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The Rise of Skywalker: Disney cuts Star Wars same-sex kiss in Singapore

Audioboxer

Audioboxer

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Nov 14, 2019
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Disney has cut a brief scene of two women kissing in the Singaporean version of its latest Star Wars film.

The Rise of Skywalker features the first same-sex kiss in the franchise's history - described by reviewers as "a brief flash of two women kissing... among a crowd of characters".
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Singapore's media regulatory body told the BBC that Disney cut the scene so it didn't get a higher age rating.

"The applicant has omitted a brief scene which under the film classification guidelines would require a higher rating," said a spokesperson from IMDA.

Without the kiss, the film is rated PG13 in Singapore.
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It is not clear if Disney - the owners of Lucasfilm, the Star Wars production company - cut the scene in other countries. It was reportedly shown in China but not in the UAE.

Disney has not responded to the BBC's requests for comment.
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Same-sex marriages are not recognised in Singapore and gay sex is illegal - though the law is not enforced.
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Didn't see a topic for this and I think it's newsworthy enough not to be stuck in an official topic.

Bit cowardly on Disney's behalf not to respond for comment. You can't put something like this in a movie and then not come out and condemn countries being ridiculous about it. Unless $ matters more. For once it's not China strong-arming American/European businesses.
 
Bishop89

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Oct 25, 2017
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Man that scene must have been like half a second on screen because I don't remember seeing it at all (in AUS).

Bit shitty for the mouse to cut it
 
jph139

jph139

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Oct 25, 2017
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I mean, that's why they relegated it to a shot you can remove without altering the story, right? So they can cut it?
 
SweetVermouth

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Mar 5, 2018
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I didn't even notice the scene when I watched the movie and I definitely don't give them any credit for it in the first place.
 
MrBadger

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Oct 27, 2017
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Whoa I had no idea they were gonna cut this kiss, after they made the LGBT representation so integral to the storyline as well
 
Arex

Arex

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Oct 27, 2017
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Lool it's not even cut in Indonesia xD

it's the one that happened in the celebration at the end right?
 

Deleted member 29195

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jph139 said:
I mean, that's why they relegated it to a shot you can remove without altering the story, right? So they can cut it?
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Yup that's how this works. The whole reason it's a single scene is so it can be cut around easily. Executives more or less confirm it anytime they're asked.

This is very shitty, but also the new status quo. Yay 2019.
 

Deleted member 15428

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Oct 27, 2017
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Audioboxer said:

Didn't see a topic for this and I think it's newsworthy enough not to be stuck in an official topic.

Bit cowardly on Disney's behalf not to respond for comment. You can't put something like this in a movie and then not come out and condemn countries being ridiculous about it. Unless $ matters more. For once it's not China strong-arming American/European businesses.
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What would you like Disney to do?
 
MrBadger

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SweetVermouth said:
I didn't even notice the scene when I watched the movie and I definitely don't give them any credit for it in the first place.
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I wouldn't have noticed it if I wasn't actively looking out for it after being told it was there. I don't know if it's better or worse than the Sad Gay from Endgame that was played by a director
 
OP
OP
Audioboxer

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Nov 14, 2019
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jph139 said:
I mean, that's why they relegated it to a shot you can remove without altering the story, right? So they can cut it?
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"a brief flash of two women kissing"

How the UAE and Singapore see it

xTCaEYe.jpg
 
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Audioboxer

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Nov 14, 2019
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Birdseye said:
What would you like Disney to do?
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At a minimum come out and condemn homophobic or intolerant countries.

If they want to be "performatively woke" and claim they are normalising same sex actions/relationships, then they can't turn around and kneel down to the altar of capitalism and expect to keep the credit. Refusing to comment or not saying anything shows where they really stand.
 
MrBadger

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Birdseye said:
What would you like Disney to do?
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They should just not fucking bother. The scene is only there so Disney can earn Woke Points during promotional interviews and it was deliberately made to be easily cut out. Either make a main character gay or stop using LGBT representation as a cheap prop
 

Dekim

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Oct 28, 2017
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Stop depending on corporations for social change. At the end of the day, they are driven by profit, and have a fiduciary duty to maximize it however they can within the law and regulations of the territory they are operating in.
 
sibarraz

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At this point I legit think that it would have been better if the kiss wasn't included at all, it was something just so small that screamed pandering rather than a legit intention on show inclusiveness, and worst of all, they are censoring it in lots of countries

Would have been more bold if they made poe or finn gay, but as it stands, the kiss that they showed in the movie may as well never existed
 
