*Posted Late with Permission*

The Motion Picture Association has a guideline system for movies. G is for general which is for young kids. PG is for parental guidance which is more for tweens. PG-13 is for teens. Restricted or R is for anyone over seventeen years old. NC-17 is for only people over seventeen. NC-17s will lose ads and announcements so they wont get a big audience in theaters. The MPA wont give independent studios or creators specific notes for ratings as those are only reserved for bigger studios. However raters are given no type of training for rating movies.

It’s crazy to me that the MPA doesn’t have a training for the movie raters. This means that two raters could probably watch the same film and give it two different ratings for just their opinions and the way they see and analyze the content of the film. That legit blows my mind.

I know that there are parents who let their kids watch like PG-13 or R rated movies when they’re young and some who wont until they come of age. My mom and I always joke that we both watched movies we shouldn’t have when we did. My great-grandma ,who raised both of us, was very hands off in our growing up unless it came to certain things. But I would sneak into my mom’s room and borrow some of her movies and watch them. The first R rated i watched was Zombieland back in 2010. I also watched Your Highness and Zack and Mimi make a Porno. I can see why I shouldnt have watched them when I was like ten. But I also watched a lot of Family Guy, South Park and American Dad. Like yes I wasnt supposed to watch them. But I like the humor in them and how they were portrayed.

I get it. You cant show kids certain things like sex especially not in extreme forms. You also cant show them violent acts. You also shouldn’t show them anything scary yet Dark Crystal is rated PG. However kids in public schools hear worse from the other kids than they say in PG and Pg-13 movies. I heard worse in my Catholic school than I have in any movie. I get that kids shouldn’t say swear words but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t know what the swear words are. Also saying that swear words are bad words gives them more power. They’re just words. A majority of the sex scenes also aren’t that bad. Im not saying show kids sex scenes from movies but like they aren’t that bad. I think the worst one i can think of is the vine/tree rape scene from Evil Dead, which is probably why it’s rated NC-17.

I have always loved books. My mom has always has a special place for the Beat Generation writers, mainly Kerouac. Seeing the name in the book for this class made me really happy. The Beat Generation paved the way for so many brave ideals to come to light. They were amazing writers who didn’t give two shits what anyone thought.

One of Kerouac’s most famous novels, On the Road, was about two friends on a road trip and their adventures. These adventures consist of sex escapades, drug trips and trying to discover yourself. I’ve always liked the message that it tells. No matter how old you are, you can always continue figuring yourself out.

Last year, my family and i took a trip to San Francisco and saw City Lights, the bookstore that published a lot of the Beat Generation’s books. We also saw a Jack Kerouac and Beat Generation Museum. I got a cool Fuck Hate poster that was made around the time of the Howl trial i believe. We also saw Big Sur which Kerouac named a book after.

The streets of San Francisco are just beaming with the imagination and legacy of the Beat Generation. The Beat Generation was, in my opinion, one of the best and most creative and open group of writers ever.

Hi!

I’m London. I’m an English major. I’m a 3rd year. I’m from Buffalo, NY. I’m a nerd and in a bunch of fandoms. I mainly watch YouTube and Netflix and read books and webcomics.