The Hypocrisy of Censorship in the West

While reading about the issues related to adapting George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones work into a graphic novel I was confronted again with a theme that I had found unusual in the original. That was the age of the characters seemed much too precocious for the roles they were fulfilling. There was a definite warp in the time scale of the world Westeros in which the story was being told.

This was made overt in the unusual timing of the seasons etc. The world was familiar enough and drew on the concept of seasons from what we know on Earth and yet the irregularity and length of those seasons clearly points to another world. And while these characters are humanoid from all descriptions it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are Homo sapiens either.

Therefore I found it really as a matter of fact that the age of Daenerys Targaryen was 13 on her betrothal to Khal Drogo and she is depicted as being brutally deflowered at this young age by Earthly standards.

And here is where the irony starts. It appears to be perfectly OK to construct a literary world in which a 13 year old girl can be married and deflowered according to the customs within that world. However the instant you try to portray this in a graphic novel, you run afoul of the PROTECT act of 2003 (US law) which prohibits “obscene visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct”. In this respect it is based on whether it violates community tastes.

So here we have an example of graphical depiction having an acknowledged greater force in being able to cause offence. Words provide a layer of abstraction to the things being described which can be accessed only by the literate. Whereas pictures are accessible to all.

This reminded me of the great furore that had been caused by the depiction of Muhammad in a series of graphics in a Danish newspaper in the past decade. Even more ironic since one of the things that is much discussed in hate discussion regarding Muhammad is the age of one of his wives being 12 and the negative views of this in the contemporary West’s cultural mores.

It seems hypocritical that the West enforces codes on graphical depiction of its own taboo subjects and ignores completely the sensitivity of another culture it sees as below it. As if the culture of the West being obviously superior in its own estimation such that it makes it simply a prerogative that it can ignore these other community standards.

Nevertheless I found the whole thing quite revealing of many double standards that are always operating in individuals and communities.