A Note to Parents and Media Consumers Everywhere: Be Proactive!

(It's called Google)

The reading that struck me the most was the Film Resources Encyclopedia article about the history of American ratings. The article went into the details of the different ways the US film industry has tried to regulate movies.

Though this particular article was mainly historical, it really made me think about why we censor and rate movies. The article mentioned that when movies started gaining popularity there was concern about the appropriateness of movies for children. That was when various ratings systems started being implemented. This made me think about the appropriateness of other forms of art and media. Before movies there was still theater. Of course, not all theater pieces are appropriate for children. However, no ratings system was implemented for theater. Despite its strong adult language and themes I was allowed to see Avenue Q when I was 15. A movie version of that musical would most likely be rated R at best. Other forms of media like books were also not given a rating. Despite the fact that book and theater were and still are easily accessible to kids, there are no ratings put on them. It makes me wonder if the introduction of technology into entertainment made people concerned because it was new and they moved their concern onto the appropriateness of the movie.

I think the lack of ratings in books is most hypocritical. So many of the teen and young adult books out there have the same kinds of themes as movies, but they are not restricted to older kids or adults. Again, the visual and technological aspects of movies make people more concerned that their kids will be corrupted.

I believe today’s society should take advantage of the technology it has. Perhaps ratings should be replaced by a website where clips of potential objectionable scenes are shared with parents who can then make their own decisions about their children seeing the movie. I think parents are often lazy in researching what their children see and want to see. Working at 9^th Street Video I see parents not allowing their kids to see movies that are not inappropriate just because of a PG13 rating. What makes something suddenly okay on a child’s 13^th birthday? A lot of children are also allowed to see things they probably shouldn’t. The musical Avenue Q is a good example of something a lot of parents (and everyday theater goers) did not research. A warning had to be put on the doors to the theater for parents who took their young children to what they thought was a cute puppet musical. They didn’t do any research to find out what it was really about. Similarly, some adults who went to the show did no research, were offended, and walked out. A lot of controversy could be avoided if people would do their research and find out what a book, movie, or play is about before they decide to enjoy it or not. Do your research people! Computers are everywhere.

I'm not sure if this is the kind of term you're going for, but I enjoyed the work horsehockey used in the negative review of the film. I don't know that I'd ever heard that term before, but I love to know silly phrases like that, so I've decided to look it up. According to Urban Dictionary "horsehockey" is more commonly written as two words, "horse hockey". No, it doesn't mean polo. It means horse crap. Someone who is spewing horse hockey is full of nonsense.