Overshadowed by Controversy: Difference between revisions

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== Literature ==

* ''[[Fanny Hill]]'' is well known for having been a subject of obscenity tests and for having been banned in America from inception until a 1966 Supreme Court case ruled that the book has redeeming social value. When it was published in 1748, it got the author arrested on obscenity charges.

* ''[[Lolita]]'' is unfortunately more famous for the controversy that surrounds it than the actual content and quality of the novel: Vladimir Nabokov went through many publishers who refused to publish it, and after it was published, it was banned in many places for being "pornographic" or "an instruction manual for paedophilia" (which it is not). Even for people who aren't familiar with the history of the book, a lot of the covers/jackets make it look like erotica. It also gave rise to the term "loli" or "lolicon", which are taboo words in their own right (even though it has also been used in a legitimate, non-paedophilic context e.g. those so-called "Lolita fashions" popular with some cosplayers); [[Google]] won't auto-complete them if you try to search for those terms, and would attempt to block out anything remotely resembling paedophilia, ~~ocasionally~~ warning users that such content can and will land them a jail sentence. [[TV Tropes]] reflexively banned it in counterfeit moral outrage during their [[Think of the Advertisers!|purge of revenue-threatening material]] after [[The Second Google Incident]], and only restored its page when they realized that leaving it censored was worse for their image than having it on the wiki. It also didn't help that the underground Tor site ''Lolita City'', which was seized by the FBI for hosting child pornography, was named after the novel.

* ''[[Lolita]]'' is unfortunately more famous for the controversy that surrounds it than the actual content and quality of the novel: Vladimir Nabokov went through many publishers who refused to publish it, and after it was published, it was banned in many places for being "pornographic" or "an instruction manual for paedophilia" (which it is not). Even for people who aren't familiar with the history of the book, a lot of the covers/jackets make it look like erotica. It also gave rise to the term "loli" or "lolicon", which are taboo words in their own right (even though it has also been used in a legitimate, non-paedophilic context e.g. those so-called "Lolita fashions" popular with some cosplayers); [[Google]] won't auto-complete them if you try to search for those terms, and would attempt to block out anything remotely resembling paedophilia, occasionally warning users that such content can and will land them a jail sentence. [[TV Tropes]] reflexively banned it in counterfeit moral outrage during their [[Think of the Advertisers!|purge of revenue-threatening material]] after [[The Second Google Incident]], and only restored its page when they realized that leaving it censored was worse for their image than having it on the wiki. It also didn't help that the underground Tor site ''Lolita City'', which was seized by the FBI for hosting child pornography, was named after the novel.

* ''The Satanic Verses'' by Salman Rushdie is recalled more for the ensuing fatwa declared on the author by the Ayatollah Khomeini, and for the fallout from that incident, than for the novel itself.

* The ''Uncle Remus'' stories are a group of actual fables told by slaves and former slaves in the American South, making them a valuable cultural resource. However, though once popular, they are now nearly unknown. Compiler and editor Joel Chandler Harris' fictional character who tells the stories, Uncle Remus, was written as an elderly ex-slave who was basically content to continue to work for a white family. The implied racism is now almost all that is known of the stories. The fables themselves, taken out of the Remus context, are stories about animals using their wiles to trick each other, and man, in order to survive. Unlike Aesop's fables, they are not meant to be morally instructive, but are a commentary on man resorting to animal-like behaviors in desperate circumstances.

* ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin|Uncle Toms Cabin]]'' had a controversy that the publication of this book inspired over slavery, particularly in the years leading up to the [[American Civil War]]. However, few people have actually read the book.

== Live-Action TV ==

* Most people associate ''[[Toddlers and Tiaras]]'' with the arguably [[wikipedia:Child beauty pageant#Criticism|exploitative and creepy nature]] of child beauty pageants (said controversies have led France to [[Banned in China|ban]] beauty contests for minors under 13). The episode where one child contestant was made to dress up like [[Julia Roberts]]' [[Squick|prostitute]] character in ''[[Pretty Woman]]'' unsurprisingly courted controversy, and so does the case of one stage mum making her young daughter's chest resemble that of [[Dolly Parton]] and another mother asking her daughter to smoke fake cigarettes on stage.

** One notable contestant was Alana Thompson, who went under the stage name Honey Boo Boo. On top of what amounts to abusive practices on part of her mother such as feeding her with "Go-Go Juice"–an [[Gargle Blaster|unhealthy cocktail]] of Red Bull and Mountain Dew, it was later revealed that Alana's mother, June Shannon, had a relationship with a convicted [[Paedo Hunt|sex offender]] Mark McDaniel, which led to ''Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo'' being cancelled. Alana and her mother's notoriety as ''Toddlers'' participants and in their own spin-off show also earned them [[Snark Bait]] status, often becoming the butt of parodies such as those in ''[[South Park]]'' and internet memes.

== Music ==

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* The swastika used to be a positive symbol of good luck, only for the Nazis to adopt it as their insignia. Unless if you're Buddhist or a Jain, brandishing it could land you in hot water especially in Germany where use of it along with other "unconstitutional symbols" is [[wikipedia:Strafgesetzbuch section 86a|banned]]. There are exceptions to this such as the use of swastikas in works of art like films and television programmes, though it was only until recently when video games are now allowed to display them so as long as it is done in an artistic or historical context, and even then this has to be reviewed on a case-to-case basis.

* IBM is arguably one of the foremost names in information technology, having pioneered the use of x86-based personal computers which became a ''de facto'' standard to this day. While they did cooperate with the United States and developed technologies as well as manufactured weapons for the Allied war effort, it could not however shake off their work with the Nazis through their German subsidiary ''Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft'', or Dehomag, where their punch card technology was used to keep records of concentration camp detainees during the [[Holocaust]].

* As mentioned in the ''Toddlers and Tiaras'' example, child beauty pageants have earned something of a dubious reputation no thanks to controversies over age-appropriateness, working conditions and issues with sexualization of children participating in such contests. While some pageants are more or less inocuous and are by no means malicious in nature such as in the case of the "Little Miss Philippines" segment in ''[[Eat Bulaga!]]'', with which notable actresses such as Ryzza Mae Dizon and Ice Seguerra first became famous for, the over-the-top and borderline paedophilic things stage mothers have their daughters subjected to has led some jurisdictions to either restrict or outright ban pageants for children under 13.