Just what is up with America and its refusal to accept the fact sex is natural and people do it all the time? Why do we shun it in movies and advertising while we gleefully glamorize and applaud violence and rampant stupidity?
Video games. Michael Bay movies. The Saw series of movies. All celebrate violence for the purposes of making money. And people love it. And spend billions on it. And rarely complain about it but sex…oh no. God forbid people actually celebrate the natural, biological joy of sex without coming off as some sort of perv trying to terrorize and sully the minds of poor little children.
So it is, yet again, without surprise that the MPAA and others have their panties and jockstraps in a twist over Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make A Porno which was initially slapped with a NC-17 rating, later negotiated to an R. But that’s not the issue. Movies should be rated appropriately based on content.
What irks is the notion that sex (not the objectifying kind) is somehow bad, should never be talked about and, certainly, never make its way into media, advertising or promotion.
Recently, Smith’s original poster for his movie was shot down by the MPAA because it hinted at oral sex. Smith, every the feisty one, didn’t take that edict laying down and created a stick figure version of the ad with the copy “Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks made a movie so titillating that we can only show you this drawing.” Simple enough? Nope. Shot down again because of the word porno.
This is a comedy, people! Not a porn flick. Can we not understand the humor here? Oh wait, of course we can’t. America lost its sense of humor years ago when armies of silly cause groups took over and waged war on everything in sight except, perhaps, for third grade math text books.
The ad has been refused by 15 newspapers, a few TV stations and the city of Philadelphia with Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler saying, “Zack and Miri cannot make a porno on my bus shelters.” WTF? JFC! Seriously? Oh, um, like suddenly commuters are going to spring from their seats, grab the nearest person and start fornicating (we can’t really say fuck anymore. Oops. Sorry) like bunnies while some 15 year old with a Flip starts filming? Please! Commuters are lucky if they can even keep their eyes open while commuting to work let alone notice a bus poster for a movie.
To be fair, it’s clear many people do not want sex or the notion of it foisted upon them 24/7. That’s understandable. But it’s become so twisted it’s no wonder kids are woefully unprepared to engage in sex much less understand its meaning and proper place in life. No one wants to talk about it. It’s just too embarrassing. No one wants to educate. It’s just too much work. No one wants to see it in a movie. It’s just too queasy.
The hippies in the sixties had it right. Make love, not war. Why do we continue to get it backwards?
