Reflecting the kind of moral code that could only have come from a band of trigger-happy religious fanatics, The Hollywood Reporter recently shared statistics from a survey of parents conducted by the Classification and Rating Administration—the group that administers the MPAA’s ratings system—which indicates that Americans are still more comfortable exposing their children to dead bodies than naked ones.
According to the survey, 80 percent of parents polled say they are “concerned” with graphic sex scenes in movies, followed by full-frontal male nudity (72 percent), full-frontal female nudity (70 percent), and the use of hard drugs (70 percent). By comparison, 64 percent of parents surveyed say they’re concerned with exposing their children to graphic violence in movies, only 2 percent more than those who say they find the use of “the F-word” troublesome.
As for what to do about all this concerning content, a slim majority of parents in the survey think that saying “fuck” is not okay in a PG-13 movie, not even once. (Unless, of course, they were referring to something else by “the F-word;” “fart,” maybe, or “fiddle,” or “fundamentalism.” But probably just “fuck.”) 53 percent of participants think that the word is overused in PG-13 movies, almost 10 percent more than think than there’s too much graphic violence in current PG-13 fare. So, take note Hollywood: It’s cool to keep blowing away bad guys with impunity. Just keep your clothes on and your potty mouths shut when you do it, please.