I love my serials - not the Saas-Bahu ones... well the ones I watch in English are the westernized Saas Bahu versions... so there you have it. Its the same sob stories except the pace is incredibly fast and they are much more entertaining. All in my opinion. While it did not occur to me much earlier, ever since sub-titles have started for serials on most English entertainment channels, I have two major grouses -
If you must sub-title something, at least find folk who understand the American or any other accent and get it right. I really can't remember some of the stuff that they have got wrong since I am typing this at 10:30 PM with one eye already asleep. But its ridiculous.
Another horrendous thing about sub-titling is the replacement of words. How in the world is "I want to have "gender" with her any sort of replacement for the word sex. What exactly are we so afraid of? That the minute someone hears the word sex, their pants are going to drop? With the number of rape cases happening, the phenomena is already present. Plus we have chowmein, mobile phones, mannequins, short skirts, and being female to blame for all that. Who has time to catch up on serials and be influenced?
Coming back from the rant -
Breast is chest - which means you are chestfeeding your child - a hilarious thing to read in subtitles. Even in medical serials where the context is breast cancer, the word is deleted.
Ass is buttocks - "You are such a buttocks"
Fuck is stupid fellow/dumb/idiotic - You are such an idiotic (to some extent makes sense)
Bitch is stupid/silly/and even lady at times - so instead of "you are a bitch", you end up saying "you are a lady" - I don't know whether to be offended or whether to worry about my sides splitting in laughter.
And then you have the most ridiculous editing sense
How many times have you seen the sub-titles carry a so called offensive word in asterisks, only to have the audio track running perfectly. And I really wonder at the perverted minds of the people sub-titling and editing. Sample this
1. A Brit serial had a dialogue which had the phrase "willy-nilly" in it - willy was put in asterix
2. Another serial I watched had the phrase "Every Tom, Dick and Harry" - with Dick edited out
3. Yet another had the sentence "I was left out there sucking on a candy" - and sucking was cut out
4. And I am fed of the number of times I have seen the word gay bleeped out even when it is a reference to being "bright and happy"
5. "Oh its just a tiny prick" - in reference to an injection with prick edited out
I mean COME ON!!! You need to be special kind of perverted to find meaning where there isn't any. So while you can air a serial like Dexter on graphic serial killing and Hannibal on cannibalism with no qualms as such, you don't like to say sex, breast and gay, even if the context requires it? How many levels of stupid is that?
What really really really got to me was in the serial - Homeland which ran its first 2 (I think) seasons on Star World. Every time the words - Muslim, Namaz (including a scene of a man praying), Jihad or anything related to the religion was brought up it was censored. Now I am a Catholic married to a Hindu Brahmin and that still got to me. On the one hand you are trying to uphold "morality" with your senseless censoring and on the other you are fostering religious bias?
There is no real point in debating what is wrong with words related to sexuality, religion, or even those with double meaning. Its not the words, its a bunch of people who believe its their duty to protect the masses. I get being cautious especially on family programming, but there is something called being realistic. I really would like to know what is being achieved by such policing - all I can see is suppression of something perfectly natural. Whether I see it or not on television, I do talk about sex, I have referred to a penis as a dick (many people too), I have gay friends - but what I am is careful - I would never abuse in front of my child. And if I am asked an awkward question related to any word, I will try my best to explain it. But walking around with a "holier than thou" attitude is simply beyond my understanding.
If you must sub-title something, at least find folk who understand the American or any other accent and get it right. I really can't remember some of the stuff that they have got wrong since I am typing this at 10:30 PM with one eye already asleep. But its ridiculous.
Another horrendous thing about sub-titling is the replacement of words. How in the world is "I want to have "gender" with her any sort of replacement for the word sex. What exactly are we so afraid of? That the minute someone hears the word sex, their pants are going to drop? With the number of rape cases happening, the phenomena is already present. Plus we have chowmein, mobile phones, mannequins, short skirts, and being female to blame for all that. Who has time to catch up on serials and be influenced?
Coming back from the rant -
Breast is chest - which means you are chestfeeding your child - a hilarious thing to read in subtitles. Even in medical serials where the context is breast cancer, the word is deleted.
Ass is buttocks - "You are such a buttocks"
Fuck is stupid fellow/dumb/idiotic - You are such an idiotic (to some extent makes sense)
Bitch is stupid/silly/and even lady at times - so instead of "you are a bitch", you end up saying "you are a lady" - I don't know whether to be offended or whether to worry about my sides splitting in laughter.
And then you have the most ridiculous editing sense
How many times have you seen the sub-titles carry a so called offensive word in asterisks, only to have the audio track running perfectly. And I really wonder at the perverted minds of the people sub-titling and editing. Sample this
1. A Brit serial had a dialogue which had the phrase "willy-nilly" in it - willy was put in asterix
2. Another serial I watched had the phrase "Every Tom, Dick and Harry" - with Dick edited out
3. Yet another had the sentence "I was left out there sucking on a candy" - and sucking was cut out
4. And I am fed of the number of times I have seen the word gay bleeped out even when it is a reference to being "bright and happy"
5. "Oh its just a tiny prick" - in reference to an injection with prick edited out
I mean COME ON!!! You need to be special kind of perverted to find meaning where there isn't any. So while you can air a serial like Dexter on graphic serial killing and Hannibal on cannibalism with no qualms as such, you don't like to say sex, breast and gay, even if the context requires it? How many levels of stupid is that?
What really really really got to me was in the serial - Homeland which ran its first 2 (I think) seasons on Star World. Every time the words - Muslim, Namaz (including a scene of a man praying), Jihad or anything related to the religion was brought up it was censored. Now I am a Catholic married to a Hindu Brahmin and that still got to me. On the one hand you are trying to uphold "morality" with your senseless censoring and on the other you are fostering religious bias?
There is no real point in debating what is wrong with words related to sexuality, religion, or even those with double meaning. Its not the words, its a bunch of people who believe its their duty to protect the masses. I get being cautious especially on family programming, but there is something called being realistic. I really would like to know what is being achieved by such policing - all I can see is suppression of something perfectly natural. Whether I see it or not on television, I do talk about sex, I have referred to a penis as a dick (many people too), I have gay friends - but what I am is careful - I would never abuse in front of my child. And if I am asked an awkward question related to any word, I will try my best to explain it. But walking around with a "holier than thou" attitude is simply beyond my understanding.
3 comments:
LOL Ruth, it seems that streaming my shows is making more and more sense because for some reason I have not noticed any of this stuff :). And the subtitling industry definitely needs help, any idea how to break in ;) ?
I hear you Aparna.. its seriously best to watch the unadulterated "adult" stuff online. Can you imagine a serial like Spartacus coming to regular TV!!!
Never really noticed these subtitling errors....:)
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