The self-appointed moral police of the world is out and about again. Bakamoono.lk in a recent post has spread the normalization of censorship accompanied by ill-informed activism. They have shamelessly spread clickbait published by the BBC.
It is titled Japanese Magazine Apologises Over University ‘Sex Listing’. The title is purposely vague and misleading. I believe the said ‘Sex Listing’ refers to the ranking of the university by how sexually promiscuous their student body tends to be.
To rehash, following a campaign led by an offended individual, a magazine decided to pull back a story. So, what exactly is so offensive about the article?
The most damning indictment in the BBC article goes;
The article mentioned five colleges where students were “easily available” at drinking parties and described how to “coax” women and judge whether a woman was sexually available based on her clothing and appearance, reports say.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46794476
Note; coax though similar in sound is very different from the word coerce.
Is it Called For?
The words “reports say” would show that even the BBC article is going by second-hand information. The underlying campaign has also failed to reach its signature goal.
Sadly, the magazine is only in Japanese and I can’t find the original article. However, another article also deemed offensive by the original campaigner from the same site and referred to in her YouTube description (on the campaign video) is available. Though I agree this is subjective, a google translate of this article also makes it difficult to spot anything calling for censorship. The magazine is similar to the Guys Only publication found in Sri Lanka.
Going by the description I believe the original poster is mostly concerned with the original article as “This sexualizing of women is not funny.” She should then choose not to read it. People calling for censorship must realize the gravity of their request and explain articulately as to why it is called for.