Is America becoming too prudish?

[jmowreader]

I LOVE high-end animation. I think it's America's greatest indigenous art form. This means I've got some Disney blu-ray discs around here.

The other night I was watching Beauty and the Beast. In 1990 this movie was rated G, and so it should remain. But in today's hyper-"Christian" environment, these things would cause it to be rated no less than PG-13, possibly R:

fairy tale violence (the siege on The Beast's castle, the whole bar room sequence, Gaston beating the shit out of his minion on numerous occasions, the butcher's wife conking him in the head with a rolling pin, Cogsworth slapping Lumiere around)
a LOT of drinking (the "Gaston" song, and all the wine in the "Be Our Guest" song--Belle never drank any on camera, but there was enough wine in the place to float a battleship)
veiled sexual references (Lumiere attempting to seduce one of the feather dusters)

So...have the teabaggers and fundies ruined America to the point something really innocuous--as Lumiere sings, "after all, miss, this is France"--or am I seeing things?

[Imagevision]

1. This sounds like something out of the Glenn Beck file...

[ashling]

2. I doubt there would be much objection to the violence

but Lumiere - ooh, la la!

[Drunken Irishman]

3. Shrek is far more 'adult' than Beauty and the Beast and it's only rated PG...

There is no way Beauty in the Beast today would be rated PG-13 or R. Have you actually seen an R-rated film?

Go watch South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut and tell me if it comes close to what you see in Beauty in the Beast.

Or hell, the Saw series, for that matter.

[jmowreader]

8. Yes, I have seen R-rated films

Most of my movie collection--a couple hundred titles--is R-rated.

You're not understanding what I'm getting at here: Twenty years ago when this movie was made, you could do a LOT of shit you'd never get away with today. Example:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/738155/movie_ratings_meanings_for_parents_pg2.html?cat=25

"bloody violence will usually garner a PG-13 or above rating." There are two incidences of it: where the wolves try to eat the beast, and where Gaston stabs the beast with a dagger.

South Park, OTOH, would probably get an NC-17 now--remember, there is the scene of Saddam showing Satan his penis, and pictures of dicks--ESPECIALLY photographic-quality pictures of dicks--WILL get you an NC-17. Oh, and the part where it's implied Satan is on the receiving end of Saddam's gay sex, the blasphemy, the part about Terrence calling Phillip a pigfucker because "let me see...first of all, you fuck pigs" ... "Oh yeah!," the Uncle Fucker song...

[Drunken Irishman]

12. You're right, I don't see your point...

Because you're wrong. There is no way Beauty in the Beast, if it were released today, would receive a PG-13 rating, let alone an R rating. It's absurd to even suggest.

Think about it this way: Midnight Cowboy. That movie was released in 1969 as an X-rated movie. Do you really believe today it would be rated X? :rofl:

[sakabatou]

4. I heard the trashed improvised lines from the Gaston song

[Bluebear]

5. Janet Jackson's nipple exposed for 2.1 seconds

and the uproar it caused will answer your question!

[JANdad]

6. Becoming?

Or became?

[Art_from_Ark]

7. Has always been?

Except for, perhaps, a brief time in the Wild West, and a brief time in the 1960s and 1970s

[cali]

9. America simultaneously lets its libido fly

and is prudish. ah, paradox. there is far more nudity and sex on tv now than 20 years ago, for instance.

[melm00se]

10. sexual mores

swing like a pendulum.

currently it is sliding to the prudish side but in a (relatively) short period of time it will swing back the other direction.

[WolverineDG]

11. sure, blame the prudishness on "Christians"

there are some stellar prudes on DU who get the vapors at the mere thought of girls eating or working at Hooters.

dg

[arbusto_baboso]

13. Becoming? America's history is one of prudery.

Ask any European.

[blondeatlast]

14. the movie rating system is horribly corrupt and just downright stupid. Any parent,

or for that matter any ticket buyer, who relies on it is simply ignorant and lazy.

I much prefer "Kids in Mind" when I decide what my son should be able to see: http://www.kids-in-mind.com/

They are entirely objective; kinda like an Ucle Walter of cinema...