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Author Topic: Smacks of Mary Whitehouse  (Read 4606 times)

Offline newballs

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Smacks of Mary Whitehouse
« on: July 19, 2008, 08:05:14 AM »
I can''t believe the ''Simon Cowell Kalkan Idol'' thread has been stopped just because of a few Mary Whitehouses. Any decent upstanding Turk would find this funny as they too are embarrassed by the behaviour of these sort of people, just as we English are embarrassed by the behaviour of some of our fellow countrymen { or in the case of Kalkan our older countrywomen].
  Victor Meldrew, Frank Spencer, Stan Laurel and Dellboy to name but a few, it''s because these characters embarrass themselves that we all laugh. if these characters existed in real life I doubt they would watch the T.V. shows made about them and endevour to have them banned.
  Making light of human nature, [and more especially it''s flaws] is inherant to any civilized society, in fact it''s a human right. Whereas restricting freedom of speech is not.
  Remember, Mary Whitehouse lost out in the end because she was wrong.

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Offline Chris18648

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Re: Smacks of Mary Whitehouse
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2008, 08:46:32 AM »
 ??? Hi,I recently celebrated my 60th. birthday in Kalkan,that being the very favourite place for me to be.
Am I considered to be one of your "older country women" ,and maybe a few pointers as to how to behave in future may be considered before I return,possibly in October. ::)  >:D

Offline holidayfever

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Re: Smacks of Mary Whitehouse
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2008, 09:52:12 AM »
here here  The Feds ,I work with young teenagers where the f word is as commonly used to them as  and and the.
Where sex gets younger and younger and the shock value just isnt there, that is what we have come to expect, drugs are a huge issue, oh god just broken up from school and I could go on and on about respect and morals, however I have to remember also there are loads of great teenagers I love working with ,but sadly they get overshadowed by the not so great. So bring on the positive role models,not the big brother half wits, and when you see what some of  these young people have for parents its a wonder they ever get to teenagers.

Offline Chris18648

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Re: Smacks of Mary Whitehouse
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2008, 10:38:37 AM »
Well,thanks The FEDS. I began to feel that I may have been overreacting.
I live in East Anglia,and was privileged to know Mary Whitehouse in her later years.She was charming,dignified and a pleasure to listen to.She was aware that she wasn''t popular,but did it make her wrong ? I don''t think so.
So,I have decided........ a bottle of wine with my evening meal,a drink(or two) at the Moonlight , and a late night coffee at the Lykia before I totter back to my Hotel will continue ...unless somebody can tell me how to behave more daringly at 60. ???? :D

Offline Lantana

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Re: Smacks of Mary Whitehouse
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2008, 10:43:27 AM »
On the BBC news yesterday, I listened in shock as an incident in Croydon was described. A group of over 30 young people so seriously attacked two policemen that one was hospitalised. The reason for the attack was that a teenage girl was asked by one of the policemen to pick up some litter she had dropped. Apparently she and her friends thought this was such an outrageous request that it justified them retaliating.

For her and her friends it appears no moral boundaries had ever been set by their parents. Most people agree that we all benefit from a cleaner environment and do not drop litter. If we do and are caught, those of us who care about society and our position in it, act responsibly and pick it up

The Feds are absolutely right. If you have a society where no moral standards are set, the consequences of the breakdown in that society are very frightening.

I do not agree with censorship. Here in Turkey there is considerable censorship and it does nothing to improve standards of behaviour. However, unless society polices itself - which it rarely does effectively - guidelines are needed. 

The closing of the Simon Cowell thread was not an act of censorship. The joke which was weak to begin with was long past being amusing for many readers. I showed a couple of ''decent upstanding Turks'' the thread. They were not in the least amused. They found it unpleasant and actually quite insulting and neither of them has  had a sense of humour by- pass.

As a reader of, and regular contributor to this forum, I found the thread unpleasant. It made me feel uncomfortable. I live here and I know very well that there are some Turks whose behaviour leaves much to be desired but I still found the thread insulting.

Surely, we all have the right to speak out when we feel something is wrong?

Perhaps the posters who wrote their various ditties did not think of the implications on the women here who have Turkish partners. Are they all with Turkish men because they are fools? Are none of these relationships based on anything other than the size of the woman''s bank balance and the size of the man''s......?

That is so insulting to the women here who are in happy relationships with Turkish partners.

My husband is British, so I have no axe to grind but many of my friends have Turkish partners and I don''t see why they should be insulted in this way. It was absolutely right to close the thread.

Lantana

Offline misty

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Re: Smacks of Mary Whitehouse
« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2008, 10:47:54 AM »
Thank you a very good point well expalined I hope some people take it onboard.......

