I was unfortunately forced to watch the usual drivel on the public TVs while jogging along on the treadmill recently at the gym. One of the main stations was MTV, of course, and they were doing something called "MTV Movie Awards." They must be paying some kind of serious bucks, as the MCs were major commercial actors.

Anyway, they had some pretty bizarre categories- including "Best Kiss." There were 5 contenders, one of which was "Brokeback Mountain." A brief clip was shown of the kiss in question from each of the movies- including some pretty raunchy/repulsively tongue-in-mouth stuff- except- you guessed it- Brokeback Mountain. They showed the runup to the kiss, which was the pair's first reunion after their herding job had ended- then quick jump to the next movie.

Which movie won? Of course, Brokeback Mountain. So the kiss that was good enough to honour was too controversial to show. I'm unsure whether this would be because of MTV Asia, Thai censorship, or MTV at large. Did anyone see the version that was broadcast in a Western country?

Anyway, a big thumbs down to whomever's responsible for such hypocritical censorship.

"Steven"

And a big thumbs-up to a poster who doesn't teach English, but uses a word like "whomever." Whatever.

My guess is that it was censored outside of the USA. Hasn't American TV shown women kissing passionately?

And a big thumbs-up to a poster who doesn't teach English, but uses a word like "whomever." Whatever.

My guess is that it was censored outside of the USA. Hasn't American TV shown women kissing passionately?

Actually PB, cable television in the USA has had shows on for several years in which men kiss...but never for general broadcast over the air by the networks. "If These Walls Could Talk..." was on Showtime for several years and I recall some very hot kissing scenes between man-man and woman-woman. I do think that a woman to woman kiss would be more generally accepted in the USA than a man to man kiss. It is that Western hypocrisy at work again.

I didn't see the show referenced by IJWT (I'm not a big MTV fan), but I'll make a point of trying to find it to confirm your suspicions that it was censored outside the USA.

The original 'Queer as Folk' (the British version) was a general broadcast programme free to air on one of our major channels. Uproar!