UK Nutter News

The easily 'outraged' are enjoying the latest music video from Miley Cyrus called Adore You

Supposedly even the singer's own fans have joined the backlash against her latest raunchy video, branding it gross', sick' and pornographic'.

The former Disney star has been accused of cynically exploiting' her hordes of teenage fans by releasing an X-rated video of herself on Christmas Day simulating masturbation to the sound of her new single Adore You.

It has prompted one of the Government's main whingers about online child safety, the secretary of the Children's Charity Commission John Carr, to call for immediate action to ensure such videos have 18+ age ratings. He spouts:

Lots of children and young teenagers will be browsing the internet with the tablets and mobile phones they have been given for Christmas. And one of the first things they will have stumbled across on Boxing Day is this explicit video. Instead of being freely available online it should be hidden behind age-filters.'

Pippa Smith of Safer Media, a campaigner against violence, sex and strong language in the media, called the video a new low' in teenage pop culture.

Meanwhile the video is proving very popular on YouTube with 15 million views. Hardly sounds like a fan backlash.

All that grinding with topless ladies, twerking with Miley Cyrus has earnt US singer Robin Thicke a shiny new accolade, that of sexist of the year .

The Blurred Lines chart-topper received the title from the End Violence Against Women Coalition after the lyrics to his worldwide number one were deemed rapey by some critics.

More than 60 member groups of the coalition voted in the sexist of the year poll, which saw Prime Minister David Cameron come second -- the same slot he landed in last year.

Thicke's controversial video and sexist lyrics led to last summer's Blurred Lines being banned in more than 20 universities up and down the UK , with students' unions acting in an effort to end rape culture and lad banter on campus .

The End Violence Against Women Coalition's Sarah Green extended her heartfelt congratulations to a worthy winner .

But with so many organisations generously raising awareness for the single, then perhaps it was inevitable that Thicke's Blurred Lines would be a hit. In fact it was named this week as iTunes' best-selling single of 2013.

The Royal College of Nursing has issued a statement in support of a ban on the Sun's topless Page 3 glamour feature saying:

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) supports the No More Page three campaign because we believe that the humiliation and exploitation of women is something that should not be acceptable.

Gender stereotyping and the sexualisation of women can have detrimental effects on the safety of women in our society. The RCN promotes a working environment where our members and staff can work with dignity and not be placed in compromising situations that cause offence, humiliation, embarrassment or distress.

All nursing staff should be seen as respected professionals with no sexualised stereotypes attached.

Campaigners of End Violence Against Women Coalition have called for the Dangerous Pictures Act to be extended to all types of extreme violence.

This follows news that Jamie Reynolds has admitted murdering Shropshire teenager Georgia Williams. It was revealed that Reynolds viewed violent pornography and had a history of threatening behaviour towards women.

This week Stafford Crown Court heard that Reynolds had taken photographs before, during and after Georgia's death. He also stockpiled up to 50 pictures of girls he had found on social networking sites whose heads he had superimposed onto explicit images. He had also written down his sick fantasies in stories and frequently viewed pornography depicting extreme violence.

Sarah Green, campaign manager of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said extreme pornography freely available on the internet was normalising the sexual fantasies of boys and young men . And she said the law should be extended to cover other types of extreme violence.

Stockport MP Ann Coffey has backed calls for better sex education, warning that both the music and porn industries have a lot to answer for .

She attacked Robin Thicke's hit Blurred Lines for supposedly encouraging rape . She was speaking as a probe into child sexual exploitation among gangs, launched by the children's commissioner in the wake of the Rochdale grooming scandal, concluded teens have a deeply worrying lack of understanding about the boundaries between consent and coercion.

Coffey, chair of the all parliamentary group on missing and runaway children and adults, dubbed the findings chilling :

You only have to listen to and watch current explicit music videos to understand how difficult it must be for some young people to understand the idea of consent.

The noxious Robin Thicke song Blurred Lines has now been banned from about 20 student unions because they believe it promotes rape because its lyrics describe a woman as an 'animal' who 'wants it.

If young boys really believe that, then it gives no space for the idea of consent from young girls.

She somehow neglected to comment on possible influences that have contributed to the disproportionate amount of members of the Pakistani community featuring in child exploitation gangs. Probably not very likely to be related to Robin Thicke songs.

