Delta Airs Edited Version of Carol Without Same-Sex Kissing Scenes

Apparently Delta Airlines isn’t cool with same-sex couples kissing in their in-flight movies.

According to a series of tweets between comic Cameron Esposito, singer Mary Lambert, writer Trish Bendix, and Carol screenwriter Phyllis Nagy, Delta Airlines has been playing an edited version of the movie Carol with the kissing scenes edited out. For those unaware, and in super simple terms, Carol is a film about two women who fall in love in the 1950s.

There are a small handful of scenes wherein the two main characters, played by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, kiss. These scenes barely register on the risqué scale, so it leaves one to wonder why Delta felt the need to edit them out. They responded to criticisms in a statement, writing:

There were two versions of this film that the studio makes available — one that is edited and one that is not edited. The edited version removes two explicit scenes that do not meet our guidelines. The edited version also removes all kissing.

So, just what are their guidelines, I wonder? Sure, there may have been two more explicit scenes, but the removal of the kissing just seems… wrong, especially given the fact that it’s totally fine to see heterosexual couples kissing on-screen in some of the other movies they offer. Of course, since this is two women kissing, then my gosh, that’s just inherently more explicit, now isn’t it? Not really, no.

Listen. We’re bombarded every single day with heteronormativity, and while public displays of affection might squick some folks out (totally fair), it’s acceptable. It’s a given, in some situations, with folks even saying it’s cute and adorable (which it can be)–that is, if it’s between a man and a woman. But this belief that PDAs between two women or men are somehow inherently more explicit is just straight up wrong. It’s kissing. That’s it.

Ultimately, Delta’s a private company and they’ll do whatever they darn please with the movies they get. But the double standard at play here is especially ridiculous, enough so that it just makes one sit for a second and wonder, “Wow, what the heck?”

(via Jezebel)

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Jessica Lachenal

Jessica Lachenal is a writer who doesn’t talk about herself a lot, so she isn’t quite sure how biographical info panels should work. But here we go anyway. She's the Weekend Editor for The Mary Sue, a Contributing Writer for The Bold Italic (thebolditalic.com), and a Staff Writer for Spinning Platters (spinningplatters.com). She's also been featured in Model View Culture and Frontiers LA magazine, and on Autostraddle. She hopes this has been as awkward for you as it has been for her.

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