The effect of censoring information and achieving otherwise?its amplification is known as the Streisand effect.
It is called the Streisand effect because in 2003 an aerial photograph of the Californian coast was published where the home of Berbara Streisand was seen, the American actress denounced the site and photographer Kenneth Adelman for invasion of privacy. Censorship has been widely reported in the world’s media.
- Aerial images of Streisand’s house have been published in thousands of blogs.
- Forums and media.
- And the actress had achieved the opposite effect.
- The images in his house had a greater media impact than if the complaint had never been filed.
“Legal things are in bad taste; What stimulates taste is forbidden?. – Ovid-
When a sign forbids moving to a particular area, our mind begins to question the reasons for such a limitation, an irresistible desire suddenly invades us: it is the desire to transgress the sign, to feel special in discovering that secret to which others do not have access.
In its quest to reach an ever-growing organization and avoid fatal consequences, society structures rules that deprive human beings of certain freedoms that restrict, in different ways, their free will and question their authority; this is when the person may feel threatened.
The desire of the human being to know or possess the things that are denied to him is inevitable and, at times, one could say that it is inherent to the person, it is no coincidence that psychologists study the effects of prohibitions on the mind and its consequences, since they influence various aspects of our lives.
“We all want what we can’t have, we’re fans of the forbidden” – Mario Benedetti-
Berbara Streisand, Beyoncé, Tom Cruise, King Philip and Queen Leticia of Spain?There have been several cases of celebrities over the years who, in trying to prevent the dissemination of photos or videos, have had the opposite effect: they have managed to make the images even more viewed.
But it is not only in the spheres of fame that the restriction “becomes uncontrollable”; in fact, there are countless examples of the Streisand effect in the world of art, literature, politics, etc.
A good example in Spain was the censorship in 2007 of a cover of the satirical magazine Jueves, which featured a caricature of kings Felipe and Leticia practicing sex and that a judge of the Audiencia Nacional has banned its sale for an alleged crime of insults to the Crown.
A recent case in Spain that produced the Streisand effect triggered the censorship of the book Faria, written by the journalist Nacho Carretero, which speaks of drug trafficking in Galicia, what does it mean?Flour? And it’s a term used colloquially to refer to cocaine.
The book was published in 2015 and in 2016 was denounced by Alfredo Bea Gondar, former mayor of the municipality of El Grove; in 2018, Judge Alejandra Fontana ordered the work to be removed from the shops and, soon after, demanded and interest in the book increased exponentially.
“Curiosity dares most against the most forbidden” – Diego de Saavedra Fajardo-
Each limitation represents a challenge for the restless mind that seeks to push the boundaries of a freedom that is often broken by barely understandable rules or that we simply do not want to respect.
This is one of the reasons why, in the 1980s, audiences massively saw Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographic exhibition in New York, which had been censored in Washington as sexually explicit and unworthy of being shown to the public.
In its first weekend he received nearly 40,000 visitors, catapulting his work to history books.
As you can see, the list of cases that fill the history of references to the forbidden is endless, and it is true that we all have a close and forbidden example that we vividly remember.
So one of the consequences of creating obstacles is that these barriers/prohibitions/obstacles begin to act with one voice?It is curiosity, as human beings we are, that makes us want to look over barriers; this is how the Streisand effect is present in our lives.