Knocking the Vote

Dublin, Ireland, May 25, 2003:

Ireland has recently banned a video to encourage voting in next month's European elections because it shows a bare nipple.

"That's unconstitutional!" yelled Ron from across the ocean in America. Ron is an American presidential candidate from an upstart political movement based in the state of New Jersey. Ron and his followers call themselves Ronatarians and have Americans thinking in revolutionary terms -- again -- some 225 years after the former British colonies declared their independence.

In Britain, where bare breasts are shown daily in tabloid newspapers, the film will be shown in censored form. The breast-feeding sequence survives but shots of the offending nipple have been edited out.

"Are you kidding me?" questioned Ron. "What's the matter with a nice pair of hooters? How could that possibly be offensive?"

The 45-second film was produced by the European Parliament's audio-visual department and shows a suckling baby trying to decide which of its mother's breasts to feed from.

The idea is to show people making choices -- like voters at the ballot box.

While the sight of a baby suckling at its mother's breast is considered acceptable for hundreds of millions of other Europeans, Irish officials believe it would cause offense in Roman Catholic Ireland.

"I decided that due to sensitivities here, this is not the right image to promote anything in Ireland, unless it is of a medical or scientific nature," the head of the European Parliament's Irish office, Jim O'Brien, said.

Ireland, where over 90 percent of the population is Catholic, is traditionally conservative on issues of sexuality. Abortion is illegal and homosexuality was decriminalized only in 1993.

"Oh, Jesus Christ…gimme a break," said Ron. "The Irish are exploding car bombs and drinking themselves back to the 20th century, yet they are complaining about some ta-tas on TV? What's the world coming to?

"This O'Brien character is a pussy."

In Britain, film advert regulators found the suckling shot racy, likening the image to "the sort of breast shot you would associate with a men's magazine."

A member of the four-man, four-woman Cinema Advertising Association (CAA) panel, which took the decision, said they found that they ended up looking at the breast and not the baby.

"It was literally the breast full screen size with an erect nipple side on and the infant gazing across at them," said Greg Lyons, a copy consultant at the CAA.

"The panel found themselves looking at something that was very difficult for them," he said. "The infant was contemplating the breasts in rather an adult way."

"Only adults are voting in this election right?" said Ron. "Who cares what the baby thinks…he won't be stuffing the ballot box later."

Rosie Dodds, policy research officer for Britain's National Childbirth Trust, said the advert could have been innovative and striking.

"I do think it is a pity that we make the link between the sexuality of breasts and their nutritive function," she said.

"I just don’t get this Europe-place," concluded Ron. "Maybe that's why I live here in America where boobs are celebrated. Exposed breasts and elections go together like the yin and the yang."

Posted by Bittle at May 25, 2004 02:27 PM

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