|
Web under scrutiny from censors |
|
|
|
|
Reaction to reahu
The ongoing blockade of the reahu.net website due to the naked images of Apsara dancers contained within has not only raised questions about government censorship but also over just what is and is not acceptable in Cambodian society when it comes to media images.
“I don’t think it is wrong,” said Rasmey, a 21-year-old Royal University of Fine Arts student who also paints ApsaraS, but with their breasts covered with transparent cloth. “But I don’t like it because it makes people think that Cambodian women like to show their bodies in public,” he said. Rasmey said some degree of government intervention was needed because “these kinds of pictures can turn our culture into a joke”. For 19-year-old Chhim Srey Roth, a third-year art student at the Reyum Institute art school, the Apsaras she learned to draw were far more demure than the busty, topless women gracing the reahu website. “I used to draw Apsaras with very thin fabric covering their bodies. It does not look like the Apsara on the reahu website, who have very big breasts,” she said. She said Apsaras were meant to symbolise the gentle beauty of Khmer women, without alluding to them as sexual beings. As traditionally depicted on the walls of Angkor-era temples, Apsaras bear their breasts, noted Heng Monyphal, a professor of painting at the Royal University of Fine Arts. “So it’s an artist’s right to do it this way,” he said. But today, he said, most artists add some degree of cover out of respect for women, and he suspected modern-day compositions of topless Apsaras came not from a dedication to historical accuracy but rather an intention to catch the eye – and drooling mouths – of male audiences.  Photo by: SOVANN PHILONG
An internet user views the controversial images of apsaras on a website blocked by domestic service providers since January. BRENDAN BRADY AND MOM KUNTHEAR
|
Comment by Reajsei on 2010-02-07 18:49:53
In 1503, when Leonardo Da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa, some
people said that his painting was a negative reflection on his
culture, values and honour, and like pornography, it was a danger
to local youths etc. 500 years later, we can cure black plague, we
can cure smallpox, we can cure cholera, we can cure typhus, but we
can't cure ignorance.
Reajsei
|
Please login or register to add comments |
Blog