Should a movie be punished by an R rating simply because of an X number of F-bombs?

@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

do you commonly have rooms that only have toilets? no sink or bath

They have a sink, you need to wash your hands afterwards. Some houses have a downstairs lavvy, the bathroom is upstairs.

0 Replies

@ehBeth,

Christ, I hope not.

I just get the impression that by calling Harvest festival Thanksgiving you're acquiescing to your southern neighbours.

1 Reply

You seem to know a lot about what we do and do not say considering you don't live here.

No one is shocked or offended by the use of the word cock to name a male chicken, any more than calling a female dog a bitch. If I learned the word rooster first and use it, it's only because, regardless of whatever original reason the word rooster began to be used long ago, it's just the more common word.

As far as who uses more profanity. I have no idea. But you don't either. Some people use some profanity, others a lot, some not at all.

You can't win for loosing. If someone says Americans curse more, we're coarse, crude and ignorant.

If someone says we curse less, we're prudes, puritans and repressed.

To me personally, there are a lot of words a Brit might consider vulgar, and I wouldn't even know besides the fact I've heard they are over the years.
Fanny, bloody, bugger come to mind. To me, they are totally innocent.

On the other hand the word fag is considered vulgar here, and in England it's without any negative meaning at all.

heh. I'm thinking of the time I was in a long check in line at Newark airport, and some English guy and I started chatting. I asked him how he enjoyed his trip, and he mentioned how he got in a bit of a fix when he asked someone if they had a fag. That was funny(ish), but then he started in with a Really Loud Voice things like "HA HA! HEY! ANYONE GOT A FAG! I'VE GOT A PACK OF FAGS HERE! HAR HAR HAR!" etc. He wouldn't let up.
Pretty cringeworthy.
Then again, I realized he was an idiot as he first seemed surprised when asked to give up his lighter at the check point, and got all kinds of upset when he couldn't get it back when he crossed through.

I'm kinda thinking you don't have the full idea of both the size and variance of the American/Canadian culture. There are a lot of words that are considered vulgar in one area, but not another. Same as in GB.

I don't assume what British people are "all" like. That would be ignorant and even offensive.

3 Replies

@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

tsarstepan wrote:
(and a rather boring/boorish transgression from the OP topic).

the OP is about use of language

and here people are - talking about use of language

__

transgression? really?

Sorry. Digression not transgression. And yes. This thread is about movies and their respective ratings due to sex, violence, and adult language. I should know. I wrote the dang thread.

The thread isn't about semantics, religion, morality and society.

2 Replies

@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

most rooms with toilets here have at least a sink - which turns them into washrooms - and is the most common usage.

Ha!
See, there's a difference in region.....I've never called a room like that a washroom.

I know the word, and would know exactly what was meant. I've even lived in areas where I've heard that word used (the further North you go). However, I don't believe it would ever slip out of my mouth.

I don't call that room a toilet because I find the word toilet offensive. It's just the habit of what you learned to call that room, at not because at some point someone in the far past decided it was vulgar.

0 Replies

@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

You seem to know a lot about what we do and do not say considering you don't live here.

American television programmes are globally ubiquitous, you sell a huge amount of them, and they're shown a lot, not to mention films. The reverse is just not true.

You've met one English bloke, I've lost count of the number of Americans I've met.

3 Replies

@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

I'm kinda thinking you don't have the full idea of both the size and variance of the American/Canadian culture.

So why do you think said film can only be seen by adults in America, but by everyone, (if their parents say so, twelve and up if they don't,) over here? I've said why I think it's the case, all you've said is I'm wrong.

Please enlighten me as to the real reason why.

2 Replies

@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

Fanny, bloody, bugger come to mind. To me, they are totally innocent.

So Bugger my bloody fanny would be totally innocent in Texas?

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

So you're saying Americans do all think alike and say and don't say the same thing? And this supports your belief that everyone here is on the same page as to whether someone should or should not be allowed to see a particular film?

Is everyone in England on board with each and every legal and societal regulation that is imposed?

Short answer, I have no idea why. I guess if you or I wanted to know, we would have to ask the Motion Picture Association of America, who is responsible for handing out movie ratings.

I'm addressing the fact that you seem to believe you know what americans say, that we all say and don't say the same thing, that we use certain words because back when we were learning them for the first time we were given a lecture as to why we say this word and not that word, and that this all leads back to a relatively small contingent of people who belonged to a larger particular group that mainly stayed at home in England and were very influencial in your parliement.

