Pg-13 Rating

If you had to guess, which of these three movie scenes would guarantee an R-rating in the United States?:
A.) A couple engaging in consensual sex (no nudity, just simulated pelvic thrusting).
B.) A small group of close friends smoking marijuana.
C.) A man, standing in front of a scantily dressed woman, murdering hundreds of people with an assault rifle.

Obviously, if you live in America you know that the correct answer is both A & B—according to our current film ratings system, a movie that depicts simulated sex and/or the consumption of “hard” drugs receives an automatic R-rating. However, Option C, the one about the guy killing enough people to fill a high school gymnasium, well, that one is actually a prime candidate for a PG-13 rating. Our current film ratings system not only condones violent behavior, it serves violence up wholesale on a gold platter to anyone over the age of 12. In essence, film ratings, especially PG-13 and R ratings, are seen as veritable rites of passage for our youth. There is an unspoken implication that once someone reaches a certain age, certain material immediately becomes appropriate for

The MPAA is tasked with limiting copyright infringement, curbing peer-to-peer sharing, and lobbying elected officials on behalf of the film industry as a whole; however, the organization is most well known as the enforcer of the aforementioned film rating system. A film rating is a symbolic classification of a film’s content, specifically designed to act as a guide for parents. However, the MPAA’s true allegiance is not to parents, but rather to the film studios and the industry as a whole. In his deftly titled book, The End of Cinema As We Know It: American Film in the Nineties, author Jon Lewis writes, “The MPAA supervises the self-regulation of film content and does so solely to protect studio products in the marketplace.”