Just when we all thought European culture was more open to nudity, France has surprisingly banned Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears from daytime television. It is no complete surprise that the duo were both banned from daytime TV. Miley refers to Britney as her idol, and the two collaborated on a song from Miley’s Bangerz album. Their friendship is made obvious via Twitter, where the two constantly compliment each other. Britney jokingly has tweeted at Miley for “twerk” advice, and the star replied in agreement as long as she can learn the moves to Britney’s “Slave for You.”
The Conseil superieur de l’audiovisuel, CSA, regulates France’s media and will only allow videos of Miley and Britney to be shown after 10 p.m. According to the CSA, Miley’s infamous “Wrecking Ball” video and Britney’s “Work B***h” video proved too raunchy for daytime TV. The CSA further explains, “Spears’ bondage theme in the video depicts a sadomachistic universe representing women in a way that risks shocking many viewers.” Swinging naked on a huge iron ball while licking a hammer is inappropriate? Who knew! As a Miley fan, it is hard to agree with this new approach that France is taking. However, there are some valuable points behind the CSA’s decision.
The CSA feels that these videos should be played while children are asleep, in order to preserve their innocence as long as possible (I assume). Setting aside the fame and celebrity status of both Cyrus and Spears, perhaps the level of nudity and racy representation of women is in fact inappropriate during breakfast and lunch hours. Although eating my oatmeal at 8 a.m. to the videos of “Wrecking Ball” or “Work B***h” on TV sound appealing, perhaps France is onto something. The CSA also stated that some channels were showing the inappropriate videos during daytime without any parental guidance warnings. I wonder how many little children believe that licking hammers is normal? Regardless, France’s attempt at conservatism is appreciated and agreed with by Spears herself.
Although we are not sure what Miley thinks about this (she probably disagrees), Britney can understand where the CSA is coming from. “A lot of sex goes into what I do but sometimes I would like to bring it back to the old days when there was one outfit through the whole video, and there’s not that much sex stuff going on,” says Spears. Maybe the maternal instinct is the cause of Britney’s desire to tone down her suggestive videos. However, I’m going to take a leap of faith and guess that Miley will not be changing anytime soon. This is potentially confirmed by Miley’s social media presence, including one tweet around the time of this news story release that said, “why are people sooooo seriousoooo?” I don’t know why people are “seriousoooo” either, Miley. The question becomes whether or not France will continue to strictly regulate their daytime TV and ban more racy American videos. Perhaps this is just meant to be “A Party in the U.S.A.”
