My way of Life is rated X:)

I greatly enjoyed the packet of reading for class this week. The rating system in film has always been one thing that I've never really thought of until this year. It was just one of those things in life that existed that I never really questioned, like the fact that I have eyebrows. Reading this article woke me up a little as I realized that there was not some pointy nosed magician that put random letters and numbers to movies, these are human beings that determine the ratings. After the reading I thought of the heads of ratings as the film industry's secret society government.

Now, I still have not gotten the hang of this whole blog thing, but I feel my way of response is probably significantly different than the required "summery, questions, issues for discussion, analysis, and terminology." So here is what I'm going to do. I am going to write the best I can answering the assigned questions and then I'll just vomit out what I thought about while reading. I guess the KateE-upchuck can count as my original analysis. Sound good? I think so. If you couldn't tell, I'm a very unique individual and usually end up being highly unconventional. Hopefully that will make this blog interesting.

The reading this week was a plethora of articles that could be connected to the documentary film This Film is Not Yet Rated (Dick 2006). The film gets down and dirty as the director Kirby Dick sets off on a quest to discover these faceless individuals who judge a film's appropriateness for certain ages.

Some questions that this article rose were, "did this film make a difference?" I was awakened to the fact that there is a mysterious board deciding the ratings. How many other people also made this discover? Was there further work done to reveal this board to the public? Do we, as viewers, have any say in how our system is rated or who gets to make the decisions? How are these board members selected? How diverse is this board of directors.

Issues that were brought up within the essay were the fact that sex was often more harshly rated than violence. There was question to whether the board members were "homophobic." There were also arguments that displays of male pleasure got away with more than that of women. There were arguments to whether foreign films, who usually view sex as a way of life rather than a scandal, have the right idea in viewing sex in movies as natural. There was mention of how the "red scare" affected the film industry with the "friendly" and "unfriendly witnesses." Basically any issue or controversial topic in film alters how it is rated and has been ever since the system existed.

The readings we were given had a few underlines and notes on them already. One such underline was placed upon a word that I did not know. The article was titled "Crockumentaries" and the word that I did not know was "Manichean". The direct quote in which this word was used was "after seeing et another so-called documentary designed to outrage us with it's Manichean view of the world." I typed "Manichean" into dictionary.com. Here is what I discovered.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/manichean

Also, Man·i·chee  /ˈmænɪˌki/ Show Spelled. an adherent of the dualistic religious system of Manes, acombination of gnostic

Christianity, Buddhism,Zoroastrianism, and various other elements, with a basicdoctrine

of a conflict between light and dark, matter being regarded as dark and evil.

I apologize for the horrible formatting. I am still teaching myself how to create a blog in a proper way that is pleasant to read. wasn't sure if that particular definition was what James Bowman was going for. That basically means I didn't quite understand what dictionary.com was going for so I looked it up again on google. I clicked on http://wordsmith.org/words/manichean.html and had a go.

Wordsmith says that Manichean stands for "of or relating to a dualistic view of the world, dividing things into either good or evil, light or dark, black or white, involving no shades of grey." I liked this definition A LOT better. I think it fit really well too. It's so hard to accept the fact that there is a group determining the rating system according to what is "good" for certain people to see and what is "bad." It's all relative! It depends on beliefs, parenting, and personal preference. I like this particular word. I think I will tuck it into my "special word briefcase" that is stored underneath a three legged table in my brain.

Ok, I wrote what I was supposed to, now it's time for me to babble:)

Strange as it sounds, sex is one of my favorite conversation topics. Why? Well, one of the reasons is because America's opinion of it is a mix between hesitant conservatism and liberal excitement. I, personally, have always been open and honest when it comes to sex. I have my own TV show on Columbia Access Television (columbiaaccess.tv) called MYFEMTV and the 4rth episode called "Sex and the Pillow" has me and a few friends discussing everything about sex from when we learned it existed to our masturbation schedule.

My mother has always been supportive of my curiosity. When she didn't know how to define sex to me she checked out a stack of books on the subject from the library when I was in my first years of elementary school. She expected me to flip through the pages, get bored, and then run off. Did that happen? Excuse me! Don't you know me by now? I read those books over and over and memorized every detail discussed.

The ironic thing was that I didn't lose my virginity until a few months ago. I was well educated in sex and wanted to know even more about it, but I knew I didn't want to have it until I was ready. I guess I could be an example of how someone that didn't necessarily grow up with a censor on sex still was able to be responsible about it.

How does this tie into the collection of articles relating to This Film is Not Yet Rated? Sex is one of the main factors in determining the rating of a film. Yes, could have left out the last few paragraphs, but I decided from the first class that I'd be as personal as I had to be in this blog. Why not?

