Taking this class made me think about what is "normal" and what is "deviant." Going along with my other post, it made me think about Cher and how she fought with television censors back in the 1970s. In her book The First Time, there is a chapter called "My First War With the Censors":
"On the Cher show I had not just one censor on my set, but two, a man and a woman. And I don't know where they came from, but they interpreted everything as being about sex. They were also constantly objecting to my dresses: either they were cut too low or revealed too much. And the censors made our editor do a wipe on it, so that everything just about disappeared in fogginess, even me. One time, I was in an amazing bias-cut gown. And the censor came over and said, 'She looks like a hooker.' It was all kind of silly, because the thing CBS wanted me on the air for was the very thing they weren't allowing me to do."
Back in the 1970s, Cher wearing "revealing" clothes or "showing skin" was considered deviant because she was challenging the norm, which was to stay covered up - today though, its nothing to us and no one would bat an eye lash.
In the late 1980s, Cher's outfit for the original "If I Could Turn Back Time" video (a fishnet
body stocking under a very revealing black one-piece bathing suit)
caused some controversy, and many television networks refused to show
the video. In 1989 the MTV
network banned the video and later played it only after 9 p.m. A
"censored" video, including new scenes, and showing less explicitly
sexual content than the previous original video was then made. At the time, this was deviant, but once again, this would not be such a big deal today.
- Josh Steffen
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