The BBC's new children's series Topsy and Tim has been described by a few PC extremists on Mumsnet as flabbergastingly sexist

The new version of Topsy and Tim, which began on CBeebies earlier this month, is described as an update for the 21st century. But some parents have said that they will ban their children from watching the show as it reinforces outdated gender stereotypes.

Thousands have taken to Mumsnet to express their opposition to the show, accusing programme makers of ruining their fond memories of the book. One wrote:

It's flabbergastingly sexist - I was so disappointed. Mummy and Topsy do the washing while Tim helps daddy with the man's work. Topsy is inside making cakes and Tim gets told they're not for him and he must go outside and play with the quad bike.

A BBC spokesperson explained that viewers should not be hasty as PC gender propaganda will become more apparent as the series continues:

We're very pleased to be able to bring the Topsy and Tim stories alive for our young viewers to enjoy. It's very early in the series and all of the characters develop over the coming episodes -- after the near-disastrous playdate in the programme in question, we see how the children learn to mix up their friends and choice of games, finding that it's much more fun if they all play together.

Throughout the series we will also see so-called 'traditional' boy/girl preferences inverted, but always driven by the children's emotional journeys as they mature as individuals and face the timeless milestones of childhood such as learning to ride bikes, getting their first pet and starting school. We hope our young viewers will enjoy going on those exciting journeys with Topsy and Tim.

A new campaign named Rewind&Reframe is a joint project run by the gender extremists End Violence Against Women Coalition, Imkaan and Object. It will launch a website with women from a variety of backgrounds writing, blogging and commentating on the portrayal of women in contemporary music videos. A petition is also being started to call on the government to act.

Justine Roberts, founder of the website Mumsnet, said:

There's no doubt there's a huge amount of racism and sexism in music videos and it's great that this campaign raises awareness about it. I can't see any reason why these videos wouldn't be classified in the way that other forms of media are but the truth is that it won't be a silver bullet.

Technology these days makes it pretty nigh on impossible to stop under-18s viewing and sharing this kind of material so as parents it's important to talk to them about what's wrong with it. As a society we need to consider how we've got to a situation where misogyny and racism is so commonplace.

Tomorrow evening a debate will be hosted at the House of Commons, chaired by Labour MP Kerry McCarthy and attended by MP Claire Perry, the prime minister's personal Mary Whitehouse. Perry has said she has the backing of David Cameron to push for solutions -- including an age classification system for music videos and the clear labelling of airbrushed celebrity pictures.

A miserable health minister has called for a ban on supposedly dangerous mobile phone apps that he claims encourage young people to binge-drink.

Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem Minister for Care, called on Google and Apple to launch an urgent investigation into irresponsible drinking games sold through their online markets, which he claims could fuel drink-related health problems and anti-social behaviour.

The calls followed a Mail on Sunday article digging around for 'outrage' uncovered hundreds of alcohol-related apps and promotions on social media sites that critics claim target youngsters and popularise excessive drinking. This newspaper identified more than 340 alcohol-related apps available to download on the Google and Apple stores. Some of them have been downloaded tens of thousands of times by British users.

Examples of drinking games online include Let's Get Wasted on Google Play, which has been downloaded 8,000 times in the UK, either for free or for just 83p.

The game selects a player roulette-style and they are instructed to drink what the app suggests. Volumes are decided at random. Players monitor their alcohol levels through stages including tipsy , boozy , well-oiled , drunk and loaded. If a player refuses a drink, the game makes a chicken noise. The winner is the first to reach the final stage of wasted .

After The Mail on Sunday alerted him to the games, Lamb obliged with an 'outraged' sound bite:

It's pretty abhorrent and I condemn those organisations because it promotes behaviour which has a massive impact on our A&E departments and police forces. The damage that it can do is immense, so I think the people who promote these apps should think again.

Conservative MP Andrew Percy, a member of the Health Select Committee, called the apps dangerous and backed Lamb's call for a ban.

Siobhan Freegard, the founder of Netmums website claims that many parents fear music videos have become too sexualised and violent.

In a survey of some 1,500 website members, most (82%) said their children had repeated sexual lyrics without knowing their meaning. And 75% said they tried to stop children watching music videos.

