A few words from Rob Mansfield

Interesting article from Mark Lawson on the self-censorship that some of the BBC writers went through recently, specifically Ashley Pharoah, co-creator of hit series Life On Mars.

They knew that making Philip Glenister’s character DCI Gene Hunt likeable was the key to a successful show. This meant that racist comments, which let’s face it in 1973 would have been the norm, were removed, but homophobic and sexist comments were kept in.

This is a strange situation. No-one would deny that racist comments on a primetime BBC TV drama series would be seen with a very dim view, but is homophobia any better? Or the blatant sexism aimed at DC Annie Cartwright?

There has been a wave of nostalgia for the 70s recently, fuelled by the likes of Life On Mars, despite the decade being pretty grim for the most part: three-day week; strikes galore; prejudice, so why shouldn’t a series like Life On Mars reflect the true horror of the decade.

The irony is, if they’d had a black character who was equally racist, they’d have probably got away with it. Is that double standards?

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According to Mashable, Facebook is under attack for being anti-gay, after it was revealed that anyone whose surname is “Gay”, a relatively common Anglo-Saxon name, is barred from joining the social networking site.

Admittedly, you can apply to their customer support team, if you desperately want to join Facebook, but that’s not really the point, is it?

I have a friend whose name is “High” and she had a similar problem. After weeks of us moaning, because she wasn’t on Facebook, she contacted customer support and they relented and allowed her to join.

OK, so they’re not completely discriminating, but what’s the big deal with people having these surnames? Are they seriously worried that people will start to make a mockery of the site? With more than 31 million registered members, I’m not sure that the odd “Gay”, joke or not, is going to bring down the Facebook empire?

Does this mean they would stop former German professional footballer Stefan Kuntz from joining, because his surname is potentially dodgy?

Considering how silly some of the Facebook groups are, it seems that they’re being excessively protective.

If people want to subvert the site, they will. I have a friend who has created a profile for her pet rabbit Stella. Loads of us are now connected to her and it’s just a little in-joke. Do you think the whole fabric of Facebook will crash around its ears, because of it?

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