http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/arts/television/23park.html?src=me&ref=arts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1763
This isn't my post for the week, but just an issue I've been hearing a lot about lately and I was wondering what your opinions on it were. You've probably all heard about the controversy regarding a recent episode of "South Park" that planned to depict the Prophet Muhammad and was censored by Comedy Central after threatening statements about the shows creators appeared online. (If you haven't heard about, here a couple links to articles that describe the controversy). I have never watched "South Park" (nor do I have any desire to). If any of you watch the show (or even if you don't), what do you think about this issue? Could representations (of Muhammad and others) on this show be considered Orientalist? If portraying Muhammad is very offensive to some people, should others be allowed to do it simply because it is not offensive to them? Should the network have taken the steps they did to censor the episode? I'm not quite sure how I feel about this complex issue, and I'm curious to know what you guys think.
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I think that South Park should be respectful to those who find depictions of Muhammad to be extremely offensive especially because South Park is only doing this for entertainment purposes. More so, I see no reason for the creators and writers of South Park to put themselves in danger simply to get a few laughs. However, I only understand the bare-bones of this issue and I suspect knowing more about the historical context would immensely add to the complexity of my understanding (I’m sure a critical theorist would agree), maybe once finals are over I’ll get the chance to look into it. Background: Most Sunni Muslims believe visual depictions of Muhammad to be strictly forbidden, they fear that depictions may lead to idolatry (when the image is more important than the person it is depicting).
ReplyDeleteIf this is recent, this is not the first time South Park has done this. I agree that they should be sensitive to what others find offensive, especially if it is on a national or religious level. Not only does it create poor relations between the US and the middle east, it offends US citizens that happen to be Muslim.
ReplyDeleteI think that at times it's acceptable for people to portray things that are offensive to others but not themselves if it is not meant to harm anybody or to exploit the fact that they find it offensive. However, I do not think that was the case in this instance.