Content Ratings Part 2

So after my last post which had a fairly positive view of looking at movies solely on content instead of rating I wanted to talk about some negative repercussions of this. I'm going to start by issulstraiting my point with a story.

So last fall on my study abroad I had this deep craving for a vanallia bean frappachino from Starbucks. This delicious plain and simple decadent heavenly caffient free beverage is kind of my Achilles heal, and when I saw that Starbucks in my little notting hill neighborhood I just had to go buy it. With me I brought my dear friend Emily who remarked as we went inside "I've never actually been in a Starbucks before" I gasped of course, how could she be missing out on such lovely and delisious overpriced indulgences? When asked about it she quite simply said "I had a seminary teacher once who talked about the avoiding the appearance of evil." that gave me some pause in thought. And as I sucked on my lucious creamy ambrosia I realized that she made a good point. Was I doing anything wrong? No. Temple recommend could still be obtained, no coffee in my cup. But let's say someone on the street figured out I was mormon and then saw what appeared to be a coffee style Starbucks cup in my hand... What would that say to them? I don't know. I know that since that day I've avoided Starbucks.

 So why did I bring this up? I think movies should follow a similar thought. After my last experiment with content ratings which was, in my mind, successful it still doesn't change the fact that movies have ratings. And that ratings have meanings, associations, and even stigmas attached to them. One of my very first posts on my media blog was a rather heavy and harsh statement against rated R movies. In this post I talked about a friend who constantly tried to get me to watch rated R movies. I saw him and his family over the thanksgiving break, and in a way they had built this sort of standard for me. For example, his dad suggested we go see a movie  and added "not rated r of course". He said it kind of in jest, but also it had a ring of respect to it. If I subject myself to more movies of a rated R nature then I loose that association that I have worked my life trying to maintain. Instead I'm just the girl who chooses movies carefully, which is good, but it's not as finite or concrete or clean. And maybe that's how we should define what we consume, being careful consumers... But can we also balance that with avoiding the appearance of evil?

 I think often of some of my guy friends who own rated R movies... Is it wrong to say I think worse of them. I try not to, I try to be accepting, plus things aren't always as they appear, but those movies, in my mind, take away from a pure aspect of those boys that could otherwise be there. Though I consider my content viewing experiment a success I think that rated R movies should generally be avoided regardless. It's just a movie after all, is it worth it this trouble, these excuses, this analysis, the critiques? Perhaps instead we can use content analysis to better sift through pg 13 movies and be a more careful consumer there. I think unless we can revamp the rating system as is, we still need to take it into consideration the ratings distributed if just to avoid negative associations, because after all we should always try to be an example. So that's where I stand, what do you think?