12 votes

"Eighth Grade" shows the vast gap between how the US and Europe think about teens and sex

5 comments

  1. [3]
    Gyrfalcon
    Link
    I suppose this is what the United States gets for being founded by groups of religious people who got kicked out of Europe for being too religious?

    I suppose this is what the United States gets for being founded by groups of religious people who got kicked out of Europe for being too religious?

    11 votes
    1. [2]
      demifiend
      Link Parent
      My understanding was that they left voluntarily because they needed a safe space where they could be special fundie snowflakes.

      groups of religious people who got kicked out of Europe for being too religious?

      My understanding was that they left voluntarily because they needed a safe space where they could be special fundie snowflakes.

      5 votes
      1. Gyrfalcon
        Link Parent
        With a little more research, I think it's a bit of both. They weren't exactly kicked out, but people made it pretty clear they weren't welcome in England anymore so they left for New England.

        With a little more research, I think it's a bit of both. They weren't exactly kicked out, but people made it pretty clear they weren't welcome in England anymore so they left for New England.

        4 votes
  2. vegetablesupercargo
    Link
    The director says "difference between the US and the rest of the world" when what they really mean is "difference between the US and Europe". It's a pet peeve of mine that, whenever sexual mores,...

    The director says "difference between the US and the rest of the world" when what they really mean is "difference between the US and Europe". It's a pet peeve of mine that, whenever sexual mores, sexual standards, etc., many Americans suddenly pretend like "the rest of the world" consists only of Europe (often even cherry-picking within Europe), while the reality is that US is more liberal than most of the world.

    When it comes to sex and movies, though, it really is safe to say that the US is out of step with the rest of the world. There are a few very conservative countries that match what the US does (or even ban movies that are approved in the US, as China often does). However, there are democratic countries that are culturally more conservative than the US when it comes to sex, and even they're more permissive with movie ratings.

    Consider, for example, Brokeback Mountain, which received an R rating in the US for graphic scenes of homosexual sex. (Note right off the bat that it received a 7 rating in Sweden and effectively a G rating in France, ha). Poland, Malaysia, Phillippines and Singapore agree with the US in making it accessible to adults only. However, South Korea gave it only a 15 rating. South Korea—the country where all pornography is illegal, stripping is illegal, adultery was illegal until recently, women get fired for showing cleavage, even men avoid showing their bare chests at beaches and pools, and in the most recent presidential election, the most positive comment given by a major candidate about homosexuality was "I oppose it"—even they treated Brokeback Mountain more leniently than the US.

    Go through any graphically sexual or sexuality-focused movie with worldwide release on IMDB and you'll see a similar pattern: banned in a couple countries, 18+ in a couple countries, R in the US, 15-ish in most other conservative countries, and then widely available in the other countries. If you were to judge the US solely by its movie ratings, you'd assume that it was still in the 1950s, but with blood and killing everywhere.

    8 votes
  3. Diet_Coke
    Link
    There's a movie that used to be on Netflix called This Film is Not Yet Rated which goes as far as hiring private investigators to learn about the rating board that makes these decisions....

    There's a movie that used to be on Netflix called This Film is Not Yet Rated which goes as far as hiring private investigators to learn about the rating board that makes these decisions. Interestingly, they show examples of well-connected projects getting an R rating with extremely similar comment to other, NR-17 rated movies. The MPAA is an institution that's easy to take for granted, but they serve a very specific purpose in society.

    4 votes