Analyst's' note: Thanks to a friend for the heads-up on this one. If you actually want to make a difference in this subject matter .... then read and act on the bottom line. You say what does this piece have to do with national security .... and I simply point out that our nation is no stronger than our families.
I just read the below article and agree with my friend. It is time that we act regarding the swearing that we do NOT want to hear in the movies to which we send or take our children to see .... specifically the F word in PG 13 movies. Basically the article below details how they are considering putting it in even more movies, even PG movies in certain situations and allowing the PG 13 rating to have the F-word as an "acceptable" component.
The head of the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA), Joan Graves says at the end of the article, they will consider not permitting the F-word in PG and PG 13 movies, IF and I quote:
"If we have tremendous outcry from parents, we'll consider that," . To see the context of this quote read the last two paragraphs of the article if you are too busy to read the whole thing.
The contact e-mail address for the MPAA is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
All of us here associated with CSIA Report ask that if you agree that PG and PG-13 movies should not have the F-word in them, to please make a "tremendous outcry" to the above e mail address. Tell them in a simple fashion, that you do not want to have this word in these movies nor will you pay to do so.
USING THE BUTTONS PROVIDED ABOVE, PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS. Thanks for supporting decent language in the movies our children watch.
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LOS ANGELES — Those extra expletives you're hearing at the multiplex these days aren't just echoes. PG-13 movies, officially allowed one non-sexual F-word per script, are making increased use of that allotment — and more — as filmmakers work the rules in a world where R-rated comedies full of both male and female trash-talk have become a summertime staple.
[....] "Making a PG-13 movie, it's always a pick-and-choose battle of where do you want to use one because, often with improvisation, a couple of F-words will creep into the movie," says "Crazy Stupid Love" screenwriter Dan Fogelman. "So you want to pick the best one, the most appropriate one."
[....] Officially, the MPAA's Classification and Ratings Administration's guidelines state: "A motion picture's single use of one of the harsher sexually-derived words, though only as an expletive, initially requires at least a PG-13 rating. More than one such expletive requires an R rating, as must even one of those words used in a sexual context."
But the MPAA's guidelines then add that if two-thirds of the ratings board members believe that multiple F-words are used in a legitimate "context or manner" or are "inconspicuous," then the movie could still be rated PG-13.
[....] Says the MPAA's Graves of the ratings board's two-thirds override for language: "It's hard to explain. But if you've just seen the film and you think they've been innocuous. Or they're an hour and a half apart. Or they're in the background or not emphatic. Or sometimes they're in the same scene, just repeated twice."
"All the raters are parents, and they're charged with rating a film the way they think a majority of American parents would rate the film," Graves adds. "So that's the overriding focus."
[....] "For most people, it's hardly noticeable any more," says Jesse Sheidlower, editor-at-large of the Oxford English Dictionary and author of "The F-Word," a detailed history of the expletive in question.
[....] Critics of the MPAA's policy toward language say Hollywood's game-playing can actually go both ways — that filmmakers intentionally insert profanity into movies in order to secure a PG-13 rating instead of what critic Nell Minow calls the more "babyish" PG designation.
[....] "It's a very calculated formula," says Minow, who reviews films as The Movie Mom for the Beliefnet website and radio stations nationwide. "Hollywood manipulates the ratings to get to that PG-13 sweet spot."
Which is why he believes the MPAA should simplify its code and not allow the F-word in PG-13 movies.
"Allowing it once or twice just doesn't make sense to me," Minow says. "The word is something you're OK with a child hearing or you're not. And, still, in 2011, I'd argue that it's outside the safety zone for children."
The MPAA's Graves says she's receptive to Minow's idea.
"If we have tremendous outcry from parents, we'll consider that," she says."
