This morning on BBC Radio Five Live the American band, “Rage Against the Machine” landed the BBC in trouble by repeating four times “Fuck you , I won’t do what you tell me” in their rendition of their song “killing in the name of”. There are a number of issues which make this event note worthy. In no particular order:
- Rage Against the Machine is widely tipped to become Christmas number one this year after a grass roots campaign to keep X-Factor off the top spot.
- Nicky Campbell was conducting the interview (w
hich added to serious comedy value) - The production team had asked the band not to swear, were surprised when they did and then deemed it so problematic that they did swear that they decided to cut them off before the end of the song
I will briefly take up this last point.
Firstly, did they seriously expect a band (even if you knew nothing about the bands history could you not guess from the name) to not go against the orders and swear on live radio? Anyone (even Nicky) must have seen that one coming. Apparently not, check out the surprise and panic in the reaction (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/17/rage-agains-machine-singer-swears).
Secondly, why are we so upset to hear swear words on radio? All you have to do is jump into a London cab or watch some football on the stands to hear some good old fashioned swearing! In fact, you have to do well to avoid swearing these days. Fuck it…I would go as far as to say it’s almost impossible to go a day in an urban environment without hearing some “offensive” language. Why do we insist on representing an alternative reality in our media and suppressing the charms of everyday life?
Let’s clarify something, I believe strongly in mediating what slips onto our TV’s and radio’s. There is some stuff out there which is plain nasty. What I am suggesting however, is that we have got our morals confused with tradition. Why do we allow so much grotesque violence (for no reason other than historically violence was considered ok) and yet blackout swearing and sex? We can see this moral puzzle played out in film ratings. Hotel Rwanda for example, follows the story of the Rwandan Genocide (in some harrowing detail) and is considered OK for a 12 year old to watch (in the UK). If you added in some boobs and casual bit of swearing this would suddenly become unacceptable for a 12/13/14 year old to watch. Have you ever questioned why an erect penis is an absolute taboo in film, but there seems to be no limit to the levels of violence that can be portrayed in films? Now question which one is most “normal”? If I had a choice I would let my kids see and hear swearing and sex way before the levels of violence that are normalised in our society. I suggest the only difference is which morals have been historically acceptable?
The only shame about this whole story is that Rage and the advertising chiefs up at Sony BMG (who own epic records) know that swearing on radio will be a media money spinner!
Hynd's Blog 
A letter to Exeter University on “Britain’s horniest student”
Dear Exeter University,
I am writing to you about Elina Desaine, aka Britain’s horniest student. I write to highlight what I feel to be an obvious point: that having lots of sex is not a disciplinary offence.
Well, at least it shouldn’t be. It is a life-style choice that people make. If someone wants to have safe-sex three times a week with different partners, who are you to say they shouldn’t?
You claim her actions “may cause reputational damage to the University” but offer no evidence to why this is. Why would one student’s alleged promiscuous behaviour reflect badly on an institution?
You need to spell that one out because I just can’t see it!
If you stick by this accusation – that she has caused reputational damage – I would be fascinated to know where you plan to draw the line.
Is it talking about the sex that’s a problem or actually having sex? Or is it not the sex per se that’s the problem but that she claimed to have had sex with lots of partners? Do you plan to draw up some guidelines to the number of partners per term a student is allowed to have before it becomes a disciplinary offence? Or is it that she is celebrating having lots of sex with lots of partners?
If it is the latter, a cursory conversation with plenty of male students will find a fair number willing to boast about their sexual accomplishments – should we be starting an inquisition to hunt out all students who are proud of having sex with multiple partners?
You must be able to see your position on this issue is bonkers…can’t you?
I don’t know this but I am going to hazard a guess. I am guessing that Elina Desaine, aka Britain’s horniest student’s decision to enter that competition rubbed up the wrong way against someone’s personal morality – they didn’t like what they perceived to be a glorifying of immoral promiscuous behaviour.
Well, like it or not, this isn’t a good enough reason to discipline someone. Especially for an academic institution.
It is in light of this that I call on you to drop all proceedings against Elina Desaine.
I look forward to your response,
Steve Hynd
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