Freegard claimed parents were most angry that their children were being exposed to lewd viewing on programmes shown before the 21:00 watershed for family viewing. She said:

Modern parents aren't prudes - they know sex sells ...BUT... there's a strong feeling that things have gone too far now. It's toxic to tell young kids casual sex and violence are something to aspire to. '

Most (75%) of parents with daughters said very sexual pop acts were teaching girls they would be judged on their looks, not their achievements or personality .

About half of parents with sons said they were frightened explicit footage made them believe women were too sexually available and that they should have unrealistic porn-star-style body shapes .

Two-thirds of parents taking part said they thought young female singers were being exploited.

A unanimous vote by Swansea University Students' Union's has banned the Swansea Student's Pole Fitness Society, causing international outrage from the pole fitness community.

The Students' Union claimed that pole fitness was somehow:

Inextricably linked to the multi million pound sex industry and upholds and bolsters sexist attitudes and behaviours.

Although 'pole fitness' is sold as an empowering activity, we believe that women have been deceived into thinking this is a way of taking charge of their sexuality and their own decisions. Moreover, we believe that it is just a further debasement of our culture and another sign of a creeping backlash against women's true empowerment and a show of misogyny.

The pole fitness society pointed out the one sidedness of Student Union 'democracy'. The group noted that We've never been able to put our point forward as they were not allowed to go to Trustee meetings or their appeal.

President of the Pole Fitness Society Committee, Beth Morris, found drawing comparisons between lap dancing and pole fitness:

Highly, highly offensive. Lap dancing occurs in gentleman's clubs... Pole fitness is strictly for fitness. She continued, the board need[s] to take account of the context in which these classes are being taught in. Since the classes are purely for fitness... there is therefore... no link between [it] and the sex industry.

The Student's ludicrous claims seem to have gone viral but don't seem to have chimed with many people. Most have been showing their support for pole fitness group.

There was one supportive rant by Carolyn Hitt of WalesOnline but she was taken to the cleaners by commenters to the piece.

Update: Possible legal case against selfish students who put their daft morality ahead of people's livelihoods

26th October 2013. See  article from  thisissouthwales.co.uk

The national Pole Fitness Society, which represents more than 300 instructors, says it will take legal action unless the Swansea Student Union ban is reversed. A spokesman for the society said:

We appreciate that this is a young committee, new this term and for each of them, the first time in a paid, decision-making role.

We do hope that they are mature enough to acknowledge their mistake and strong enough to turn the decision round. This would be the best course of action for everyone. However, we must consider our own duty to our membership of 300-plus professional pole instructors and act according to their wishes.

In the absence of any reply from the SUSU trustee board we are prepared for both legal and constitutional recourse. We sincerely hope that neither of these options become necessary and that the young trustees can benefit from this as a learning opportunity.

Students have staged a night protest outside a Leeds bar in a bid to ban a student club night. Campaigners targeted the Mezz Bar which is hosting a Tequila club night.

A petition with thousands of signatures supporting the campaign was handed over to Mezz bar and Leeds Metropolitan University Union. The petition calls for Mezz bar to stop working with Tequila UK.

The protest was sparked by a promotional video posted on Facebook and YouTube by Leeds-based Tequila UK called Freshers Violation , which showed one male clubgoer describe how a girl was going to get raped and asked how female clubbers would survive violation .

The Leeds University Union's Feminist Society organised the protest. Member Freya Potter said on Facebook: More action to follow, it doesn't stop here!

Tequila UK have since taken the video down and apologised.

Update: The authorities take it all too literally

25th October 2013. See  article from  yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk

A Leeds nightclub could be stripped of its licence after police complained about events organised by Tequila UK at a Leeds bar called Mezz club. Leeds City Council will review the club's licence following complaints from West Yorkshire Police. A report published ahead of the review said there were concerns over the highly inappropriate and sexually suggestive advertising campaigns , where young men are being encouraged to engage in violent sexual acts against females .

West Yorkshire Police claimed the video encourages violent sex, degrades women and poses a real threat to public safety . Police are also looking into free pouring -- where bartenders pour alcohol into customers' mouths straight from the bottle, which contradicts licencing regulations.

