House of Eratosthenes

Smoking in youth-rated movies has not declined despite a pledge two years ago by Hollywood studios to encourage producers to show less “gratuitous smoking,” according to an anti-smoking group.

The American Medical Association Alliance, pointing to research that big-screen smoking leads teens to pick up the tobacco habit, called for an R rating for any movie with smoking scenes.

The head of the group that gives U.S. movies their ratings, however, said the smoke has been clearing from youth-rated movies, a result of the film industry’s sensitivity to the issue.

The alliance, the medical association’s advocacy arm, launched a summer campaign this week aimed at publicly shaming studios into making smoke-free films.

“Research has shown that one-third to one-half of all young smokers in the United States can be attributed to smoking these youth see in movies,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, head of the Los Angeles County Public Health Department.

Fielding cited another study that he said “found that adolescents whose favorite movie stars smoked on screen are significantly more likely to be smokers themselves and to have a more accepting attitude toward smoking.”

The Motion Picture Association of America, the industry group that issues ratings and parental guidance for U.S. films, added smoking scenes as a factor in ratings two years ago, but Fielding said it has not made a difference.

“In all, 56 percent of the top box office movies with smoking released between May 2007 and May 2009 were youth-rated films — G, PG or PG-13,” he said.

Joan Graves, who chairs the Motion Picture Association’s movie rating committee, offered her own statistics, based on all of the 900 films rated each year, not just the top movies included in Fielding’s numbers.

The association has given no G ratings in the past two years to a movie with smoking, Graves said.

Overall, 55 percent of the movies rated in the past two years showed some smoking, but 75 percent of those with smoking scenes were given R ratings, Graves said. Twenty-one percent were rated PG-13 and the remaining 5 percent were PG, she said.

A G movie is deemed suitable for all audiences, while a PG rating is a signal to parents that a film may include some material they might consider inappropriate for children. PG-13 indicates a stronger warning that some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

No one under 17 can be admitted to see an R movie without a parent or guardian.

American Medical Association Alliance President Sandi Frost used as her chief example of a movie with “gratuitous smoking” this month’s blockbuster “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” which was rated PG-13 “for intense sequences of action and violence, and some partial nudity.”

“Millions of children have been exposed to the main star of the film, Hugh Jackman, with a cigar in his mouth in various scenes,” Frost said. “I’m willing to bet that not one child would have enjoyed that movie or Mr. Jackman’s performance any less if he hadn’t been smoking.”

Interesting times. Back when I was a kid, people were worried we’d grow up to be racists and bigots, and this was thought of as a consequence of things we did not do…things we did not see. And so it was thought to be desirable to make us cultured. The result was a big push to get kids to socialize with other kids. Which was kinda stupid, because, being kids, we were all like “yeah he’s my friend anyway.” We didn’t see the race. The grown-ups were the ones bringing it up.

Now the push is on to make sure kids don’t experience things. The principle is the same, but now we’re thinking bigotry is desirable, if it’s bigotry against the right things. If we keep kids thinking of these vices as being alien, they’ll tap into their human instincts to think of those things as deplorable, and this will encourage them to grow up to be Good People.

Here’s where it gets interesting. The first paragraph indicates that movie content does not have a bearing on how much kids smoke. The second paragraph indicates that movie content does have this effect…based on “research.” How come, when we engage in these massive nanny-state efforts to change human behavior, and we fail, that isn’t thought of as “research” just as valid as what comes off the whiteboards of the pocket-protector Theory Boys? See, we’re valuing ideas from the egghead set over & above actual experience. This is how we get on these endless treadmills. We don’t pay attention to actual experience.

My suggestion: Stop stigmatizing smoking, drinking, et cetera. Just stop it. Yes it’s bad when kids do these things — but these are symptoms, not causes. Instead, stigmatize idleness. If there are laws on the books saying kids can’t work more than xx hours in a week if they’re under xx years old, then repeal them. Every single one. What’re we afraid of? Some Tammany Hall guy is gonna come by in the dark of some terrible night, abduct a couple hundred of our doe-eyed little waifs, and put them to work eighteen hours a day putting sweatshirts and sneakers together for Kathy Lee? Our goo-gooder liberals are supposed to have ended that problem in this country, about a hundred years ago. So if the problem is ended, let’s act like it’s ended. Let the kids do some work. Some work.

