Biases and the NC-17 rating

The MPAA's rating system has become as a essential part of our film industry, yet what is the system based on and who decides the rating for each movie. Even without indepth analysis a clear trend is that movies with sexual content will often receive a higher rating than those with graphic violence. In Crosstalk Scott Tobias shows the bias against sexual content by showing a comparison between Hostel II and The Dreamers. In reference to nudity, he summarizes the MPAA’s stance by saying "that if you cut off a breast, it's rated R, but if you a kiss a breast, it's NC-17." Or in reference to language "'I'm going to fuck you over,' that's a PG-13. If you say, 'I'm going to fuck you over the desk,' that's an R." (Dame in the Red Kimono 283)
Are these biases a reflection of societies aversion to explicit sexuality in a public context or the bias of the organization. Both factors play a part the more unknown factor is the actual movie raters themselves. According to Kirby Dick's movie, "This film is not yet rated", film ratings are decided by a group of Los Angeles parents, whose identity is a secret. While an for this argument could be that since film ratings are meant to protect children, wouldnt this be the most logical way? That however is a great oversimplification of the issue, the parents are a select group of 10 from the Los Angeles area, most likely they would be from upper class backgrounds and may have a much stricter interpretation of what is appropriate and what is not. The fact that they are parents makes them more susceptible to personal bias, giving movies higher ratings than they deserve because they personally wouldnt want their children to see. The secrecy of the job makes for a lack of accountability; the raters cannot come under criticism because no one knows who they are. There is nothing to prevent personal bias from coming into the decision. This comes into play with the "homophobic bias" that is seen in the interview with Kirby Dick, since these parents may not want their children to see homosexual content, they give the movie a higher rating than it would get with the equivalent heterosexual content.
One of the most controversial aspects of the MPAA's system is the rarely used NC-17 rating. The rating, created in 1990 as a response to the widespread use of the previous rating "X" on pornographic videos, (Dame in the Red Kimono 281) was meant to distinguish artistic work from such porn films. The intent of the NC-17 rating and the MPAA's film rating systems in general are based on the premise of protecting children, but it has a much broader effect. A movie will live or die based on whether it gets a R or NC17 rating, often that line is arbitrary, depending on the whims of the MPAA Raters. If a movie is given a NC17 rating, it loses almost all its marketability as no theaters will be willing to show it. As shown in the crosstalk article, the NC-17 rating was a complete failure and is rarely ever used: " NC-17 was supposed to separate artistically motivated adult films from out-and-out pornography, but it backfired immediately. Newspaper and television outlets refused to run ads for NC-17-rated movies, some theater chains refused to book them, Blockbuster refused to carry them on its shelves, and filmmakers wound up contractually obligated to bring their work in at an R." This stigma attached to the NC-17 rating turns it into practically censorship. Referring to his 1994 film, Natural Born Killers, Director Oliver Stone states that he would have to eliminate or trim 150 shots to have the rating dropped from NC-17 to R (Dame in the Red Kimono P 281)
Though there is a definite need for a movie rating system the MPAA’s system is fundamentally flawed in that it leaves movie rating up to a group of a dozen unknown parents with no formal training who are free to express their personal biases in the process. The issue of the NC-17 rating is something that needs to be addresses but it may end up that creating a new rating would have no effect as it would still carry the same stigma as NC-17 and X before it.