A statement issued by Mezz said:

Over the last six years that we have worked with TequilaUK, they have proved themselves to be very responsible promoters. Their clientele are always polite and well behaved and we have never had any reports of serious offences in relation to the night. We are co-operating fully with the licensing authority and we hope to resolve this matter swiftly.

A BBC boss has claimed that modern audiences would be left baffled by the humour in Monty Python film The Life Of Brian - because they have such poor religious literacy .

Head of religion and ethics, Aaqil Ahmed, claimed that poor education has left two generations devoid of understanding when it comes to issues of religion.

[All right, but apart from wars, violence, intimidation, hypocrisy, child abuse, misogyny, homophobia, easy offence, backstreet abortion, and the Spanish inquisition, what have religions ever done for us?]

Speaking as the BBC launched a mini-series on religious pilgrimages, Ahmed said:

We have poor religious literacy in this country and we have to do something about it. Falling flat: BBC head of religion and ethics Aaqil Ahmed claims that 1979 film The Life Of Brian would be lost on modern audiences because of their poor religious knowledge

If you tried to make The Life Of Brian today it would fall flat on its face because the vast majority of the audience would not get most of the jokes.

According to the Independent, Ahmed also ludicrously claimed that comedians don't make more jokes about Islam because the religion is so poorly understand by large sections of the British public.

[What a load of bollox. You know the penalty laid down by Roman law for joking about islam? Crucifixion! Nasty, eh? Could be worse. What you mean Could be worse ? Well, you could incur the wrath of the politically correct!].

Ahmed said that a basic grasp of religious issues is necessary for the public to understand wider contemporary issues. He said that religious understanding would help us understand things from why women chose to wear face coverings to what is happening in Syria.

...BUT... he added that he is not trying to impose religious knowledge on BBC audiences. [wisible or what?!]

Comment: BBC bloke has a point

21st October2013. Comment from Alan

Don't often disagree, but I think the BBC religious programmes boss is right.

There's a hell of a lot of English (and other European) history and literature that can't be understood without some knowledge of the Bible and Christianity. One problem is that some of the experts don't cover themselves in glory: the very interesting series on birth, marriage and death presented by Helen Castor is a case in point. Dr Castor is a distinguished historian but in some ways she's utterly clueless about religion. For instance, she presents as a strange medieval curiosity, unknown in the modern age, a theology of baptism that remains the doctrine of both the Roman Catholic Church and the dear old C of E.

Only last night I was gobsmacked by the subtitles in an episode of The Young Montalbano . Now, you might expect the name Giuseppe to appear in the subtitles for an Italian programme, but there was an astonishing blunder when Montalbano was talking about a story in the Old Testament, in which the protagonists were Giuseppe e la moglie di Putifarre . Both proper names were left in their Italian version in the subtitles, but an old sixtysomething like me would expect every primary school kid to know the story of Joseph and the wife of Potiphar.

You certainly can't understand much of Shakespeare unless you have some knowledge of Christianity (and maybe a bit of Graeco-Roman classical mythology). The same is true in spades of Dante: you can't make any sense of La Divina Commedia unless you understand what he believes to be L'Inferno , Il Purgatorio and Il Paradiso , and what conduct puts you in one or other of them. You can extend this to most of the arts: including the renaissance soft porn in which the Pope can commission a pious picture of a woman with her tits out if it's called Susanna and the Elders or The Martyrdom of Saint Agatha . And there's plenty of liturgical music about by the great composers, where the listener needs to know something about the religious beliefs which inspired it.

The Huffington Post is reporting supposed 'outrage' over a bad taste joke of a Jmmy Savile fancy dress costume for Halloween.

Complete with medal and cigar the costume was available for a time on Amazon for £ 14.99 - but was unsurprisingly withdrawn after a 'flood' of complaints.

Peter Saunders, at National Association for People Abused in Childhood told the Sunday Express:

It is tasteless, senseless, and extremely insensitive. Nobody wants to remember Savile's horrible face, particularly his many victims.

A Christian group has lodged papers at the High Court attempting to force Transport for London to take down hundreds of new billboards on double-decker buses telling people who disapprove of homosexuality to get over it .

It claims that transport chiefs are deliberately ignoring a ruling by a High Court judge that the posters, from the gay rights group Stonewall, are highly offensive to fundamentalist Christians who claim that gay sex is a sin .

