The Subtle Decline of American Values continues

[MA-Caver]

I found this article in Wendsday's New York Times (7/14/04) written by Sharon Waxman (section B page 1) Titled: "Study Finds Film Ratings Growing More Lenient". The article discussed the findings by the Harvard School of Public Health which compared movies of various ratings ten, twenty years ago to today. One paragraph for example states the following:

The study of 1,906 feature films between 1992 and 2003 found more violence and sex in PG movies (Parental Guidance suggested) and more of those elements and profanity in PG-13 movies (Parents strongly cautioned). It also found more sex and profanity in R-rated movies ("Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) than a decade ago. "When you look at the average, today's PG-13 movies are approaching what the R movies looked like in 1992" said Kimberly Thompson, associate professor or risk analysis and decision science at Harvard's School of Public Health, who was co-author of the study. "Today's PG is approaching what PG-13 looked like a decade ago."

The article further illustrates the point by showing (still) scenes from the movies Forrest Gump (1994) and Minority Report (2002) both are rated PG-13. Gump had gritty Vietnam era combat scenes in one part of the whole film. Minority report depicted murder and mayhem throughout.
The article further states:

"When the rating says 'action violence,' is that less intense than just 'violence?' Ms. Thompson asked. "What's the difference between sensuality and sexuality? They're in the ratings, but they don't have a clear criteria for it."

When I finished reading the article I reflected upon it and realized that it was true. Movies now-a-days are not being rated properly according to content. It's been a very long time since a mainstream motion picture had gotten an "X" rating...now probably compared to NC-17 (and when is the last time you saw THAT?). The ones I remember were Midnight Cowboy, Valley of the Dolls, Clockwork Orange, and the only one to keep the title, Last Tango in Paris. I grew up during the 60's and 70's and remember that I wasn't able to see certian films until they arrived in their edited versions on NBC's Monday Night At The Movies. I remember certian Mel Brooks films which are very tame by today's standards were pretty risque and crude when they were first released. Blazing Saddles with it's numerous racial and sexual jokes. Later with the advent of HBO, Cinemax and others I was able to see these films in their entirety and was by some taken by surprise. Yep, there goes my naivete right out the window alright. But by then I was old enough to comprehend a lot of what I was seeing.
But as movies are being released and the young generation of today are having access to rentals with PG-13 and R ratings simply because there is just "one bad scene" in there. It says something about our society as a whole that allows the slow deteroration of values in prohibiting kids from viewing certian content in films.
PG-13 movies are now allowing that bit of sensuality/sexuality via love scenes. Where maybe a bare bottom or breast is briefly exposed. If the "f-word" isn't counted too many times then it will maintain it's PG-13 rating. So what if there's a lot of "Hells, God-d--ms, Sh--, and other "mild" profanity. Just so long as the word F--- isn't said too much it's okay. A guy gets shot and we may or may not always see the impact and blood spurting. In a R-rated horror/slasher flick there are scenes depicted that would've certianly gotten an X-rating 20-30 years ago if allowed to be released in it's entirety at all.
These are subtle signs, so that it's difficult to notice them in the hustle and bustle of today's busy world. Subtle and seemingly inconsenquential. "Well, the kids seem to be handling it alright so it's okay."
Television is being pretty lax as well don't you think? Dennis Franz's bare butt from NYPD Blue? The gritty autopsy scenes from both CSI series? Alley McBeal and the lesbian kiss with Lucy Liu's character?
I can't recall one (music) album I ever owned that had a parental warning sticker on it.
Mebbe I'm old fashioned or maybe I'm waking up and seeing how we as a society are allowing things that used to be called immoral and decadent ten or twenty years ago to be part of the mainstream norm. Little by little the values that we grew up with, the ones our parents grew up with are declining.
Question is what will that do for society in the long term? When kids of today grow up to be adults? What will their kids be allowed to see with or without forethought of consenquences in the long term?
I see kids walking around today with styles of clothing I can't begin to phantom (mainly the message of wearing pants 4 sizes larger than their waists and lowered to around their cracks... and girls wearing boys boxers on the outside). I assume it is the same message I was touting when I wore my hair down to my *** at one point in my life...though for the life of me I can't even remember what it was I was trying to say...
But I guess my point is it does say something when no-one is (seemingly) regulating the MPAA and making sure they are doing their ratings right by our standards... or are they? And if so what further degradation of our values will we be experiencing next?

 

[hardheadjarhead]

Ah, for the good ol' days of the 1940's...where the worst thing about a movie was the acting and the unending chain smoking of the actors and actresses.

