yeah, Puritanical views and censorship are nothing new." Ummm... we're talking about the ENGLISH DICTIONARY, not Hollywood films or literature.*** Dictionaries are no exception, and the censorship goes back in history the very same way. However, much like the film studios that policed themselves so the government wouldn't have to, dictionary publishers back in the day simply refused to include any "offensive" words. Which is actually much worse.
