:Expurgation

{{see also|Category:Works subject to expurgation}}

• In 1264, Pope Clement IV ordered the Jews of the Crown of Aragon to submit their books to Dominican censors for expurgation.{{Cite book |last=Popper |first=William |url=https://openlibrary.org/borrow/ia/censorshiphebre00poppgoog?ref=ol |title=The Censorship of Hebrew Books |date=May 1889 |publisher=Knickerbocker Press |edition=1st |publication-place=New Rochelle, New York, USA |pages=13–14 |language=en |oclc=70322240 |ol=23428412M}}{{Cite book |last=Greenfield |first=Jeanette |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sFaC8FmqzxcC&dq=Pope+Clement+IV+ordered+the+Jews+of+Aragon+to+submit+their+books&pg=PA239 |title=The Return of Cultural Treasures |date=26 January 1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-47746-8 |publication-place=England |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Carus |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YbdZAAAAYAAJ&q=Pope+Clement+IV+ordered+the+Jews+of+Aragon+to+submit+their+books |title=The Open Court |date=1925 |publisher=Open Court Publishing Company |language=en}}

• Due to its mockery of the ancestors of the modern British Royal Family, Charles MacDonald (2011), Moidart: Among the Clanranalds, Birlinn Limited. pp. 129-130. graphic descriptions of sex acts, and the symptoms of venereal disease, Derek S. Thomson (1983), The Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 185. Scottish Gaelic national poet Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair's groundbreaking 1751 poetry book Ais-eridh na Sean Chánoin Albannaich ("The Resurrection of the Old Scottish Language") continued to be republished only in heavily bowdlerized editions by puritanical censors throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. [https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/podcast/alan-riach/ The Scottish Poetry Library interviews Alan Riach about Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair], June 2016.
• [https://theconversation.com/willies-ghillies-and-horny-highlanders-scottish-gaelic-writing-has-a-filthy-past-85506 Willies, ghillies and horny Highlanders: Scottish Gaelic writing has a filthy past] by Peter MacKay, University of St. Andrews, The Conversation, 24 October 2017. The first uncensored text was published only in 2020. [https://www.gaelicbooks.org/explore-the-shop/poetry/traditional-poetry/aiseirigh-orain-le-alastair-mac-mhaighstir-alastair Aiseirigh: Òrain le Alastair Mac Mhaighstir Alastair], The Gaelic Books Council.
• "The Crabfish" (known also as "The Sea Crabb"), an English folk song dating back to the mid-1800s about a man who places a crab into a chamber pot, unbeknownst to his wife, who later uses the pot without looking, and is attacked by the crab.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jLo_AQAAMAAJ&q=bishop%20percy%27s%20folio%20manuscript%20crabfish&pg=PA100 |title=Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript: loose and humorous songs |year=1867 |editor-last=Frederick J. Furnivall |location=London |page=100 |language=en}} Over the years, sanitized versions of the song were released in which a lobster or crab grabs the wife by the nose{{Cite book |last=Feierabend |first=John M. |title=The Crabfish |date=1 April 2004 |publisher=Gia Publications |others=Illustrated by Vincent Ngyen |isbn=9781579993832 |oclc=59550589}} instead of by the genitals, and others in which each potentially offensive word is replaced with an inoffensive word that does not fit the rhyme scheme, thus implying that there is a correct word that does rhyme. For instance, "Children, children, bring the looking glass / Come and see the crayfish that bit your mother's a-face" (arse).{{Cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=The Crayfish |url=http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Crayfish.htm#.UTpg1Iy9KSM |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409170407/https://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Crayfish.htm |archive-date=9 April 2022 |access-date=22 February 2022 |language=en}}
• The 1925 Harvard Press edition of Montaigne's essays (translated by George Burnham Ives) omitted the essays that pertain to sex.{{Cite book |last=Bussacco |first=Michael C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GhU4NHMJW3cC&pg=PA252 |title=Heritage Press Sandglass Companion Book: 1960–1983 |publisher=Tribute Books (Archibald, Penn.) |year=2009 |isbn=9780982256510 |page=252 |language=en |access-date=23 September 2010}}
• A Boston-area ban on Upton Sinclair's novel Oil! {{ndash}} owing to a short motel sex scene {{ndash}} prompted the author to assemble a 150-copy fig-leaf edition with the nine offending pages blacked out as a publicity stunt.{{Cite news |last=Curtis |first=Jack |date=February 17, 2008 |title=Blood from Oil |language=en |work=The Boston Globe |publication-place=Boston, Massachusetts, USA |url=http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/02/17/blood_from_oil/ |url-status=live |access-date=23 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160711192507/http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/02/17/blood_from_oil |archive-date=11 July 2016 |issn=0743-1791 |oclc=66652431}}{{Cite book |last=Sinclair |first=Mary Craig |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A9qae2PFWagC&pg=PA309 |title=Southern Belle |publisher=Crown Publishers |year=1957 |isbn=9781578061525 |location=New York |page=309 |language=en |author-link=Mary Craig Sinclair |access-date=23 September 2010}}
• In 1938, a jazz song "Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy)" peaked at number two on US charts. The original lyrics were sung with the word "floozie", meaning a sexually promiscuous woman, or a prostitute, but record company Vocalion objected. Hence the word was substituted with the almost similar sounding title word "floogie" in the second recording. The "floy floy" in the title was a slang term for a venereal disease, but that was not widely known at the time. In the lyrics it is sung repeatedly "floy-doy", which was widely thought as a nonsense refrain. Since the lyrics were regarded as nonsense the song failed to catch the attention of censors.
• In 1920, an American publisher bowdlerized the George Ergerton translation of Knut Hamsun's Hunger.{{Cite book |last=Lyngstad |first=Sverre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tS5vQTaJ8d8C&dq=Knut+Hamsun%27s+Hunger+expurgated&pg=PR11 |title=Knut Hamsun, Novelist: A Critical Assessment |date=2005 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-0-8204-7433-5 |language=en}}
• Lady Chatterley's Lover by English author D. H. Lawrence. An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960.
• Several music artists have changed song titles to appease radio stations. For example, an expurgated remix of Snoop Dogg's song "Wet" was released under the title "Sweat" and Rihanna's song "S&M" had to be changed to "C'mon" in the UK.{{cite web|url=https://www.bet.com/photo-gallery/76bl1l/when-artists-are-forced-to-change-song-titles/yoni04 |title=When Artists Are Forced to Change Song Titles |website=BET |access-date=21 October 2023}}

