Some airlines are censoring all lesbian kissing in Carol
Some airlines have chosen to show an edited version of Carol that removes all the lesbian kiss scenes.
If you’re flying Delta anytime soon you might want to reconsider choosing Carol as your in-flight movie – because there will be no lesbian kiss scenes.
The film, based on the Patricia Highsmith novel The Price of Salt, stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as two women who develop an intimate relationship, but if you watch the movie on some flights the main characters will never even touch lips.
Gay comedian Cameron Esposito watched the film on her flight and tweeted about the unusual editing choice.
Phyllis Nagy, the scriptwriter for Carol, said some airlines decided to offer the full version while others selected the censored version.
Airlines editing films for explicit sexual content is commonplace, but same-sex kissing and a short, not particularly explicit sex scene don’t seem to warrant such extreme censorship.
Delta Airlines’ Corporate Communications representative Liz Savadelis told After Ellen: “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. The other version is fully non-edited and includes the kissing, but it also includes the explicit scenes.
“Unfortunately, Delta doesn’t have the rights to edit the movie, or to make the decision to keep some of that content (e.g. kissing).
“Because of the explicit scenes included in the non-edited version, we chose the edited version. This is consistent with that is available to all airlines.”
In March, Carol was voted the best LGBT film “of all time” by over a hundred film experts.
