The PG 13 Discussion

[Doc]

Pete, you bring up good points. Really good points.

But where is the line drawn between healthy exposure and unhealthy abuse? Sure, I can gut and butcher animals, stand in ankle deep puddles of blood and guts, and not think twice about it. I live on a farm right now. However, does everybody need to be exposed to this?

I do not think total protection is the right thing either. I believe everything in small doses at the right time, delivered with a measure of wisdom. What this means in the most boiled down terms, is actual parenting, with out depending on mechanical devices to babysit the kids. I for one, would NEVER wish my childhood on any child, immunization theory or not. Sure, it toughened me up, got me ready for life, but I also have PTSD, and a backbreaking load of emotional baggage. Sure, if I had a boy, I might take him deer hunting, or something like that, but not before he was ready, and not if he did not want to go. People like my wife for example, who have actually thrown up on the kitchen floor when I was chopping apart a half a cow carcass simply do not deal well with some of the harsh realities of life. And if they can live, thrive, and survive with out it, why bother exposing them at all? I shoo my wife out of the house now most times when I am about to butcher something that got delivered or whatever.

Now, to adress another issue, the Rated G Question, there are quite a few movies with G ratings or G type ratings that have had questionable content. Fantasia for one. Roots has a general rating, meant for all ages, but has graphic depictions of flogging, men in white hoods running around raising hell, the N Word, and all matter of questionable stuff. I love the movie... Don't get me wrong. But no way in hell would I let a kid watch it. Sounder, IIRC, also used the N word on several occasions, if I am thinking of the right movie, and the N Word usage was based on "historical accuracy" so it was deemed OK and not offensive. Back in the 60s or 70s Disnee made a Tom Sawyer Huck Finn movie that used the N Word. It was being used in coloquial historical sense so it was targeted to small children. It was also true to form from the book. For the life of me, I can't think of the name of this one, but it's about a group of kids in the 60s, during the civil rights movement. It's a story about a black boy and a white boy being friends. It's a true story, based on a book. It hit theaters, but flew under the rader and was barely noticed. It was rated G, but, IIRC, had over 40 uses of the N Word, all said out of quoting the historical time period. Now, this might be fine to teach kids, but not ALL kids. I for one would not let a little kid, as the G rating might imply, to go see something like this. No way. Nor would I let my wife see it, as merely hearing the N Word causes her to nearly burst into tears. Hearing it two or three times would cause another Niagra Falls Incident, much like the last time Roots came on the Hallmark Channel. She sat and cried and snotted all over my shoulder for a whole hour or more, unable to understand how folk can be so cruel. (Of course, in all fairness, my wife has the mind of a small child, it is her best quality. Her childlike innocence I value more then life it self) I have to know what's in a movie before I can watch it with her.

Long live Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato, in whom there is no fault :D