• Recent editions of many works—including Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn{{Cite news |last=Tomasky |first=Michael |date=7 January 2011 |title=The New Huck Finn |newspaper=The Guardian |publication-place=London, England |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2011/jan/07/usa-marktwain-huck-finn-no-n-word |url-status=live |access-date=6 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921000132/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2011/jan/07/usa-marktwain-huck-finn-no-n-word |archive-date=21 September 2013 |issn=1756-3224 |oclc=60623878}} and Joseph Conrad's Nigger of the Narcissus—have found various replacements ("slave", "Indian", "soldier boy", "N-word", "children") for the word nigger. An example of bowdlerization can be plainly seen in Huckleberry Finn, in which Twain used racial slurs in natural speech to highlight what he saw as racism and prejudice endemic to the Antebellum South.{{Cite book |last=Lowenthal |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NtuCCgAAQBAJ&dq=mark+twain+nigger+replaced&pg=PA547 |title=The Past is a Foreign Country - Revisited |date=October 2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-85142-8 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Fulton |first=Joe B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4euMuE_2Q6cC&dq=mark+twain+nigger&pg=PA56 |title=Mark Twain's Ethical Realism: The Aesthetics of Race, Class, and Gender |date=1997 |publisher=University of Missouri Press |isbn=978-0-8262-1144-6 |language=en}}
• Agatha Christie's 1939 book Ten Little Niggers was titled And Then There Were None for the US market in 1940, with some paperback editions calling it Ten Little Indians. UK editions continued to use the original title into the 1980s, and French editions were called Dix Petits Nègres until 2020.{{cite news |title='N-word' scrapped from French edition of Agatha Christie novel |url=https://www.rfi.fr/en/culture/20200826-n-word-scrapped-from-french-edition-of-agatha-christie-novel-crime-negro-offence-black-lives-matter |access-date=24 April 2025 |work=RFI |date=26 August 2020 |language=en}}
• The American version of the counting rhyme "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe", which was changed by some to add the word "nigger",{{Cite book |last1=Opie |first1=Iona |url=https://openlibrary.org/borrow/ia/oxforddictionary0000unse_s0p8?ref=ol |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes |last2=Opie |first2=Peter |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0198600887 |edition=2nd |location=England |pages=156–8 |language=en |ol=432879M |access-date=22 February 2023 |url-access=registration |ol-access=free}} is now sung with a different word, such as "tiger".
• The Hardy Boys children's mystery novels (published starting in 1927) contained heavy doses of racism. They were extensively revised starting in 1959 in response to parents' complaints about racial stereotypes in the books.{{Cite book |last=Rehak |first=Melanie |url=https://archive.org/details/girlsleuthnancyd0000reha |title=Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her |publisher=Harvest |year=2005 |isbn=9780156030564 |edition=1st |location=Harcourt, Orlando, Florida, USA |publication-date=2006 |page=243 |language=en |oclc=769190422 |ol=29573540M |access-date=22 February 2023 |url-access=registration |ol-access=free}} For further information, see The Hardy Boys#1959%E2%80%931979.
• The Story of Doctor Dolittle and relevant works have been reedited to remove controversial references to and plots related to non-white characters (in particular, African ones).Lanes, Selma G. "[https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/28/books/childrens-books-doctor-dolittle-innocent-again.html Doctor Dolittle, Innocent Again]", New York Times. August 28, 1988.{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Cathay Y. N. |date=2024-01-12 |title=Editing Classic Books: A Threat to the Public Domain? - Virginia Law Review |url=https://virginialawreview.org/articles/editing-classic-books-a-threat-to-the-public-domain/ |access-date=2024-08-21 |website=virginialawreview.org |language=en-US}}

