The latest Star Wars film, "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" featured the first same-sex kiss ever shown in the Star Wars saga.Yet it was removed from screenings in Singapore to keep the film at a PG-13 rating in that country where Including the kiss between two women would have changed the rating to NC-16 and prohibited anyone under 16 years old from seeing the movie.
Media maven Sue O'Connell joined Boston Public Radio on Friday to speak about the removal of the kiss and implications behind it.
“This kiss was so inconsequential - it’s a crowd scene, people are celebrating, two women kiss, and if I had sneezed or looked to the left I would’ve missed this kiss," she said. "That’s the only LGBTQ representation in this entire series and it’s this stupid little tiny kiss.”
There's a fine line between asserting your morals while trying not offend another culture, O'Connell noted.
“If we want to export our culture but we don’t want to be offensive, is it okay to cut out things that they may find offensive?" she asked. "There’s part of me that thinks it’s [Singapore's] rules, and if they can get to a point where they’re fair-minded and treat LGBTQ people legally and with respect, I think that’s more important."
