Your grandmother would not approve. Your mother probably wouldn’t either. One Quebec mother most definitely did not.
Canada’s broadcast regulator, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC), recently ruled to allow the occasional F-bomb and explicit reference to sex toys on daytime TV.
The incident the CBSC was responding to came in the form of a complaint from a Quebec mother whose 8- and 11-year-old children were exposed to two F-bombs and coverage of a rally where phallic toys were being used as props on daytime television.
The boundary-pushers will claim the regulator’s decision as a victory, welcoming it as an expression of liberty and an extension of an unbridled, free society.
But there are others who will surely despair as the rug of traditional moral decency is pulled one more inch from under their feet. Daytime television was the last bastion of the socially acceptable. Regulations were in place that were supposed to reflect the appetite of all Canadians—grandmothers and children alike. If something was questionable it likely wouldn’t make the cut.
The CBSC’s ruling comes at a time when social acceptance of the once-taboo is at an all-time high. But is erring on the side of vulgarity really the best approach?