There are too many laws on the books designed to make absolutely, positively sure that nobody ever experiences — certain things. A “no” answer from a bank evaluating a home loan application. Creepy guys at work that like to stare at beautiful women. A movie with a guy riding a motorcycle with no helmet on his head. When I say “too many” laws, what I really mean is “some.”

There shouldn’t be any laws like this. Humans are much more resilient than this.

Can’t agree with you more about child labor. Sure, you’ll find a few straw-man-makers who’ll attempt to castigate mean-old-conservatives as back breaking, whip-wielding slave owners, but they’ve (almost) shrieked one too many times – this one could cause them to keep their powder dry for some other fight.

Education is the most important part of a young adult’s first 18 years. The most important and ignored fact (that should never, ever be separated from that statement) is that education doesn’t have to come from state teachers and colleges. If you have a bumper sticker that praises diversity, you’d better be prepared to support diversity of education (defined by me as work). Something tells me the public-school teachers would have a problem with where that road leads us.

Many schools nowadays have mandatory volunteer work; what values do we convey to our children by that? Those that praise it (which I don’t) certainly can’t feign indignation over an amendment to child labor laws.

The most obvious question is: why does school perpetually drift away from its core principles? We as a society didn’t set the thing up as a state-subsidized babysitter. It was established to gird our future citizens against the oncoming realities of their duties when that clock strikes 6,570 days. Ask an 18-year old how many times a teacher used either term (citizen or duty) over their tenure in education – and you’ll know what I mean.
- wch | 05/29/2009 @ 11:08
There are too many laws on the books designed to make absolutely, positively sure that nobody ever experiences — certain things. A “no” answer from a bank evaluating a home loan application. Creepy guys at work that like to stare at beautiful women. A movie with a guy riding a motorcycle with no helmet on his head. When I say “too many” laws, what I really mean is “some.”

There shouldn’t be any laws like this. Humans are much more resilient than this.

Snerk. Oh, Morgan. I don’t want to invoke the wrath of “Terrace Five” (and its “It’s ALL about that subject, every time” corollary) but if the slipper doesn’t pinch…
- bpenni | 05/29/2009 @ 12:18
I’m joining you, side-by-side, pitchfork in hand, in the holy battle against the tut-tutters and finger-wagglers who come by to rip the green stuff out by the roots “for the children.”

Just get the stuff legalized first. Until then, the whole counterinsurgency is nothing but a temper tantrum, a child’s protest that “I shouldn’t have to follow any laws unless they’re ‘cool.'” And if you’re having trouble with the NIMBY types, know too, that I am one of them. I don’t want to be around that stuff. I see it as just like liberalism itself: bad idea, bad for your mind, bad for your body, nevertheless, stigmatizing it is silly…federal government has absolutely no place passing laws against it…but if a state, or a part of a state, wants to make it illegal then I’m not cryin’ about it. And in both cases — keep it out of movies?? No, no, and hell no.

So go to the people, and convince them they should legalize it. Win at that. If you can. In the meantime, you’re proving the point I made in that other thread, aren’t you? There are some people who want to legalize the whacky weed — who can make a conversation about legalizing it — out of just about anything.

Anyway…I see this fine feature film, which I was watching just the other night, won a PG rating after appeal even though one of the central characters was prominently displayed smoking pot. (I have no idea if that had something to do with the original R rating…seems like a safe bet.) Now, I’m with you on that one, too. That’s the way things ought to be. Anyone old enough to hear the “F” word on the school playground, is old enough to see grown-ups in a movie doing less-than-recommendable things.
- mkfreeberg | 05/29/2009 @ 12:53
I noticed this during Watchmen. Cigarettes were used to good effect in the story but were completely eliminated from the film. Watchmen had graphic sex, graphic violence, but god forbid anyone should see a depiction of smoking.

Our society is completely insane.
- Jason | 05/29/2009 @ 23:26
Jason | May 29, 2009 @ 11:26 pm

Like they say in Canada, “Welcome To Ontario – Where You Can Marry A Fag But You Can’t Smoke One.”
- rob | 05/31/2009 @ 01:08

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent

Items of Interest

Monthly Archives

What They Say

Links

Nanny State Wants More Smoke-Free MoviesFriday, May 29th, 2009

Nanny State Wants More Smoke-Free Movies
Friday, May 29th, 2009