Comments | profbutters: Rating the ratings

profbutters

Rating the ratings

May 15, 2012 23:20

I've been chewing on this one for a while, but some recent things--the Hunger Games and Avengers movies, in particular, brought this on. I've written about warnings elsewhere: A Warning About Warnings and Warnings in Sim Stories. This one's related: it's about ratings.

( Stuff about ratings, Avengers, Hunger Games, and why warnings may actually pwn ratings. )

fandom, fanfiction, avengers, videos, sims writing, movies, television, hunger games, ratings. warnings

Comments 37

peasant007 May 16 2012, 07:33:09 UTC

I'm rather surprised at what is considered PG-13 these days. Back in THE day, probably around the time PG-13 was invented (early to mid 80's?) I think if they said the F-word once, it was PG-13. Anything more than that was rated R. Then again, maybe I assume that because my parents always went to go a movie first and then decided if it was something that me and my siblings could see. "Adventures in Babysitting" comes to mind because I remember my mom and dad teasing me saying that I might not be able to see that movie because I was only 12 and it was rated PG-13. And they only said the F-word once. Terminator 2 was the first R rated move I was allowed to see, and I was 14 (but, hey, I had a HUGE crush on the kid who played John Connor. I BEGGED my parents to see that movie). And even then, my parents would cover Holly and Ben's eyes during the really violent scenes (because, you know, they saw it first ( ... )

mzyra May 16 2012, 14:01:45 UTC

I will admit that I've never seen the original My Little Pony, but from what I hear, you would probably find the new one... very different really, in most ways. A review I saw of the old one by someone who happily grew up with them made it sound like the old ponies didn't really have much individual character or much real conflict in episodes because little girls were supposed to just love cute peaceful things and not want serious plot or whatever like boys would, who had transformers battling evil instead (this woman was looking at them both from a slightly feminist view ( ... )

profbutters May 16 2012, 14:58:02 UTC

Seconder on that. It's an entirely different show. Of course, I never watched the original, but it's a funny and fun show.

peasant007 May 16 2012, 19:30:16 UTC

I was SIX when the original My Little Ponies came out. Six. Years. Old. I was the target demographic. Huge plotlines that cover SRS BUSINESS, or anything OTHER than pretty peaceful rainbows would have been both distressing to a SIX YEAR OLD, not to mention it would have gone over my head seeing as I could barely spell my name let alone remember the names of a full cast of ponies ( ... )

Thread 26

orikes13 May 16 2012, 08:11:40 UTC

Huh. I didn't catch the line from the movie and even if I had, I wouldn't have known what it means. Having heard what it means, I'm not offended in the slightest. Hell, I wouldn't have been offended if the line had been the more common term because Loki was an ass and that was an amazing scene of verbal tennis between him and Black Widow. It FIT what he would have said because he was that kind of guy. And yeah, if I were Joss Whedon, I would have been proud of having that get out there because dude, it proves just how dumb the rating system is ( ... )

docnerd May 16 2012, 14:32:09 UTC

The fact that a douche bag character used a douche bag term

This. Loki is the villain. We expect villains to do things that are horrible and ugly. We aren't meant to LIKE him as a person (although we can like what he represents as a character, i.e. he's good at being bad), so when he dropped that word, I was surprised, but IT FIT HIS CHARACTER. And then Black Widow was all, "PWND, ASSHOLE." So if SHE wasn't terribly hurt by it, what's the point in getting offended on her behalf.

A fictional douchebag said a douchey thing. I feel like all the uproar is like if someone lit into me because Jake was awful to Cassidy for so long, so CLEARLY I condone what happened. Like, what?

profbutters May 16 2012, 19:31:15 UTC

See, I thought it was OUT of character. He's usually much more subtle than that.

docnerd May 16 2012, 20:33:47 UTC

But when you're trying to get under someone's skin, you don't always have the luxury of subtlety. And it wasn't his only angry rant in the movie--at least one other was stopped rather abruptly by the Hulk.

Thread 5

mzyra May 16 2012, 13:51:17 UTC

I caught the Avengers line because I'd already seen a discussion of it elsewhere, not sure how much attention I would have given it otherwise, but probably could have guessed what it meant. And it WAS a villain saying it, a villain who thoroughly gets his ass handed to him. There were several small children in the cinema when I saw it, but... one bad insult which they've probably never heard before and have little cause to focus on rather than the awesome heroes and fighting? The only way I think kids are going to start using it is if they see fusses like these on the internet and go "They said that? And it means what? Oh my god, I am so using that at school tomorrow!" I think the whole film is fine for a PG-13 movie. Yeah, there's violence, but it's awesome good characters vs very overtly bad ones, not a complex moral dilemma or anything ( ... )

profbutters May 17 2012, 06:03:59 UTC

I definitely didn't think that one line sidelined the whole movie.

docnerd May 16 2012, 14:38:45 UTC

I'm not sure many people knew what that word meant in the first place. If you were going by context, you might have guessed that it was akin to "bitch" or even "whore," and the latter is still admittedly fairly offensive. I knew what it meant, and it was a shock to hear it, but I don't feel like that makes Tom Hiddleston or Joss Whedon misogynist--and I don't even know that I'd characterize Loki that way completely either, since he might have said it deliberately to hurt Black Widow. There's a difference between being a dick and knowingly saying something to consciously hurt another person, and actually believing what you say.

I don't think you've gone totally NC-17 over at MaxSJ. The Wrath of Achilles bit was solidly R, IMO. NSFW, but you talked around the mechanics.

bellemistoire May 16 2012, 23:48:01 UTC

The whole ratings system is bad and nobody really pays attention to them anyway. There are things my students (middle schoolers) have seen that I never ever would have been allowed to go to all the way through highschool (well, until my youngest close friend turned 17 anyway, and I was almost 18 and a senior at that point- it was the year the entrance age changed from 18 to 17, OMG).

I'd say your legacy is about a PG and the stuff with doc is R, but I've had flisters who write in the seriously dodgy end of the HP fandom (in my other guise) for nearly a decade so my viewpoint may be a bit off.

profbutters May 22 2012, 06:10:34 UTC

Good LORD, the HP stuff I've seen. I was on a panel with a woman who also writes some pretty out there HP stuff, and she got ripped in this hatchet job of an article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/aug/06/harrypotter.booksforchildrenandteenagers

I was at that convention, and I know this woman, and I'm on her side. I've read some of her wilder stuff, but she writes it really well. Kids are definitely not going to accidentally stumble on it.

Also, I love how they sent a reporter who has decided in advance that the books are "just for children"--and who hasn't read them.