Core Issues Trust, a Christian counselling group which advocates controversial reorientation therapy, booked advertising space on London buses last year promoting the idea that people can become post-gay through therapy. The posters were modelled on advertisements taken out by Stonewall a few weeks earlier reading: Some people are Gay. Get over it! Mayor Boris Johnson stepped in and banned them saying it was clearly offensive to suggest that being gay is an illness .

The ban was allowed after a court challenge, but the judge did question the decision to allow the earlier Stonewall advertisements, and Christian groups have asked to get the Stonewall ads banned too. The outcome is due later this year.

But pre-empting this decision, further similar Stonewall advertisements have begun to reappear on buses across London as part of a new campaign.

Dr Michael Davidson, founder and Core Issues Trust, is lodging an urgent judicial review application seeking an injunction forcing TfL to ban the new advertisements.

Eminem's new single Rap God has been praised as a sign that the rapper is still relevant in today's music industry, but its lyrics have offended gay campaigners at Stonewall.

The group said the song's content was outdated and deeply offensive , and claimed the rapper was stuck in the last century .

Rap God is currently top of the UK and US iTunes charts, and has earned positive write-ups in Time and Rolling Stone. MTV lauded its expertly laid verses .

The lyrics are complex and layered with metaphor. An offending passage seem to be:

I attempt these lyrical acrobat stunts while I'm practicing that
I'll still be able to break a motherfuckin' table
Over the back of a couple of faggots and crack it in half
Only realized it was ironic I was signed to Aftermath after the fact

The second verse frequently references gays, eg:

Little gay-looking boy, So gay I can barely say it with a straight face-looking boy

Richard Lane, media manager at Stonewall, said:

Compared to inspirational modern artists like Frank Ocean and Macklemore, who have vocally supported tackling homophobia, Eminem seems stuck in the last century with these outdated and deeply offensive lyrics.

The Sun and Star newspapers have been removed from the University of Essex student union store, as the University becomes the twentieth to ban the papers as part of the No More Page 3 campaign.

Chantel Le Carpentier, Essex union's vice-president for welfare , who made the final decision, has been covering the papers with anti-page 3 stickers all week. She claimed:

Newspapers should show a balanced representation of society, but what we are seeing is men being represented in the business, politics and sport sections, and women represented on the third page, half naked.

Other universities to ban the papers over the page 3 row include Sheffield, Manchester and the London School of Economics.

Gender extremists have launched a campaign against Leeds table dancing clubs whose licenses are up for renewal.

Six of the city's strip venues have applied to Leeds City Council to renew their sexual entertainment venue (SEV) licences. Silks, Deep Blue, Purple Door, Liberty, Red Leopard and Wildcats are facing a repressive morality policy set to close businesses so as to arbitrarily reduce numbers to four.

Anti-table dancing campaigners of a group called Support Against Rape and Sexual Violence are attempting to rally support behind its objections to the industry. Catriona Palin claimed, without evidence, that there was a link between crime and sex establishments, and that they tended to have a damaging impact on women. She said:

Leeds is a diverse city with a variety of cultures and faiths, representing around 11 per cent of the city. Women from a range of communities are intimidated by the proximity of these clubs.

She spouts without actually giving any clues as to how quality of life deteriorates and claims that table dancing leads to increased reports of rape, probably referring to the much debunked research about clubs in Camden:

Research has shown that wherever lap-dance and strip clubs appear, women's quality of life deteriorates as a result, with increased reports of rape.

Club operators are keeping their counsel and have declined to comment before next month's licence hearings, which are all due to take place within a week.

Annie Lennox has captured a fair bit of press coverage over a bizarre claim that sexy music videos are somehow pornographic. Surely there would not be many people in the country who could not distinguish a Miley Cyrus video from a porn film. Still, you can claim any old unchallenged bollox if you are preaching from the moral highground.

Pro-censorship Lennox was speaking against in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live's Anna Foster and Peter Allen. She spouted:

I'm all for freedom of expression. I'm all for boundary pushing ...BUT... this is clearly one step beyond, and it's clearly into the realm of porn.

She seemed a little angry that millions of people enjoy sexy music videos:

There are so many millions of hits on Youtube; with this barrage how do you stop your kids being exposed to it? It is so powerful. I am sure I talk for millions of parents.