Misty 

Offline Lorretta

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Re: Smacks of Mary Whitehouse
« Reply #6 on: July 19, 2008, 12:08:00 PM »
Hi Lantana,
thankyou for a very reasoned and eloquent response. I must say I agreed with your post. That said I did contribute to the Simon Cowell thread and my poem was not intended to offend any one of any nationality and I sincerely hope I didn''t. My poem was about Ali trying to find a wife and not having much success. However a post in direct response to my ditty, which read something along the lines of:
"I''m surprised Ali was so fussy, didn''t think it mattered as long as they had a bank account"
I took to be offensive and somewhat facetious.
This whole thread was intended to be a bit of fun and I am sure most contributors certainly didn''t mean to be offensive, my poem mentions ladies from various parts of the UK, so if you are from Hull, Wales, London or Crawley (I myself am from Crawley) I hope I have not offended you and if I have I apologise unreservedly. The same apology applies to any Turkish men who may have been offended. With hindsight it could appear that I think Turkish men are only interested in finding an English wife, which is certainly not the case. 
With regard to the other matters in your post I agree entirely. Every day we seem to wake to the depressing news that yet another young person has been murdered in a knife attack. Parents have to take responsibility for their children and instill in them from a very early age the basic values of respecting ones self and others, including people in authority such as teachers and the police force. The law needs to be applied more stringently also. I have personal knowledge of one case where two young boys were stabbed, one of them fatally. When the case went to trial and the offender was found guilty, a whole list of previous convictions was read out to the court. Indeed when he committed this particular offence he was serving a suspended sentence for a very serious assault. What kind of message does that send out?
The police have my utmost sympathy, they do a very hard job, often weighed down by sheer bloody bureaucracy, only to find that if, and I emphasise IF it goes to court the offender gets a fine or a caution.
We need to educate young people that life is precious, not a cheap commodity as it seems to be now.

Offline MartynE

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Re: Smacks of Mary Whitehouse
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2008, 01:35:05 PM »
I have to agree with The Feds on this - and this comes from someone who has had a post removed for having "crossed the line". At the time of posting it I thought it was funny but on reflection - and after a robust exchange of emails with John - I eventually agreed with him that expressions which could be interpreted as offensive should be removed from a forum like this - even where no offense was actually intended.

On the wider censorship issue: the fact is, society IS suffering from a lowering of standards and we (those of us who are parents, that is) are as much to blame for that as the media. I''m afraid that we have indulged our children to the point that they think their rights are more important than their responsibilities. In reality, you can''t have one without the other and we need to start redressing the balance. Mary Whitehouse was correct. The right to self expression carries with it the responsibility to temper your ''expression'' to suit the potential audience!

Persoanlly , I think banning Big Brother would be a good start, followed by magazines such as Hello, OK and the like, which celebrate mediocrity and devalue genuine endeavour and achievement. I know that''s not going to happen though. Oh well. (Perhaps this should be on the Victor Meldrew thread)???

Offline Mrs B

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Re: Smacks of Mary Whitehouse
« Reply #8 on: July 19, 2008, 03:50:37 PM »
Sorry, newballs, sweeping statements and generalisations won''''t win you my vote.
To suggest that ''''our older countrywomans'''' behaviour will embarrrass us is perhaps showing you take rather too much interest in Take A Break magazine.

Personally, as a child growing up in the 70''''s and 80''''s, i dont think Mary Whitehouse and her campaign made too much of a difference to morals and standards, as it encouraged people to try and get around the boundaries in place.
But parental responsibility did.
The sooner being a responsible parent comes back into fashion again, the better.

P.S MartynE...I like to read those mags of a morning over breakfast, but i take them with a pinch of salt....along with my porridge.  ;)
 
« Last Edit: July 19, 2008, 03:58:43 PM by Mrs B »



Offline MartynE

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Re: Smacks of Mary Whitehouse
« Reply #9 on: July 19, 2008, 04:02:38 PM »

P.S MartynE...I like to read those mags of a morning over breakfast, but i take them with a pinch of salt....along with my porridge.  ;)
 

Hello! Ok, you are forgiven (did you see what I did there)? 8)

Offline tuttifrutti

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Re: Smacks of Mary Whitehouse
« Reply #10 on: July 19, 2008, 08:56:38 PM »
We also contributed to the ''Simon Cowell'' thread, not to cause offence, just enjoying a light hearted moment..  The interesting thing is that 2 of our group who wrote the rhyme are Turkish!  They laugh at different situations in Turkey just like English people have a laugh about different situations in England. If people have their own personal agenda and want to make a mountain out of a molehill there isn''t much we can do about it.  I''m sorry but we can''t all tip-toe around being afraid of saying anything just in case we might possible offend someone who is particularly sensitive about their own situation. My Turkish friends find it strange that  English people are making such a ''big deal'' about something they regard as trivial.  Perhaps we should not waste any more time on this and devote our energy to other topics?


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