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Refused Classification
May. 10th, 2010 10:42 pmFour Corners had a rather good piece on the proposed Australian internet filter tonight – Stephen Conroy once again came across as someone who has no idea what he’s talking about. I especially liked that they had a bit on an anti-abortion protester who’s site would be blocked by the filter – the conservative Christians lobbying for this need to be reminded they won’t be the ones deciding what gets banned either.
Anyway, it reminded me to check up on what the restrictions actually are on material in Australia. After a great deal of searching through government websites, I was finally able to find a copy of the latest classification guidelines for publications. Browsing through it – yeah, I always forget how draconian Australia’s classification systems actually are.
And, looking at the rules for publications to be refused classification – i.e., banned - I noticed that it isn’t just directed against depictions of, say, sexual violence or ‘fetishes which are revolting or abhorrent’, but also descriptions. Now, granted, it’s going after ‘gratuitous’ descriptions, which it defines as ‘included without the justification of a defensible story-line or artistic merit’, not just any description in a story, but…
Well, I like to think most of the stories I’ve written for kink meme prompts had good storylines and artistic merit, but I’m not convinced the government would see things the same way. Now, sure, I doubt the government is likely to ever see screening kinky fanfiction as a priority, but it makes me feel kinda weird to think I’ve written a couple of stories floating around out there that could technically be on the list*.
On the other hand, if this proposal does result in a team of government bureaucrats somewhere having to reach consensus over whether, say, xenophilia counts as bestiality or if explicit Luke/Leia fics count as incest if they’re set pre-RotJ… well, I guess then at least some amusement would have come out of this bullshit.
* Actually, I think most of my stuff would squeak by due to lack of detail. What can I say, I hate writing sex scenes – I keep running out of synonyms for ‘pleasure’…
Anyway, it reminded me to check up on what the restrictions actually are on material in Australia. After a great deal of searching through government websites, I was finally able to find a copy of the latest classification guidelines for publications. Browsing through it – yeah, I always forget how draconian Australia’s classification systems actually are.
And, looking at the rules for publications to be refused classification – i.e., banned - I noticed that it isn’t just directed against depictions of, say, sexual violence or ‘fetishes which are revolting or abhorrent’, but also descriptions. Now, granted, it’s going after ‘gratuitous’ descriptions, which it defines as ‘included without the justification of a defensible story-line or artistic merit’, not just any description in a story, but…
Well, I like to think most of the stories I’ve written for kink meme prompts had good storylines and artistic merit, but I’m not convinced the government would see things the same way. Now, sure, I doubt the government is likely to ever see screening kinky fanfiction as a priority, but it makes me feel kinda weird to think I’ve written a couple of stories floating around out there that could technically be on the list*.
On the other hand, if this proposal does result in a team of government bureaucrats somewhere having to reach consensus over whether, say, xenophilia counts as bestiality or if explicit Luke/Leia fics count as incest if they’re set pre-RotJ… well, I guess then at least some amusement would have come out of this bullshit.
* Actually, I think most of my stuff would squeak by due to lack of detail. What can I say, I hate writing sex scenes – I keep running out of synonyms for ‘pleasure’…