The nation’s leading organization dedicated to opposing pornography is citing serious concerns about the “R” rating which was given to the movie, Fifty Shades of Grey, by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) because it undermines the violent themes in the film and does not adequately inform parents and patrons of the film’s content.
According to Morality in Media, the MPAA warning for the film, which is based on the best-selling book by the same name, says only that there is “strong sexual content including dialogue, some unusual behavior and graphic nudity.”
“What the term ‘unusual’ does not account for is the coercion, sexual violence, female inequality, and BDSM themes from which the entire Fifty Shades plot is based,” writes Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of Morality in Media and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. “Such a vague evaluation puts viewers at risk, sending the message that humiliation is pleasurable and that torture should be sexually gratifying.”
The film, starring Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, is scheduled to debut on February 13, making it the “go to” film for Valentine’s Day.
Unfortunately for many couples who may want to watch a true romance, the trailer for the film is nothing more than a “fairy tale”, Hawkins says, and one that “further misleads the public into thinking this is simply a love story. The MPAA ratings and ‘fairy tale’ label mask the true themes of humiliation, manipulation, abuse, and degradation of women.”
It’s impossible to overstate the seriousness of promoting such a film during this day and age when sexual violence and exploitation are already at an all-time high, due in part to the proliferation of hardcore pornography.
“We’d like to change the MPAA rating for Fifty Shades of Grey to read: ‘Promotes torture as sexually gratifying, graphic nudity, encourages stalking and abuse of power, promotes female inequality, glamorizes and legitimizes violence against women’.”
Hawkins asks the question every parent needs to address: “Is this the description of a movie you’d promote to your son or daughter? What about yourself?”
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