DiipuSurotu

DiipuSurotu

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Oct 25, 2017
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sibarraz said:
At this point I legit think that it would have been better if the kiss wasn't included at all, it was something just so small that screamed pandering rather than a legit intention on show inclusiveness, and worst of all, they are censoring it in lots of countries

Would have been more bold if they made poe or finn gay, but as it stands, the kiss that they showed in the movie may as well never existed
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They made sure to give Poe a female ex-girlfriend and Finn a potential female interest so we are sure they are canonically not gay
 
Elegant Weapon

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Oct 31, 2017
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I remember being told by posters here that Star Wars was the most inclusive and diverse mainstream sci-fi franchise.... Star Wars barely earns a C+ in those areas.

Star Trek Discovery has multiple gay characters in the main & supporting cast and they even get to kiss each other on screen.

Star Wars desperately needs to not be made exclusively by heterosexual old white men.
 
Tremorah

Tremorah

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Dec 3, 2018
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Typical corporate decision making and a good reminder capitalism cannot be trusted when we want to progress towards equality
 
CaviarMeths

CaviarMeths

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Oct 25, 2017
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I probably only noticed the shot because I knew about it beforehand. It doesn't affect the story to cut it, but it's still shitty to cut it. Blink-and-you-miss-it representation is still (marginally) better representation than no representation at all.
 
AcademicSaucer

AcademicSaucer

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Oct 25, 2017
13,817
Disney is hypocritical and only pretends to be woke because its financially sound in the west? I can't believe it
 
T002 Tyrant

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Nov 8, 2018
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As part of the LGBTQ+ community myself, personally I'm happy for any kind of representation, no matter how small. I'm not mad that the representation wasn't larger, I was so happy seeing some (any) kind of representation. 😁

On Topic: I'm not going to waste my energy on homophobic countries demanding censorship anymore 😣. I do think Disney are a little weak spined though. But yaaaaay capitalism.🙄
 
Noodle

Noodle

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Aug 22, 2018
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OrangeNova said:
Can we stop having spoilers of things that happened in a film that came out less than a week ago in the title?
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You want to suppress discussion of institutional homophobia so you can maintain the "surprise" of a minor character in the distant background kissing another woman in a bland popcorn flick?

Disgusting.
 
Cass_Se

Cass_Se

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Oct 25, 2017
3,143
Hey, at least a pilot embracing the slug monster is probably still there. That was a longer scene so Disney considered it more important than the gay kiss
 
Sheev

Sheev

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Oct 25, 2017
1,918
Well Disney made it a quick blink and you'll miss it thing for a reason. It's more queer-baiting so they can tell people they're progressive whilst still bowing to bigoted views in other countries to make money.

People need to stop thinking Disney and other companies actually care about LGBTQA+ representation at all outside of their bottom line.
 
Melkezadek

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Oct 27, 2017
2,168
Bishop89 said:
Man that scene must have been like half a second on screen because I don't remember seeing it at all (in AUS).

Bit shitty for the mouse to cut it
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Yea it was so quick I barely realized it happened.

Called my uncle during the holidays and was asking him whether or not he saw the movie. He says no but he reads they "gayafied" it. At first I thought he was kidding, but then I realized he was serious and not seeing the movie because of it. Called him pathetic and hung up.

Merry Christmas everyone.
 
OrangeNova

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Oct 30, 2017
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Noodle said:
You want to suppress discussion of institutional homophobia so you can maintain the "surprise" of a minor character in the distant background kissing another woman in a bland popcorn flick?

Disgusting.
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You can have this discussion without the title. "The Rise of Skywalker: Disney cuts Star Wars background scene in Singapore"

Chill.
DiipuSurotu said:
Spoilers are things that impact the story. This isn't a spoiler. It's an Easter Egg at most.
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How am I supposed to know it impacts the story or not?
 

Deleted member 60410

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Oct 3, 2019
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Stop expecting companies to stick up for your values. They'll only do so as long as it makes them money, which is all they're designed to care about. Spread the message and keep your purse strings tight if you want to see them change.
 
JigglesBunny

JigglesBunny

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Oct 27, 2017
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A whopping second of footage. When representation is just a bullet point for the marketing material, it's easy to carve it out without qualm or concern. Pathetic stuff but hey, what were any of us really expecting?
 
Semfry

Semfry

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Oct 25, 2017
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I guess the movie is half a second shorter? It was blatantly handled to make shit like this as easy and convenient to do as possible.
 
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