Can we please stop calling criticism ‘hate speech’?

A look through this week’s news makes pretty depressing reading.

On the local front, we are at a point that there are so many high-ranking people implicated in wrongdoings in Malta that I wonder if there is anyone left who is trustworthy. When you have Ray Aquilina, the former head of the police’s anti-money laundering unit, being charged with money-laundering himself, along with corruption, perjury and the leaking of official secrets, you have to pick your jaw up from the floor.

Meanwhile, another traffic fatality on our roads has confirmed what we have long been saying: speeding is the major cause of these accidents. During Police inspections last week, 60 drivers were charged with excessive speeding. Some of them were driving 113 and 150 kilometres per hour where the limits were 60, 70 and 80kms per hour.

“Malta’s roads are not race tracks, and the 750 speeding fines issued by police in just six weeks show a reckless disregard for traffic laws and public safety” a statement by the Insurance Association Malta said. Yet on any given day if you are driving according to the speed limit, you have some hothead F1 wannabe behind you honking his horn in exasperation until he overtakes you with screeching tyres and the smell of burnt rubber. Only for him to have to slam on the brakes because of stop lights or traffic.

The international news is enough to put you into cardiac arrest, so it is no wonder that the default position for many is just to switch it all off. Instead, talk turns to more trivial matters such as a little song which has grown in momentum for various reasons. Granted, it is rather frivolous to be speaking about Malta’s Eurovision when there are so many real problems around us, yet everywhere you go, the subject inevitably turns to Kant, in all its double entendres.

Yes, I know, it wouldn’t be Eurovision without a good old controversy, only this time it’s not just us kicking up a fuss. The BBC has officially announced that Kant will not be not played on BBC radio due to its pronunciation during the refrain “serving Kant”, which closely resembles an obscene word in English. The BBC enforces strict guidelines to prevent airing words that might be perceived as offensive, even if unintended in their original language.

This is not unique to the BBC. The other day I was listening to a local station and when Sabrina Carpenter’s song Please, Please, Please came on, the word “motherfuckers” was faded out.  Several singers have recorded radio friendly versions when their song contains profanity. The song Forget You by CeeLo Green was “cleaned up” from the original Fuck You.   And the radio edit for Gwen Stefani’s Hollaback Girl changed the relatively harmless, “this my shit” to simply “this my uh”.

Of course, in the meantime, many were busily googling the meaning of “serving cunt” and were prompt to tell everyone why it’s not considered obscene in femme culture but, rather, that it means you are fierce.  It was clearly thrown into the song to be deliberately provocative to get attention like Finland’s Ich Komme (I Come).  Wow, how subversive. How cool. I was just about ready to ignore the whole furore, until some started throwing around the by now over-used refrain of “empowerment”. Oh please. Not this again.

If we really want to encourage female empowerment, we should be teaching girls that it’s not acceptable for a boy to control them in the name of love. We should be teaching them about self-esteem, self-worth and not laying down to be anyone’s carpet. I can assure you that women going around using the c-word because they have supposedly “reclaimed” it, won’t make a dent on the proliferation of domestic violence.

Another thing which struck me were the many articles I saw going to great lengths to spell out the “meaning” of the song and Miriana Conte’s performance in detail. My reaction was: What is wrong with this picture?  A good song is a good song; it sticks in your head and can stand on its own merits. It does not require a thousand-word essay. I just find it ironic that so many are saying “relax, it’s Eurovision, just a bit of fun” and yet there are all these convoluted attempts to “explain” it.  A memorable song does not need to be justified in any way and listeners will gravitate towards it not because of any shock tactics but because they can’t stop singing/humming it.

Then of course, cue the protests because we did not like what Miriana was wearing. Can we please accept that criticising an outfit because it does not suit a singer’s figure who is representing Malta is not hatred against women and it’s not bullying. We already went through this with Destiny and her pink leotard a few years ago. It’s not trying to “police women’s bodies” and it’s not because (like someone pointedly tried to suggest) I am projecting my own insecurities on to her.  However, I would like to think that if I were wearing something completely unflattering, family or friends would pull me aside and tell me to go and change. If they really cared about me that is.

The crux of the argument, which is one I made when Destiny was representing Malta, is that these are not just any singers, but they are waving the national flag so, yes, their appearance matters to the public, because the public is paying for the whole thing. Can we also stop trying to pretend it’s OK to be glorifying an unhealthy weight or obesity?

I can already hear the shocked “shh!! You can’t say that anymore!” Well, I don’t care, I’m saying it. Let’s stop pussyfooting around this issue which first gained ground when the morbidly obese Lizzo came on the scene with her scant outfits and her body positivity message. Where is Lizzo now, you might ask? Well, the last I read about her she has lost a dramatic amount of weight, although she vehemently denies being on Ozempic, like the rest of Hollywood. We should be striving for more people to take care of themselves, and lose extra weight because the health problems they are risking are very dangerous – that is not body-shaming or fat-shaming, it’s simply being realistic, based on factual medical research.

It’s getting pretty tiring to be told we cannot have a contrary opinion and that we have to ride the wave of what is trendy or popular just because “someone” says so. For me, being liberal encompasses freedom of expression or thought even if it goes against the grain of those who are going around sternly lecturing everyone: Don’t say this, you cannot say that and so on. That is censorship which is diametrically opposite to the very meaning of liberalism.

And finally, as we head towards the Eurovision finals in May, let me just remind everyone that kids usually love singing along to Malta’s entry for Eurovision. I just hope parents are prepared for their little ones yelling “serving Kant” at the playground.