• Many Internet message boards and forums use automatic wordfiltering to block offensive words and phrases from being published or automatically amend them to more innocuous substitutes such as asterisks or nonsense. This often catches innocent words, in a scenario referred to as the Scunthorpe problem; words such as 'assassinate' and 'classic' may become 'buttbuttinate' or 'clbuttic'. Users frequently self-bowdlerize their own writing by using slight misspellings or variants, such as 'fcuk' or 'pron'.{{Cite book|last1=Pourciau|first1=Lester J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UVCLr9kYpH8C&dq=Scunthorpe+problem+expurgate&pg=PA72|title=Ethics and Electronic Information in the Twenty-first Century|publisher=Purdue University Press|date=1999|isbn=978-1-55753-138-4|language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Ng |first=Jason |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kHARBAAAQBAJ&dq=Scunthorpe+problem&pg=PR20 |title=Blocked on Weibo: What Gets Suppressed on ChinaÕs Version of Twitter (And Why) |date=27 August 2013 |publisher=New Press, The |isbn=978-1-59558-871-5 |language=en}}
• The 2010 song "Fuck You" by CeeLo Green, which made the top-10 in thirteen countries, was broadcast as "Forget You", with a matching music video, where the changed lyrics cannot be lip-read, as insisted on by the record company.{{Cite news|last=Smith|first=Caspar Llewellyn|date=2010-11-14|title=Cee Lo Green: 'I've been such an oddball my whole life' {{!}} Q&A|language=en-GB|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/nov/14/cee-lo-green-interview|access-date=2020-10-10|issn=0261-3077}}
• The 2021 song "ABCDEFU" by Gayle was also bowdlerized for radio, with the new lyrics reading: 'A, B, C, D, E, forget you', in a similar fashion to Fuck You.{{Cite web |last=Hirsh |first=Marc |date=2022-03-11 |title=Gayle’s ‘abcdefu’ and 10 More Extremely Cursed Radio Edits |url=https://www.vulture.com/2022/03/songs-ruined-by-radio-edits-gayle-acdefu.html |access-date=2025-03-29 |website=Vulture |language=en}}

