Drogheda Independent

Christmas song censorship is PC madness

- With Deborah Coleman

JUST as everyone is getting well and truly into the Christmas spirit, a debate erupts about censorship of ‘ inappropri­ate’ festive songs. The latest target is the old favourite ‘Fairytale of New York’ as sung by The Pogues and Kirsty McColl and calls for the removal of the word ‘f *****’ as it is considered offensive in today’s society.

Following this, the line ‘What’s in this drink?’ from ‘Baby it’s cold outside’ was next in the firing line for suggesting that the woman in the song’s drink was spiked.

Really, I think this is political correctnes­s gone mad.

Granted, in today’s world the word ‘f *****’ is an offensive and derogatory term which particular­ly targets the gay community, but it must be noted that over three decades ago when that song was written, it had a totally different meaning.

It in fact, referred to a sort of layabout or waster, which if you listen to the lyrics, fits with the sentiment.

Now, all of a sudden it has been decided by the PC brigade that it should be censored, and if people are offended, it’s not such a big deal to mute it out but are we losing the run of ourselves entirely in this regard?

Nobody who plays these old Christmas songs does so with the intention of offending anybody.

They are part of tradition and loved by many but it doesn’t mean that all these fans are homophobic or likely to use the lyric in a modern day contest to terrorise or target another person.

If this is the approach we take to all art forms, no movie would ever be made.

The characters in these songs are just that, fictional characters, who as Shane McGowan himself outlined are flawed and imperfect and not necessaril­y indicative of how people behave today.

Are we to censor every fictional character created in literature or cinema, every unsavoury lyric in any song? That would be utterly ridiculous.

If children today are taught about respect, understand­ing and tolerance then there should be no need to censor every piece of art in the world so they can’t be exposed to it.

Unfortunat­ely the world is not all sunshine and roses but it’s up to everyone to decide for themselves how to act and how they should treat others.

 ??  ?? Cerys Matthews and Tom Jones singing their version of ‘Baby it’s cold outside’. How can people seriously think this song has connotatio­ns about spiking someone’s drink?
Cerys Matthews and Tom Jones singing their version of ‘Baby it’s cold outside’. How can people seriously think this song has connotatio­ns about spiking someone’s drink?
 ??  ??

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