15 Dumb Things That Have Been Banned Around the World

5 – Banned Books,

• The list of banned books is so long it could almost comprise a separate list. Apparently, The Powers That Be don’t believe in context, and condemn everything they don’t understand.
• Let’s start – where else? – with Harry Potter. Most readers consider the series a wonderful fantasy with strong morals and the ability to engage even the most reluctant readers. However, a vocal minority believes the books are evil and promote interest in the occult.
• Amusingly, now that the books are all out, some have reassessed the series, labelling it a Christian allegory. The same naysayers now believe the books contain a rich theological message, and so approve.
• Other banned books have included The Perks of Being a Wallflower, for its depictions of teen drinking, homosexuality and masturbation; children’s book It’s Perfectly Normal, which uses benign cartoons to teach younger readers about puberty, and was consequently labelled child pornography; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, for allegedly perpetuating racism; and The Catcher in the Rye, for ‘undermining morality’.
• Fahrenheit 451, a book about book-banning, has been variously banned and censored; The Grapes of Wrath was banned for ‘spreading propaganda’; The Great Gatsby used too much offensive language, like ‘old sport’; and Moby Dick ‘conflicted with community values’, somehow (that title was pretty risky, Melville).
• Amazingly, the Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, a book that advocates fighting for equality, was dismissed as ‘racist’ and ‘profane’.

4 – Porn Featuring Small-Breasted Women,

• The Australian Classification Board has always been a bit like an overprotective mum. Australian culture isn’t particularly conservative, but the board governing the country’s media has, in the past, doled out harsh classifications and outright bans for media they deem inappropriate.
• Case in point: Australia had no R18+ video game rating until 2012, despite overwhelming public demand. Many games and movies have been severely censored, or edited to be more palatable. I guess Australians just can’t have challenging content. It overstimulates us.
• Enter the latest Classification Board misstep. Multiple adult films have been banned from distribution because, in the censor’s opinion, the over-eighteen-year-old actresses’ small breasts made them seem underaged.
• While they no doubt had good intentions, the offensive move insinuates that adult women with a cup-size breasts are juvenile or unsexy, and heavily implies that there’s something degenerative about men finding this body type attractive. It’s also absurd logic, as there is no ‘normal’ female body type. Take a look on any busy street: there are petite mature women, just as there are well-endowed teenagers.

3 – Baby Names,

• Several countries have name bans to protect individuals’ wellbeing and to uphold tradition.
• Denmark’s government allows parents to select names from a list of 7,000 pre-approved names. If a new parent wishes to deviate from the names on the list, they must first attain permission from the local church and government. The first name should clearly indicate the person’s gender, should never be a surname, and cannot be weird or eccentric. Sorry, North West, Sunday Rose and Apple Martin.
• Approximately a thousand names are rejected every year.

2 – Kinder Surprise Eggs,

• Of all the things America could ban, they choose Kinder Surprises, which are chocolate eggs with little toys in their hollowed-out centres.
• Children and adults alike go mental for these things, but US legislators have nonetheless banned them because they have non-nutritive objects ‘embedded’ in them.
• The ban has inspired a chocolate smuggling racket across the Canadian border. Offenders can be fined as much as two and a half grand per contraband egg.

1 – Video Games,

• Despite most game consoles being made there, China doesn’t allow the sale of gaming consoles. The ban was first enforced at the turn of the new millennium, when the government expressed concerns that the country’s youth would waste their time playing games instead of working.
• Despite this, gamers are still allowed to buy PC games, which completely undermines the whole point of it.
• Greece, too, enforced a ban on video games, although for a very different reason. In 2002, the government tried to crack down on electronic gambling machines, but the legislators’ law was so broad that it covered all forms of electronic gaming machines, including video games.
• Some internet café patrons have actually been arrested for playing MMOs, and served real prison time. Fortunately, after pressure from the EU and gamers everywhere, the law was eventually deemed unconstitutional.

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