Back to the article. As I stated before, sex is a big factor in the rating of a film. There is controversy to whether our youth should be able to see more "adult" scenes involving the bedroom. I honestly understand why the rating system is in place. The industry created it to protect themselves from government and religious influence. It was their way of censoring their products from certain individuals in the public that these particular influences would oppose viewing them. The only problem is that there isn't really a set rule to what should be seen and what shouldn't. Liberal people, such as myself, may think that at a certain age our youth should be able to handle viewing a woman or a man receiving pleasure whereas there are a lot of people who aren't as comfortable with the idea.

(Image from my photographer sister, Tessa Roche)

http://www.tessalykinsphotography.com/home.php

I am a transfer student from Cottey College, another Woman's school in Mo. In a school of 250 passionate women I have learned how to feel empowered and strong as a woman. This has affected the way I see things in life. In one of the articles there was mention of female pleasure being harshly rated in relation to male pleasure. This, of course, caught my attention. Why is it so bad?

I guess I've never really had to deal with sexism in my life, but I find the harsher ratings of woman pleasure bizarre. Sure, it might make people uncomfortable to see into the depths of a woman's vagina as she is gasping in ecstasy, but isn't it the same for men? I mean, first of all, their genitals are external and there is a definite eruption when "it hits the spot." I would think that if one felt nauseous watching one they'd feel the same with the other.

One thing that I've thought about is how there is how there is rarely ever a scene with a woman masturbating in popular films, which is why I was shocked and awed when Natalie Portman has a masturbation scene in the new film, Black Swan. The best part? The film was R instead of NC-17!

My mom showed me a film this film called The Oh in Ohio. The whole movie was about a woman who had never orgasmed and discovered how to make herself "cum" without the help of anyone else. I loved it. It also had a super sweet ending that was different than the normal "hot girl gets hot guy" scenario. Again, rated R even though there was a woman pleasing herself throughout half of the movie.

One of my favorite scenes in a movie was in Viki Christina Barcelona when a three way relationship is born. Strange as it sounds, I loved that such an unconventional relationship was displayed to be so natural and comfortable. I thought it was a genius way to push the limits on the traditional union believers mentality.

Not only to I consider myself a feminist, but I wouldn't blink if you called me an activist. Instead of religion I grew up being preached to love everyone no matter their beliefs, sexuality, race, or gender. I didn't really understand what prejudice was until I started reading books where various characters were judged. I just didn't understand why they weren't allowed to be themselves. Thus comes a question for everyone to ponder. Is the board homophobic?

("Straight in Transition" Graphic Design Created by my Transgender man-to-woman friend, Bree Sutherland)

Ok, my last comment on sex in film. You all are probably thinking "thank goodness, Katie! Do you think about anything else?" I just wanted to say how I completely agree with the various articles when they stated that films with ratings of NC17 lose a lot of audience members. Before I read this article I just assumed that NC17 films were Porn films. Never having watching a Porn and not really wanting to I never even considered watching one. Call me naive, but I think that a rating NC17 should be reserved for Porn since it already has that reputation and then all the artistic films that get stuck in that category can be bumped down to R. People under 17 can't watch R so it shouldn't make too much of a difference.

Ok, I lied. I have ONE more thing to say about sex. I tried to limit myself, alas, it was impossible. I forgot to mention foreign films. There is a part in the article that says that foreign films are less harsh on sex than we are. I have noticed that too. Once I walked into the living room where my mom was watching movie and there was a woman standing with both breasts showing. I asked "oh, are they in France?" Guess what? They were.

(This man is definitely a beast, Otto Preminger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Preminger)

I first learned about Otto Preminger in my "American Cinema and Culture Class" last semester with Kerri Yost. My study buddy and I were super impressed at how he just did what he wanted no matter what people thought. He was the one to push the production code and the first to openly hire one of the blacklisted writers. That man was brave. I tip my lama winter hat to you, Otto.

I have got to say, I am just as impressed as Kirby Dick that the rating board has remained so secret. For a group that has to communicate with so many different people with their job they do a really good job imitating the witness protection program.

In "MPAA Ratings, Black Holes, and My Film" Dick says

"The MPAA says that the reason the members of the Rating board are kept secret is to protect them from influence. That is so absurd! On a couple of levels. There are many positions in society, judges and school board members, for instance, who make very important decisions and whose names are known."

I completely agree. This specific group is determining the age grouping of who should see a movie and no one knows who they are! The heads should be responsible enough to know that their decision cannot be altered by others. They have to make the best decision how they see fit. If they are so afraid of being influenced, they shouldn't have the job anyway.

These have been my thoughts on the matter. Signing off and enjoy your weekend!