Jeff Tow Arnett
Kirby Dick’s documentary, This Film is Not Yet Rated, shows how films are given their rating. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) administers ratings to films by having a secret board watch each film. According to Michael Cipley MPAA rating system they, “devised an apparatus that is not bound by precedent, changes its definitions at will and, ultimately, serves the motion picture industry by becoming, at any given moment, as permissive or restrictive as the prevailing climate seems to demand (Cipley, 2007)�. MPAA hires parents and wants them to use their best judgments in rating each film, which seem unprofessional that these parents are not experts. While censorship is an important issue and must be present in society, the fact that the MPAA panel is compiled of average parents seems quite disturbing. This Film is Not Yet Rated shows how the film views are not trained by professionals and have no idea how exposure of certain explicated material will affect its viewers. Who’s to say that they know best for what my kids should or shouldn’t see? It seems that each movie the MPAA parents watch they use no set criteria for rating these films. There seems to be an inconsistency when it comes to sexual content and violence. Homosexual context is highly scrutinized compared to heterosexual content, there both sexual acts so they should have the same evaluation process. Violence is not highly scrutinized compared to homosexuality content because there is a bias on what is right and wrong.