0 Replies

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

chai2 wrote:

Fanny, bloody, bugger come to mind. To me, they are totally innocent.

So Bugger my bloody fanny would be totally innocent in Texas?

I don't think most people would even know what that meant..... I'm pretty sure I don't know what it means.
If you said it here, I think what would run though most people minds would be "He's saying something using British slang", but the meaning wouldn't be clear. We would probably intuit it was meaning something happened that you didn't like. That's about it.
It sure wouldn't be any combination of words someone would think about putting together.
It would kind of like taking a random verb, adjective and noun, and stringing them together.

Fanny is either a girls name, short for Frances, or it's an expression for someone's butt, ass, etc, male or female. In that context, it's usually used with children as it's concernered a cute, funny little innocent word.

Bloody just means the area or person has a lot of blood on them, or that some meat hasn't been cooked enough, etc. It has no meaning beyond that, and I honestly don't know what it means in England.

Bugger, I think, in England means to have sex with? Particularly anal sex? Not sure at all. I take that meaning from seeing it in books. The word is hardly used here. The only time I can think of would be if someone said something like "He/she's a cute little bugger" when referring to a small child or animal who is perhaps mischievious.

Don't know if more nefarious meanings are held in some American places. I've lived in the NE, SE, Mid West, NW and West, and honor bright, none of those words would mean anything bad in any of the areas I've been in.

0 Replies

@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

ehBeth wrote:

This thread is about movies and their respective ratings due to sex, violence, and adult language.

Ok, I'll come back to this....sorry tsar.

I don't know if this will come out right....

There are movies that must involve a lot of violence, adult language and sex in order to make it work. The essense of the film is emmersed in these things.

There are many times though that I watch a movie, and wonder "Why did they have that sex scene in there? It doesn't bring anything to the story line"

It doesn't offend me, but I find it distracting if it doesn't have anything to do with the premise of the movie. Moreover, I suspect many times it's just thrown in there to attact more viewers.

Same with language and violence.

During the Kings Speech, I thought that the use of **** (or bloody or any other curse word used in Britain) was slightly to not quite moderately overdone.
I got the extreme frustration to the king. I got that he got so frustrated/angry he would curse. I can't of course give an exact number of times the word **** can be used successfully in any given film, but it just seemed to me it was used slightly to slightly moderately too many times because at a certain point one became bored/immune to it.

Yeah, ok, I get it, the king/royalty gets mad and says a word. We only got 2 hours to wrap this up, so let's not make it a bigger thing than it is.

I'm a big believer that less is more.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

Christ, I hope not.

I just get the impression that by calling Harvest festival Thanksgiving you're acquiescing to your southern neighbours.

you, Finn and Set
triplets at times

__

and not even close

http://time.com/4971309/canadian-thanksgiving-2017-history/

Quote:

Between turkey dinners and family reunions, Canadian Thanksgiving — which falls on Monday — can look pretty similar to its U.S. counterpart. But in fact, part of the reason Canadians first petitioned for the holiday was to celebrate their luck at not being American.

Though Canada does have a first Thanksgiving story analogous to the U.S. story of the feast at Plymouth in 1621 — it involves the pirate/explorer Martin Frobisher giving thanks in 1578 for a safe journey, and is likewise highly mythologized — the official holiday got its start in the 19th century.

In the wake of a crisis of faith catalyzed by Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, Canada’s Protestant ministers began in 1859 to petition the colonial government for an official day to thank God, pointing to the bountiful harvests as proof that God exists, says historian Peter A. Stevens. But over the next decade, they found a reason to be even more grateful: they were spared the bloodshed of the U.S. Civil War. T

we didn't officially add on the Brit/Euro harvest factor til a bit later

Canada had a thank god we're Protestants and thank god we're not American religious day - Thanksgiving

The US had a harvest fest about 6 weeks later - Thanksgiving

then Canadians wanted a party too!

Quote:

But the “Protestant” part of the national celebration soon started to lose its dominance. After all, this was before the advent of the five-day workweek, and people who spent a day in the middle of the week at church were often using up their only leisure time. Soon, celebrants looked for a way to turn the time after church into more of a party. They found a blueprint, ironically, in the very place that had caused them to celebrate not being there: as the idea of a national Thanksgiving spread in the U.S. too, Canadian families got the idea for hosting a harvest feast after reading how Americans celebrated the holiday in readily-accessible U.S. newspapers and magazines.

