9. The MPAA is Totally Unreliable
Don’t know what the MPAA is? Sure you do: it’s the Motion Picture Association of America, also known as the MPAA, and it determines the ratings for our movies. For decades, we’ve been deciding whether or not it’s appropriate for our kids to see movies or to take people on dates to certain movies based on the ratings determined by this organization. So how do they determine and standardize these ratings? A ratings board views the movie and determines a rating based on their opinions, and an aggregate rating is given to the film (of G, PG, PG-13, R, or NC-17). If producers don’t like the rating the film is given, they can request to have it re-rated an unlimited number of times. That’s how movies with exorbitant violence can end up having PG-13 ratings, or how movies with full, graphic sex scenes can be rated R instead of NC-17.
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