When adapting the 2019 LGBTQ romantic novel Red, White & Royal Blue for the screen, Matthew Lopez was careful to circumvent an R-rating. The film has a handful of sex scenes that stop short of full-frontal nudity — there’s some bare butts and, naturally, shirtless men.
But it wasn’t enough. Red, White & Royal Blue was rated R, meaning people under 17 would need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian to see it.
Another recent film with LGBTQ leads, the French romantic drama Passages, received an even harsher NC-17 rating, which would restrict people under 18 from seeing the film at all, and also keep it from playing in certain theatres.
Abolish ratings boards
I think there is a reasonable argument for “appropriate for young children,” “appropriate for older children” and “appropriate for adults” as ratings. They don’t have to be adhered to strictly or anything, but having had a young child, knowing if a film is G or PG can make a difference, not to mention PG or R.
Films should be thought provoking at times. “Whats that daddy/mommy?” Should often be a question asked after the movie ends. But it’s gotta be in doses, you can’t show a 6y/o kid all of the reasons a film is rated R all at once and expect them to process it enough to ask questions
It’s all well and good until the rating board is populated with pearl-clutching prudes who think that LGBT is inherently adult content.
I’m not saying it’s a perfect solution and I agree with you, I’m just saying we need a way for parents to know if their 6-year-old is going to be seeing people fucking and chopping each other’s heads off before showing them to the movie.
They are ultimately the lesser evil. The entertainment industry self regulates age ratings without government interference, because if they didn’t, the government would be regulating them instead. Though they do cave to political pressures such as in this instance to keep the government from having a reason to regulate them, their policies aren’t US law, and are therefore much easier to change to adjust with the times than having to go through Congress or a federal agency