• A student edition of the novel Fahrenheit 451 was expurgated to remove a variety of content. This was ironic given the subject matter of the novel involves burning books. This continued for a dozen years before it was brought to author Ray Bradbury's attention and he convinced the publisher to reinstate the material.{{cite journal |last=Crider |first=Bill |date=Fall 1980 |editor1-last=Lee |editor1-first=Billy C. |editor2-last=Laughlin |editor2-first=Charlotte |title=Reprints/Reprints: Ray Bradbury's FAHRENHEIT 451 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVzjEjyHH0C&q=%22The+censorship+began+with+a+special+Bal-Hi+edition+in+1967%2C+an+edition+designed+for+high+school+students%22&pg=PA25 |url-status=live |journal=Paperback Quarterly |volume=III |issue=3 |page=25 |isbn=9781434406330 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210504155135/https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVzjEjyHH0C&q=%22The+censorship+began+with+a+special+Bal-Hi+edition+in+1967,+an+edition+designed+for+high+school+students%22&pg=PA25 |archive-date=May 4, 2021 |access-date=November 11, 2020 |quote=The censorship began with a special 'Bal-Hi' edition in 1967, an edition designed for high school students...}}{{cite book |last1=Karolides |first1=Nicholas J. |title=120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature |last2=Bald |first2=Margaret |last3=Sova |first3=Dawn B. |publisher=Checkmark Books |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-8160-8232-2 |edition=Second |page=488 |quote=In 1967, Ballantine Books published a special edition of the novel to be sold in high schools. Over 75 passages were modified to eliminate such words as hell, damn, and abortion, and two incidents were eliminated. The original first incident described a drunk man who was changed to a sick man in the expurgated edition. In the second incident, reference is made to cleaning fluff out of the human navel, but the expurgated edition changed the reference to cleaning ears.}}{{cite journal |last=Greene |first=Bill |date=February 2007 |title=The mutilation and rebirth of a classic: Fahrenheit 451 |url=http://newsletter.library.villanova.edu/147 |url-status=live |journal=Compass: New Directions at Falvey |publisher=Villanova University |volume=III |issue=3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211171456/http://newsletter.library.villanova.edu/147 |archive-date=February 11, 2021 |access-date=August 3, 2013}}{{cite book |last1=Karolides |first1=Nicholas J. |title=120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature |last2=Bald |first2=Margaret |last3=Sova |first3=Dawn B. |publisher=Checkmark Books |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-8160-8232-2 |edition=Second |page=488 |quote=After six years of simultaneous editions, the publisher ceased publication of the adult version, leaving only the expurgated version for sale from 1973 through 1979, during which neither Bradbury nor anyone else suspected the truth.}}
• The video game South Park: The Fractured but Whole was originally going to have the name The Butthole of Time. However, marketers would not promote anything with a vulgarity in its title, so "butthole" was replaced with the homophone "but whole".{{Cite web|date=2016-07-25|title=South Park: The Fractured But Whole was originally called South Park: The Butthole of Time|url=https://www.videogamer.com/news/south-park-the-fractured-but-whole-was-originally-called-south-park-the-butthole-of-time/|access-date=2021-12-25|website=VideoGamer.com|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=2017-09-25|title='South Park: The Fractured But Whole' game – everything you need to know|url=https://www.nme.com/blogs/south-park-fractured-whole-video-game-2144388|access-date=2021-12-25|website=NME|language=en-GB}}
• In 2023 new versions of Roald Dahl's books were published by Puffin Books to remove language deemed inappropriate. Puffin had hired sensitivity readers to go over his texts to make sure the books could "continue to be enjoyed by all today".{{Cite news |last1=Rawlinson |first1=Kevin |last2=Banfield-Nwachi |first2=Mabel |last3=Shaffi |first3=Sarah |date=20 February 2023 |title=Rishi Sunak joins criticism of changes to Roald Dahl books |language=en |newspaper=The Guardian |publication-place=London, England |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/20/roald-dahl-books-editing-philip-pullman |url-status=live |access-date=22 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230221160646/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/20/roald-dahl-books-editing-philip-pullman |archive-date=21 February 2023 |issn=1756-3224 |oclc=60623878}} The same was done with the James Bond novels.{{Cite web |last=Haring |first=Bruce |date=26 February 2023 |title=James Bond Books Edited To Avoid Offense To Modern Audiences – Report |url=https://deadline.com/2023/02/james-bond-books-rewritten-to-avoid-offense-to-modern-audiences-1235271892/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230228050958/https://deadline.com/2023/02/james-bond-books-rewritten-to-avoid-offense-to-modern-audiences-1235271892/ |archive-date=28 February 2023 |access-date=26 February 2023 |work=Deadline |publisher=Penske Media Corporation |language=en |publication-place=USA}}

• "Comstockery"
• Censorship by copyright
• Minced oath
• Radio edit
• Roald Dahl revision controversy
• Think of the children

{{Reflist|2}}

{{Censorship}}

Category:Censorship

Category:Political correctness