(I'll try and keep this one short as I'm off to bed in a minute)
Jo Swinson came out today saying that we should ban airbrushing in adverts aimed at children. I can certainly see the logic. The airbrushing makes young children think they can aspire for perfection and causes issues when they don't achieve it.
The thing is, as a liberal, I'm not all too keen on bans. It's just not a very liberal thing to do.
What I think we should focus more on is the 'media literacy' side of things. Teach children about life, or as best as you can. If its really necessary to tell them to take adverts at face value (no pun intended) then do it. Don't go banning things left right and centre just because it causes problems for society. Especially if they're problems that can be dealt with in other ways.
It's all a bit nanny state and its things like this that are the reason we have an image of being a wooly party. I mean "we also believe in the freedom of young people to develop their self esteem..."? Hmm...
Don't get me wrong. I love good old (maybe not so old. But then again, she's not baby of the house any more...) @joswinson. She's great, she's a terrific MP, a strong Lib Dem and a pretty darn good liberal. But I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.
But then again, if we could make Nick look like Mr Darcy, like they managed on the BBC PM Blog...
1 comment:
Hmm, I disagree. I don't think all bans are bad just because they're "not very liberal". Self esteem is a serious problem with young girls and it's because they're constantly bombarded with these airbrushed images to the point where they've become the "norm". How do you suggest we educate kids in practical terms?
(This is Laura Lewis by the way, had to use my livejournal otherwise I can't post this!)
Post a Comment