How the MPPA Discriminates Against Gay Films

The documentary works because it shows how the Hollywood ratings process, coupled with the commercial nature of the film industry, leads to censorship, decreases filmmakers' artistic freedom, and stifles the audience's ability to decide on their own what they think about a film.

AfterElton.com recently caught up with This Film Is Not Yet Rated's Oscar-nominated director, Kirby Dick, after a New York screening of his film sponsored by the Independent Film Channel.

AfterElton.com: Do you think that the MPAA's rating system reflects what the average American thinks? More specifically, the average American parent, which is the standard the MPAA uses in its ratings?
Kirby Dick: I don't think that is the issue at all. I mean these raters are not in control of decisions that are being made. The system is structured, and the guidelines that they are given are something that really have nothing to do with what the average American thinks and has everything to do with what the MPAA and the studios that back the MPAA want. It's just a charade.

AE: Do you think this bias that the MPAA has about gay sex has influenced the culture in terms of perceptions of gays as perverts and deviants?
KD: I think it has. If you show a certain kind of straight sex and you are allowed to see a certain level of nudity, but the rating system does not allow that same level of nudity with gay sex, then what you are doing is subtly suggesting to the audience that there is something wrong with showing the same amount of gay sex that you might show in a straight sex scene. So, I actually do think that it influences it.

It was one of the reasons I was happy to work with Becky Altringer, my private investigator and a lesbian, and I was very glad that she was part of the team that made this powerful critique of the MPAA and, in particular, its homophobic bias against gay sex.

To go further, when the MPAA spokesperson, Corey Bernards, was asked why there is this bias against gay sex, her response was not to deny it but to say that ‘We don't set the standards, we reflect them.' I thought this was appalling, because what if the standards were racist? Would they reflect those standards? What if the standards were anti-Semitic? Would they reflect those standards?

Basically, her response was a tacit admission that there was a homophobic bias in the rating system, and I think that is completely wrong.

I think parents around the country should decide for themselves whether they want their children to see films. Let me just back up for a minute, I think parents should let their children see whatever films they want without regard to whether it's gay sex or straight sex. But I grant that it really is the parents' right to make the decision about what kind of films they want their children to see. It's not the right of 10 anonymous parents living in Los Angeles .

AE: Do you ultimately think they are reflective of what the American people want?
KD: I think that's a good question. I think in many ways they are not. Certainly when it comes to violence, parents are appalled by the amount of violence in films, and they are appalled that films with violence get ratings that are the least restrictive.

This is a system that is set up to further the objectives of the studios and the corporations that own them, and the fact that they are saying they reflect parents is just something that is trying to spin the system to sell it to the public.

AE: Do you think the success of Brokeback Mountain at the box office will change the ratings for gay sex in films?
KD: I certainly hope so. I think it will have some impact. But again, I think that the MPAA and the studios benefit politically by censoring films with gay sex in them, because the MPAA is the lobbying arm of the six major studios that control 95 percent of the film business, and the rating system is a small part of what they do. Their main focus is in Washington lobbying Congress to get laws passed — particularly onerous, intellectual property laws which benefit the studios' bottom line — sometimes to the tune of billions of dollars.

By coming down on or appearing to come down on sex, particularly gay sex, that ingratiates them with the right, which now controls Congress and allows the MPAA to get the laws through Congress that it wants. So the studios, which control the MPAA, will use any tool that they have control of to benefit the bottom line for those corporations. If it means setting up a rating system that censors gay sex, they will go ahead and do it.