While we watched these wonderfully schmaltzy films--at the same time over in Japan and Germany we firebombed civilian women and children, roasting hundreds of thousands of them to death.

Point: When the topic of the "decline of American values" comes to the fore I am always reminded of the very sanitized history we refer to when talking about said decline.

We turn a blind eye to the immoral actions of our predecessors and harken our hearts back to a day where all was well and good. American housewives were epitomized by June Cleaver and Donna Reed. Our sons were at best Beaverish imps that always learned their lessons when lectured by our cardigan wearing Dad at the end of the day. War crimes were something the apish Japs committed, not our gallant boys in green.

God forbid that June should ever have an affair or that Beaver turn out to be a little sociopath who set fire to cats. That NEVER happened in the fifties.

I recall my mother and father back in the sixties talking about the decline of American youth. My staunch and well-heeled Republican parents at the time were both chain smoking abusive alcoholics who were enmeshed in extra-marital affairs. So were many of their friends...the hypocrisy was difficult to ignore.

American entertainment has become shallow and vulgar, to be sure. I'm not convinced that this is a sign of degradation. I think, rather, it is an unintentionally honest exposure of conditions that have always been there, and that we pretended didn't exist.

Regards,


Steve

 

[michaeledward]

Kill your television!


Don't go to the movies!


What Rupert Murdoch publishes via his 20th Century Fox film company, or FOX Television does not, in any way, affect your values (or mine).

Thanks - Mike

 

[RCastillo]

I see it everyday as a School Teacher, and after 23 years, it's bad.

I feel like "Custers Last Stand" in my job all the time.

I can't even depend on backup from the Administrators.

So, my backup is the Attorney General's Book on Juvenile Justice/Punishment, plus the help of a few parents.

People hate it when I go over their heads, but I have no choice. I save myself alot of grief/stress.

In my profession, there MUST be Law/Order in the classroom, so I use the law as it would be used against me. :asian:

 

[Feisty Mouse]

I take your point, Steve.

Some "Amercian Values" I think have grown rather than declined - like (well, in general) tolerance and an attempted understanding between races and subcultures in the country. I think some things - like violence on TV that children have easy access to - is too much, but it's driven by advertisers that find what "hooks" children in to watching programs and thus their ads. I think nudity on TV and film is not that big a deal, actually - I think we're pretty prudish as a nation about it, and it should be less of a big deal.

Adults can make their own decisions. Children can't - whether it's up to a rating board or their parents or local community to select what they should and shouldn't watch is another issue.

 

[michaeledward]

I see it everyday as a School Teacher, and after 23 years, it's bad.

In my profession, there MUST be Law/Order in the classroom, so I use the law as it would be used against me. :asian:

Ricardo, as a parent of school age children, I agree 100%. There can certainly be a well argued statement that 'Respect for Authority' is not currently at an acceptable level. In the classroom, the teacher is the authority. I believe you should have the authority to remove disruptive students from your classroom in the event that your prepared materials are unable to be reviewed by the entire class. I believe the school administration should have the authority to place disruptive students in an internal suspension room until such time as the student chooses to respect the authority in the classroom and in the school.

I think too often, parents will argue with a school over disciplinary actions involving their children. But, I have no evidence of this, just a feeling and a few anecdotes.

Why do you think it is that the parents don't respect the school's authority? For the children must be learning the lack of respect from somewhere.

I know, when my youngest child broke the rules on the school bus, and lost the privilege of using the school transportation system for one week, we made her walk / ride her bike to school. I was not going to negate the school's authority, or penalize myself, by giving her a privately shuttled transport to and from school. I think she learned a lesson.

I still think, however, that 'American Values' (whatever that means) are not declining. Can 'Values' rise? Can 'Values' decline? I don't know, but certainly, the things we value can change, and we might see that as a bad thing.

Thanks, Mike

 

[RCastillo]

Ricardo, as a parent of school age children, I agree 100%. There can certainly be a well argued statement that 'Respect for Authority' is not currently at an acceptable level. In the classroom, the teacher is the authority. I believe you should have the authority to remove disruptive students from your classroom in the event that your prepared materials are unable to be reviewed by the entire class. I believe the school administration should have the authority to place disruptive students in an internal suspension room until such time as the student chooses to respect the authority in the classroom and in the school.

I think too often, parents will argue with a school over disciplinary actions involving their children. But, I have no evidence of this, just a feeling and a few anecdotes.