0 Replies

@chai2,

I surely didn't write that Laughing

1 Reply

@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

The thread isn't about semantics, religion, morality and society.

I think you lost control of what this public thread is about a while back.

and your tags ...

Quote:

Movies, Mpaa, Language, Rated R, Colorful Language

we can all try to steer threads but they're public and people move on when their interest/s shift

0 Replies

@izzythepush,

in response to

Quote:

You seem to know a lot about what we do and do not say considering you don't live here.

izzythepush wrote:

American television programmes are globally ubiquitous

that doesn't mean all Americans are the same as each other let alone how they're presented on tv

Does everyone in England sound like Hyacinth Bucket or Jack Duckworth? do you all use the same words and slang?
__

Think of the size of the British Isles and how many different dialects and language usages have developed over the years. Then look at a continent the size of North America and consider how separately many of the communities developed simply due to distance. Accents, vocabulary and idioms vary enormously. There are islands in the Chesapeake whose residents speak a form of English closer to Shakespeare's English than anyone else in the world.

There is one (gone again) a2k poster I could identify on their return to the site because of their use of Saskatchewan-only idioms.

Chai and I grew up reasonably close to each other (given the size of the continent). We don't use the same word for a room with a toilet and a sink.

It's not surprising people have a wide range of ideas about whether swearing is appropriate in film when we don't know if a piece of furniture is a chesterfield, a divan, a couch or a sofa.

2 Replies

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

You've met one English bloke

she has described one meeting in this thread

that doesn't tell you anything about how many people from England she's met

0 Replies

@izzythepush,

Yes, you're correct izzy.

In my entire life, I have only encountered one person that was born in England, on that one occassion I found myself at a airport.

What is it you're trying to prove? That I do believe I know what all Brits are like, because, as you apparantly believe, I have only met one?

You didn't read where I stated I have no idea what the population as a whole is like. If I visited England, I wouldn't know, because I would only be going to a limited number of places.
If I watch British TV, I don't know what everyone is like, because I'm only seeing what is put on the air. I don't believe what I would see on British television would be at all a clear representation of what an average English person is like. It would be what writers and producers decided to put on the air. If you watch a lot of bad American network TV, you have a bad idea as to what Americans are like.

If you've been to America, you've been to a limited number of places. If you've met Americans there, you have met people who can afford the plane fare there, and had a desire to go there.

You're correct in that American TV is ubiquitous. If you are talking about network TV, you would be correct it thinking that it is totally unrealistic as to what people are like in reality.
I gave up on network TV decades ago, because it was so incredibly bad and fake.

Now, with streaming TV, the quality is better because one can vote with their viewing habits. I personally enjoy raw shows. Ones were rough language is common. Why? Because it's more akin to what I hear everyday. Because it doesn't spoon feed a plot line to me.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make with me izzy. You told us that we are Puritans, that we are prudes, we don't curse as much as Brits (like that would be terrible), and other.

I have been saying please don't paint an entire country/continent with such a broad brush, and that I have little idea of what Brits in general are like. Because, with people, there really is no "in general"

Again, if you want to know why movies are rated a certain way, contact the institute that does that.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

I surely didn't write that

My quote clicking finger was broken.

0 Replies

@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

Does everyone in England sound like Hyacinth Bucket

Oh oh oh, THAT's the name I was trying to think of.

Yeah, I hope no self respecting Brit would think that Americans imagine they are all like the people on that show.

Just like I used to cringe when watching "Three's Company" or, what was another popular show.....um.... Oh! The Bill Cosby Show.

Jesus wept.

I have never to this day watched an entire episode of Friends. I watched I think about 5 minutes of one episode. It was at that point I gave up on TV for a long time.

I can get into a show that's really off the wall unrealistic, as they know they are being ridiculous. It's the one's that wanted everyone to think "this is everyday life"

"I Dream of Jeanne"? Sure, why not?

"Full House"? gag.

0 Replies

@ehBeth,

Your references are very old, Corrie and Keeping Up Appearances. Got anything that originated this millennium?

There's a huge difference between showing general trends between different cultures and saying that cultures are monolithic.

I have given a reason why I think the film ratings are so different. You haven't.

3 Replies

Should a movie be punished by an R rating simply because of an X number of F-bombs?

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know