Let's declare war on the MPAA!

Post-apocalyptic tweens killing each other
in a state-sanctioned Thunderdome on the
other hand is story that must be told: PG-13

The producers of the upcoming documentary 'Bully' are releasing their film without an MPAA rating. Who cares? We all should. 'Bully' follows the lives of five teenage victims of bullying in order to raise awareness of a legitimate social pandemic (suck on that Rick) that affects kids across the nation. The MPAA wanted to give it an 'R' rating which means that the film's most important demographic (kids in middle and high school) can't see the movie without a parent or guardian.

Trust me MPAA, kids have heard it all.

So what's the MPAA's beef? Why should a documentary about a serious problem affecting millions of children be rated R? Swearing. Yup, the MPAA wants to protect America's youth from the language they hear and use every fucking day of their life. Apparently the Motion Picture Association of America and parents everywhere are blissfully unaware of Xbox Live and the terrifyingly racist, homophobic and misogynistic putrescence that spews forth from the mouths of children. Like seriously: Halo, teenagers and anonymity are a terrible combination.

'Your movie shall be rated...J and no
one under 6'3" shall be admitted.
What do you think of that?'

Have you ever seen This Film is Not Yet Rated? Well, you should. It's a totally excellent exposé about the people who rate movies. It turns out they're a group of self-appointed censors who can arbitrarily hand out ratings based entirely on there own personal standards. They're not elected, there's no oversight or accountability and while you can release a movie without them, no major movie theaters will pick it up. This effectively gives them unlimited power over the movie industry (and possibly time and space, but I can't prove it...yet).


The issue isn't so much that a ratings board exists, but that it's broken. In theory the entire thing is designed around what the board feels is appropriate for children, but sex, nudity and swearing send the rating much higher than violence. Machine guns, murder and 'splosions? Fun for all ages. Someone utters a curse word or there's a nipple? You're in R country. What's up with that?

Both of these movies are rated 'R.' Both of them. See the problem?