Why do you think it is that the parents don't respect the school's authority? For the children must be learning the lack of respect from somewhere.

I know, when my youngest child broke the rules on the school bus, and lost the privilege of using the school transportation system for one week, we made her walk / ride her bike to school. I was not going to negate the school's authority, or penalize myself, by giving her a privately shuttled transport to and from school. I think she learned a lesson.

I still think, however, that 'American Values' (whatever that means) are not declining. Can 'Values' rise? Can 'Values' decline? I don't know, but certainly, the things we value can change, and we might see that as a bad thing.

Thanks, Mike

I think the successive generations are weaker, want to pacify/spoil their children, and when they don't get what they want, they come to school to throw their weight around. Like in my wifes case, some of the parents are tattoed, gang/prison gang types, and children having children.

Many also want to sue, and of course, the District has little backbone. The District wants to avoid the negativity as much as possible, and can never admit error.(Which I think is a big mistake.

They think some of us are pushovers, and as for myself, I have a camera in my room, and why not? They already have them on the buses, hallways, parking lots, and yet, they cringe on me having one. however, I am within the law. Go figure? :idunno:

 

[someguy]

Oh lemme have some fun here. So way back when people tended to have less privacy. So how did families keep expanding in a house with only a couple of rooms. Hmm the kids would often share there parents rooms. So how was it the family kept growing. Any body care to answere that one. So youth was exposed to stuff much earlier in life than they are today.
As to ratings yeah they aren't as likely to give out an R now as they were but go watch Army of Darkness. Tell me does that really need an R rating. I think it should be PG-13 at worst. Heck saw it before I was 13. Look how I turned out errr wait that might ruin my case... Never mind :uhyeah:

 

[hardheadjarhead]

I think the successive generations are weaker, want to pacify/spoil their children, and when they don't get what they want, they come to school to throw their weight around.

There might be some merit to what you say here. My wife teaches children who are fairly affluent (and some who are not), and some of these well-off parents act as if their children are entitled to an "A". When the child doesn't perform, Linda (my wife) gets an earful as to how she's failing as a teacher.

She said it best when she put it thus: "If their kid gets an 'F', I never hear the end of it. If that kid gets an 'A', though, does anybody ever thank me for the good job I've been doing? NO."

The poorer parents never act as if their child is entitled to a good grade. If there is any "victim stance" on their part, it usually involves issues of discipline...but the dynamic is often the same. It is never the child/parent's fault. It is the teacher's/school system's fault.

But I maintain that none of us have lived long enough to really observe a systemic degradation in our culture as a whole. We have lived long enough to observe many changes, however. None of us have a broad enough worldview to comment fully on our country's supposed decline, limited as we are by our experiences in our local communities.

We take our perceptions, or the perceptions of others, and run with them. We practice "confirmation bias" in order to flesh out what we've allready decided is the truth. We see today girls in middle school dressing scantily and hear that they're giving oral sex to boys...we forget or ignore the fact that teen pregnancies dropped 28 percent from 1990-2002 and abortions dropped 39 percent among this age group. We also forget that thirty years ago 40% of male middle schoolers experimented with oral sex on other male middle schoolers...and many still do...in spite of their largely heterosexual orientation.

We read about incest, pedophilia and child abuse...in fact we're deluged with news about it...and assume it is an epidemic. We forget that forty years ago such topics as this and rape were taboo and rarely made the news. We read of violent crime and are convinced it is on the rise but fail to note it is one fourth of what it was in 1973.

We also forget that never before in our history have news organizations been so prevalent...and this is excluding the ever growing internet...and all news organizations are seduced by the maxim "If it bleeds, it leads."

We are horrified...and we are entertained. Life has become a slasher film of sorts. Or a better analogy, we have become the curmudgeonly and gossipy small town women at a bridge club meeting, commenting on what we've heard or seen going on with the neighbors. We air their dirty laundry and we cluck and titter about the degradation of the neighborhood.

Our neighborhood has expanded, however, to encompass our nation and our world. But we filter what we see, and throw objectivity and skepticism to the winds. It makes our neighborhood and the borders of our lives seem more dangerous and exciting.


Regards,


Steve

 

[PeachMonkey]

I couldn't have said it better, or even as well, myself, Steve. Thank you for a great post.

 

[hardheadjarhead]

I couldn't have said it better, or even as well, myself, Steve. Thank you for a great post.

Thanks, cebidae who loves prunus persica.

I appreciate it.


Regards,



Steve