movie debate
Greg and I often have debates late at night when we should be sleeping....oh well. As I'm sure many of you can imagine, they can get fairly heated because we both, mostly me, like to debate. So our current debate is what movies are more destructive or cause kids to behave in that manner, sex or violence. This debate arose from the seemingly lopsided ratings given to movies by the MPAA, where movies are more likely to be given an R if there's sex and a PG-13 if there's violence.
So it started out that which movie would you rather your kid see (if they saw one)? Die Hard or American Pie?
My stance is that movies containing sex is equally destructive as movies containing violence. My argument is that while I don't believe kids will watch a violent movie like Die Hard and immediately want to go out and bomb buildings or kill people,I think violent movies lead to violence as well as violent video games like Grand Theft Auto. Just like sexual movies will make it seem cool for teens to have sex.
Greg, on the other hand, feels that movies with sex are more destructive and have a greater impact on kids than violent movies. Though he wouldn't want his kid seeing either, if he had to choose, he would rather they see Die Hard because they won't take it as something that is cool to do or be tempted to copy as likely as a sexual movie like American Pie. American Pie is much more likely to influence a child's real world behavior than Die Hard.
We chose two R rated movies, though not all violent and sexual movies are R rated and are therefore more readily available to our children. So should add the debate targets these lower rated movies too.
What's your stance on this? (And I should add that Greg and I are not exactly the moral authority on most things--or anything for that matter. So if you feel that we are passing any sort of moral judgments, we're not. This is not intended to offend because essentially we would be offending ourselves if it was the case. This is purely for debate sake....I love debate! props to the U of U poli sci department)
10 comments:
I think both are equally destructive. Actually, I could argue that violence is more destructive than sex. I feel like we've seen so much violence by college-age and younger kids who have certainly been involved with extremely violent movies. Many people can be killed in one short rampage by one deranged person. As for the sex, it generally only damages two people at a time, with a possible third to come later. This isn't saying I condone either behavior, (you know how conservative I am about these things!), I just think the argument could be made. But, in the end, I think developing brains taking in any of those topics is extremely harmful.
I agree with Greg that I would much rather my kid watch Die Hard then American Pie... of course I would hope they wouldn't watch either. But I think it would be much more emotionally destructive.
I have to agree with Greg on this one. Of course, I'd prefer neither until they are older and ready, but I think Die Hard would be lesser.
My first R rated movie I watched was The Godfather with my parents. It actually took away my desire to watch R rated movies for awhile. I think I was 13. It was so eye-opening, I didn't want to watch anything like that for a very long time.
I'm going to have to side with Greg on this one. Plus, if I'm ever stuck in a skyscraper with terrorists, I now know how to battle them and to use gratuitous profanity and catchy phrases while battling them.
Seth, I just read your comment to Greg and he said EXACTLY, see, I am prepared to protect the family. I'd love to see one of you end up in the same situation as John McClain and see if those skills work out for ya.
Okay I am going to have to agree that sex movies are probably a little worse. It's easier to just go have sex with someone than it is to plan out some destructive mission. So I think more kids would be more likely to have sex then get all violent. I didn't do any homework on it, but I am guessing the statistics of teen pregnacy/sex is higher then teen violence. I could be totally wrong though.
I'm going to ditto what Amanda said. She said everything I was thinking.
Both really terrify me. I see daily the effects of violence in the media with Eli. Anything he watches (including Disney movies) that contains some sort of violence is repeated on me or Isaac. On the other hand, boys tend to have a big problem with controlling their hormones.
All in all, I'd rather Eli knocked up a girl and then decided to marry her than knocked over a convenience store at gunpoint.
I would go along with Sex being more offensive than violence. Only because I feel like it is such an open thing now days... and maybe because it was a personal struggle (so glad to be married and realize its worth waiting and at 37 1/2 weeks prego its not really tempting to want have sex, except for the chance it might induce labor- to much information, I know!) I also feel like most of those movies really de-value women and makes them feel like they have to be these super sexy, plastic, boy-pleasing chicks in order to be cool... Maybe it is bad that violence doesn't bother me more.
WELL, as a parent and GRANDPARENT don't let your kids see either. Trust me...you will feel much less guilt if YOU aren't the ones who let them see those kinds of movies in your home or because you took them to the movie. Sure, from experience, they will go to friends homes, etc., and see some of that crap. The sad thing is that television is worse than some movies I've seen. Follow the For Strength of You pamphlet in respect to your little kids and your teenagers. We had some wild kids, Jessica...(Brian, Kirstie, Anna, Amanda). But, we have seen some great turn arounds and are very proud of you and your spouses now and love you very much. We held on (and still do) to the fact that we had FHE every week; read scriptures; served together; went to church and the temple; didn't have R-rated or questionable movies in our home. We did all that we could (sometimes unsuccessfully)to "train up a child in the way they should go". If we can help you protect your children (our grandkids) from the "wicked" world we will do all we can.
I think it depends on the kid/viewer. When I was a kid, if we watched some violent show, I would just get bored, but my brothers afterwards would be fighting each other all crazy and yelling and my mom would ban whatever show it was... Besides, it's hard to quantify sex and violence concisely enough to compare them... So you guys should call it a draw and just stick with Pixar until Tea starts begging to watch rated R stuff. :-D
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