{"id":468,"date":"2004-08-23T13:35:04","date_gmt":"2004-08-23T17:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/benadida\/2004\/08\/23\/the-truth-about-r-ratings-and-common"},"modified":"2004-08-23T13:35:04","modified_gmt":"2004-08-23T17:35:04","slug":"the-truth-about-r-ratings-and-common-senseless-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/2004\/08\/23\/the-truth-about-r-ratings-and-common-senseless-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth About R Ratings and Common-Senseless Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Zach Braff, writer, director, and lead actor of Garden State<\/a>, my new favorite movie, tells us more about R ratings in movies:<\/p>\n

\nJust so you all know, your government doesn’t believe a 16 year old should hear the word “fuck” more than twice in a 2 hour period. The second you say “fuck” twice in a movie your film becomes “R”. No exceptions. Pretty crazy, huh? You can blow someone’s head off, but 2 fucks makes you unwatchable for someone under 17. Unless they have their parent there to explain it to them. “Mom, I understood the first use of the word fuck, but what’s with the second – give me guidance please. I’ve heard one fuck before, but ever since I heard the second one I’ve had this insatiable desire to rob a liquor store and refer to all women as “ho’s”.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More and more, our society rejects common sense and instead relies on inflexible rules. 2 “fucks” and your movie is R-rated. Minimum sentencing for crimes (3 strikes, you’re out). DMCA-style laws where judges’ hands are tied and the crime is automatic, regardless of intent.<\/p>\n

I understand the somewhat justifiable motivations. Standardizing the R ratings might help parents make quick judgments that are “objective.” Minimum sentencing supposedly ensures fairness. And the DMCA… well, I’m still trying to figure out the benefit there.<\/p>\n

Sure, a model of the world where simple actions result in simple consequences thanks to simple rules is comforting. Unfortunately, the world isn’t that simple, and such a blunt model is grossly incorrect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zach Braff, writer, director, and lead actor of Garden State, my new favorite movie, tells us more about R ratings in movies: Just so you all know, your government doesn’t believe a 16 year old should hear the word “fuck” more than twice in a 2 hour period. The second you say “fuck” twice in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}