S and I just watched "This Film is Not Yet Rated". You should watch it. You should watch it right now.
The film is infuriating. It's infuriating because it brings to light just how corrupt the MPAA and the ratings system really is. I've been fighting ratings since I started working in a bookstore, and telling people that the ratings system has nothing to do with law. And it's only gotten worse. Libraries that restrict children from renting films that are rated above PG really, really bother me (and I'm quite certain that I couldn't possibly take a job at one), because librarians treat this rating system like it's law. Like it's just as illegal to sell Requiem for a Dream to a 16 year-old as it is to sell Playboy to said minor. In fact, there's nothing illegal about it. The ratings are guidelines, and not laws. There is no US law that says that 15 year-olds can't see NC-17 films; there is just a cabal of theaters enforcing the will of a group of people that purport to be representative of America's parents. Watch the movie, because you will see that it's a group of older people, men mostly, of the white persuasion. One minority, who also happens to be a woman. No African-Americans, no Mexican-Americans, or Latinos.
So these people, this small group of people decides which movies get rated which ways. And shocker of all shockers, women and gay individuals come up short. In so many ways. More than one individual (women, if I remember correctly) point out that any scene that shows women experiencing sexual pleasure immediately gets an NC-17 rating for a movie. Hmmm, wonder why? And homosexual sex acts that are identical to straight ones draw an NC-17 where the straight ones draw R ratings. This isn't surprising. This shouldn't be shocking. And of course, the whole violence vs. sex thing. Lots of directors want to talk about this, want to talk about the fact that you can shoot hundreds of people (no blood!) and get a PG-13. Yes, let's glorify something that destroys lives every day, but send the message that something that is about pleasure is dirty and wrong and not fit for peoples' eyes. It's not an original point, and I feel like the directors in this documentary are truly baffled by how fucking backwards this whole system is.
It made me want to scream, and to boycott someone, anyone. I'm sickened by these sorts of censorship. And make no mistake about it, it's what it is. Just watch. I'm trying to think of something I could possibly do, and there is no easy answer. Only see films that are unrated? Unfortunately, that's not going to be realistic. Never watch movies? I barely see films in the theater as it is. Stop using Netflix? See, but I genuinely enjoy movies. So what? What can one person--or two, if you count S--do?
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