Is Movie Language Finally Getting More Civilized?

Posted on August 14, 2017 at 8:00 am

Language has been steadily deteriorating in movies since the introduction of the MPAA ratings system replaced the Hayes Code in 1968. It used to be no f-words in a PG-13, then one was okay, and now two, as long as they do not refer to sex. As I have said before, you’d need a degree in semiotics to parse that one. And movies like the “Austin Powers” series get away with using a sound-alike, “frickin.” Studios have been known to add one or two strong words just to avoid the PG rating because they think tweens and teenagers won’t see PG films.

Now a Harris poll suggests that movies may start moving away from four-letter words.

The Hollywood Reporter writes:

Using “Jesus Christ” to swear is the biggest offense, with 33 percent of the general public saying they’d be less likely to see a movie if they knew beforehand of that particular piece of dialogue. “Goddam” was second at 32 percent and “f***” was third with 31 percent.

Some of the awards seasons biggest films have no strong language. If they are successful at the box office, we may see this become a trend.

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Commentary

MPAA Asks Parents What They Think About the F-Word

Posted on March 12, 2012 at 4:48 pm

One of the most unfathomably boneheaded policies of the MPAA ratings boards is its position that a PG-13 film can have one or two uses of the f-word as long as it does not refer to sex.

Even a PhD in semiotics could not make sense of that rule. Either the word is fit for the ears of middle schoolers or it isn’t. If it is, it makes no sense to allow it to be used in a hostile or threatening way but not in reference to its actual meaning. If it isn’t, then allowing it once or twice is too much.

Now it appears that the MPAA has a new survey on the topic, which the ratings board cited in ruling against a PG-13 rating for the documentary, “Bully,” but which they have not released.

Parents and educators who would like to share their views on this subject with the MPAA can reach them here:

Joan Graves,
MPAA Ratings Board
15301 Ventura Blvd., Building E
Sherman Oaks, California 91403
(818) 995-6600

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Network Television’s Distressing New Word

Posted on September 23, 2011 at 3:51 pm

Years ago, “Saturday Night Live” had a funny “Wayne’s World” sketch with Bruce Willis as the high school cool kid, who appeared on the show to reveal to Wayne and Garth what the new cool insult word of the year would be. I’m not going to reveal that word here, but I am beginning to suspect that somewhere there is a Bruce Willis equivalent who decides what boundary-crossing word will all of a sudden be prevalent on broadcast television. Last year it was an ugly and misogynistic term for an outdated product used for intimate female cleansing. As in the “Wayne’s World” sketch, this year’s word is an anatomical reference, used to insult or provoke. According to the New York Times, all of a sudden the most popular new word is the clinical term for what are sometimes more politely referred to as lady parts. Sadly, in many cases the scripts are written by women who seem to think that it makes them cool enough to be in the TV boys club instead of understanding it makes them look undignified, insecure, and trashy.

Two female writers who are behind three of the shows that use the word commented:

I think our tolerance for what is edgy is changing,” said Cummings, who, besides writing her own comedy for NBC, also wrote “Two Broke Girls” with Michael Patrick King, a longtime producer and writer of “Sex and the City.” “We’re getting a little desensitized, so sometimes you have to be more and more shocking because now you have YouTube and the Internet and all the rest that’s available for us to watch.”

…

“I think it’s great this is all coming from women,” said Liz Meriwether, the creator of another new show, “New Girl.” “This is all part of the human experience”…As for the reasons to use it, she added: “Sometimes you use crudeness just for shock. But sometimes you’re using crudeness because it absolutely is the funniest joke. I think the best comedy is the stuff that does make you a little uncomfortable.”

I think the best comedy does not confuse cheap shocks with what is genuinely provocative.

The Real Offensive Language in ‘The Change-Up’

Posted on August 9, 2011 at 5:06 pm

Ellen Seldman, the mother of a special needs child, has written a heartfelt post for Parents.com about the offensive language in The Change-Up. It isn’t the (constant) four-letter words or graphic sexual references she objects to. It is the crude references to Down Syndrome. “It contains a scene in which a character asks a dad whether his twins are ‘retarded’ because they’re not yet speaking, then adds ‘I don’t know, this one looks a little Downsy.'”

I agree with her that the language is very offensive (I noted the use of the “r-word” in my review). I think it is important to point out, however, that the movie is not making fun of special needs kids. It is making fun of the “normal” idiot who uses that language.

The Change-Up is a very raunchy, graphic, intentionally provocative comedy. But it is no more on the side of the use of that language than it is of the other irresponsible and disgusting behavior by the character, including exposing the babies to very dangerous items and advising the older child to beat up a bully. I was more offended by the use of the r-word by characters portrayed more approvingly in other recent movies I have seen, most recently “Our Idiot Brother.”

I appreciate Seldman’s support for the very important “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign. My first job was at a school for developmentally disabled children that had the r-word in its name. That was a long time ago, and as with other words we now understand to be unacceptable, this one should be recognized as offensive and inaccurate. Parents should make sure they never use the word, even jokingly, and make clear to their children that they will not tolerate it.

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More on the MPAA’s Bad Call on ‘The King’s Speech’

Posted on November 7, 2010 at 8:25 am

From the Hollywood Reporter with more on the controversy over giving “The King’s Speech” an R rating for a brief scene of bad language (in a vocal exercise):

“Another Bad Call from the MPAA,” lamented influential Movie Mom blogger Nell Minow (daughter of FCC chairman Newton Minow, who gave the famous 1961 “vast wasteland” speech about TV). “I don’t think there’s any reason for the idiotic rules they have on language except that it’s so easily quantifiable,” Minow tells the Race. “The MPAA operates like a star chamber of secrecy and insularity.”

Minow submits four demands:
1. Transparency about who is on the board and what their backgrounds are.
2. Include some people with expertise in child development and media literacy and maybe the PTA or someplace like that.
3. Term Limits — those people have seen so many Saw movies they have lost their sense of what is appropriate.
4. Some right of appeal when a rating is clearly out of whack.

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Understanding Media and Pop Culture