Claiming that she's a liberal minded person, Annie at one point commended artists who are pushing sexuality boundaries but reaffirmed that the music videos need to be age appropriate, and shouldn't be viewed by young audiences.

I actually think that what is really required are some kind of very clear boundaries. There is a difference between what is pornographic and what is entertainment.

She previously wrote on her Facebook page that if a pop star created a soft porn video or highly sexualised live performance, then it needs to qualify as such and be X-rated for adults only .

If sexy music videos were to be rated by say the BBFC, then hardly any would be 18 rated. A 15 rating would be tops, with most qualifying for a 12.

According to the Daily Mail:

Rihanna faced an extra- ordinary backlash last night after even her fans branded her latest video obscene , vile and pornographic .

Hundreds took to social networking sites to tell the singer that she should be ashamed of herself over the X-rated images in Pour It Up.

'Hundreds' may have complained but this nothing given that 17.5 million have watched the video on YouTube.

The video was originally posted by Rihanna on Vevo, a video sharing site, but was banned due to its explicit content. The site has since reinstated it.

The Daily Mail lavishes praise on the video:

It features pole dancers, strippers and lewd dance moves including twerking , a particularly provocative hip-thrusting dance.

Rihanna spends most of the video dressed in nothing but a jewel-encrusted bikini and platformed stiletto heels. She sings about strip clubs, alcohol and money and is seen gyrating and sliding provocatively down a chair.

Miranda Suit, pro-censorship campaigner for Safermedia lauded the video:

[Rihanna's] crude, tasteless and explicit dancing, combined with the money-focused lyrics, are telling all her fans -- many of them still children -- that it is good for women and girls to sell their body, and right for men and boys to see women purely as a sexual commodity.

Rihanna has sold out completely to the commercialisation and objectification of women's bodies and their sexuality. And now she's promoting it to girls and boys.

She urged websites such as YouTube to ban such videos, adding: Parents want to know that their children are going to be safe online.

And of course the Daily printed plenty of pictures highlighting all the sexiest bits of the video.

The Association of Teachers and Morality Lecturers (ATL) has joined the campaign to get high-street retailers to ban lads' mags, criticising a supposed and unspecified damaging effect that magazines like Nuts and Zoo have on young people.

Dr Mary Bousted, General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Morality Lecturers, said:

Not only do so-called 'Lads' Mags' portray women as dehumanised objects, but they also continue to be sold in many supermarkets and newsagents, where children can easily be exposed to them. Are the attitudes towards women and pornographic images in these magazines really what we want our children to be seeing? At ATL's conference this year our members told us resoundingly that they are worried about the increased 'pornification' of society and its pernicious effects on young people, which is why ATL wholeheartedly supports this campaign.

We congratulate the Co-Operative for taking action and look forward to seeing supermarkets empty their shelves of pornographic images. It's not only children who are exposed to this, but also the thousands of employees working in supermarkets stocking these magazines.

George Thorogood - I Drink Alone

Almost one in five songs in modern top tens contains a reference to alcoholic drinks, twice as many as ten years ago and almost three times as many as 30 years ago.

Recent number ones referring to alcohol include Rihanna's Cheers and Kesha's Tik Tok . Since 2001 lyrics about alcohol in chart-topping songs have more than doubled, according to researchers from Liverpool John Moores University.

The researchers described their findings as a major concern . The research team at Liverpool John Moores University counted mentions of alcohol in songs that reached the UK top ten in 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011. Songs that specifically mentioned drunkenness were also noted.

The proportion of hits featuring alcohol rose from 6% in 1981 to 19% in 2011. The number of references was lowest in 1991, at 2%.

The study attributes the rise of alcohol-related lyrics to an increase in the amount of U.S songs becoming popular in the UK. The analysis, published in the Journal of Music Psychology, found mentions of drink to be most common in tracks from the US and in R&B, rap and hip-hop genres.

Researcher Professor Karen Hughes claims that the hidden advertising could encourage youngsters to start drinking or lead those who already drink to consume more. She said parents should be aware of the content of songs their children listen to.

Hughes added that although lyrics cannot be censored, it may be possible to warn about references to alcohol on labels that point out sexually explicit and violent lyrics.