British-born academic Dr George Sandra Larke-Walsh, of the University of North Texas, has published a paper claiming writers of the TV series Peaky Blinders use the war as an excuse to justify and romanticise violent behaviour.
Larke-Walsh said the show justified the brutal violence by portraying the characters as damaged by World War One. She claims the characters, including Cillian Murphy's gang leader Tommy Shelby, are all shown to be damaged by the war to excuse
their criminal actions.
Larke-Walsh also claims they are made out as Robin Hood-esque characters fighting for survival in a corrupt world while they also use the Shelby family's gypsy heritage as a distraction. She writes:
[Peaky Blinders] utilises nostalgia for nationalism, enacted within displays of extreme aggression as well as promoting regressive masculine ideals ... In the current sociopolitical environment, and associated concerns about the prevalence of
toxic masculinity, such presentations no longer feel safely confined to fantasy.
The paper, titled The King's shilling: How Peaky Blinders also claims the show uses Murphy's naked body to elicit homosexual desire but then asserts heterosexuality through brutal violence. Larke-Walsh added:
There is no doubt that all audiences are meant to find the characters visually attractive. It is a feature of regressive masculinity that homosexuality must be denied.
The drama has won a host of awards and has an average audience of around 4 million per episode.
Burundi has banned the BBC and indefinitely suspended Voice of America. The country's TV censor revoked BBC's licence and accused it of airing a documentary that it said was false and damaged the country's reputation. The censor also banned local
journalists from working for the BBC or Voice of America.
The BBC aired the documentary in May last year about what it said were secret detention and torture sites in Burundi. The BBC stands by the contents of this programme.
Sky New Zealand has pulled fellow broadcaster Sky News Australia off air until the channel stops broadcasting clips from the Christchurch mosque shooter's Facebook live stream.
In a tweet posted on Saturday morning, Sky New Zealand, an independently-owned broadcaster, said it had decided to remove the Australian 24-hour news channel from its platform because of the footage. A channel spokeswoman said:
We stand in support of our fellow New Zealanders and have made the decision to remove Sky News Australia from our platform until we are confident that the distressing footage from yesterday's events will not be shared.
Burundi has banned the BBC and indefinitely suspended Voice of America. The country's TV censor revoked BBC's licence and accused it of airing a documentary that it said was false and damaged the country's reputation. The censor also banned local
journalists from working for the BBC or Voice of America.
Sky New Zealand has pulled fellow broadcaster Sky News Australia off air until the channel stops broadcasting clips from the Christchurch mosque shooter's Facebook live stream.
