Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 258198" data-attributes="member: 23">Yes. That&#039;s about my take on it. I&#039;d far prefer material that&#039;s considered offensive in some way isn&#039;t hidden, but can be viewed with the understanding of the context of times and places in which they were made.Keeping the work out there like this is an improvement on the tendency to show an untruthful censored version of the original material (as the BBC are increasingly doing).I believe the only way to move forwards is to understand and learn from the past. I&#039;ve never understood the tendency to want to hide something because it&#039;s unattractive or just plain ugly. Cultural nuggets that show how certain attitudes manifested are some of the most powerful tools available.If that means adding a disclaimer, so be it. I&#039;m still not sure what to make of this sentence though:I think I understand what&nbsp; they&#039;re trying to say but I find the language extremely patronising and prescriptive. Saying these things &quot;were wrong then&quot; isn&#039;t helpful at all. I&#039;m not saying it&#039;s right that certain stereotypes were ever acceptable. But acceptable they were deemed to be at the time. So saying they &quot;were wrong then&quot; is yet more revisionism, which perpetuates the damaging illusion that things have always been as comfortable and enlightened as they are today.Wouldn&#039;t it be more helpful to give the context, present the evidence and trust the audience to decide for themselves what is (or was) right or wrong.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 258198, member: 23"] Yes. That's about my take on it. I'd far prefer material that's considered offensive in some way isn't hidden, but can be viewed with the understanding of the context of times and places in which they were made. Keeping the work out there like this is an improvement on the tendency to show an untruthful censored version of the original material (as the BBC are increasingly doing). I believe the only way to move forwards is to understand and learn from the past. I've never understood the tendency to want to hide something because it's unattractive or just plain ugly. Cultural nuggets that show how certain attitudes manifested are some of the most powerful tools available. If that means adding a disclaimer, so be it. I'm still not sure what to make of this sentence though: I think I understand what they're [U][I]trying[/I][/U] to say but I find the language extremely patronising and prescriptive. Saying these things "were wrong then" isn't helpful at all. I'm not saying it's right that certain stereotypes were ever acceptable. But acceptable they were deemed to be at the time. So saying they "were wrong then" is yet more revisionism, which perpetuates the damaging illusion that things have always been as comfortable and enlightened as they are today. Wouldn't it be more helpful to give the context, present the evidence and trust the audience to decide for themselves what is (or was) right or wrong. [/QUOTE]

Verification

6 + 4 =