Sunday, September 19, 2010

Censoring Video Games & the Pro-Baby Agenda

I just saw this today & it completely disgusts me that California is spending money appealing this to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Obviously, there are morons who never see those little ratings on the front. What do you think the "E", "E 10+", "T", "M" & so forth are on there for??? Cute little letters?

As someone in the industry, it doesn't take a genius to figure out where I stand on this. Even my own mother, a religious Republican, doesn't believe in censorship & thinks parents need to stop blaming everyone else for their children's misdeeds.

Do not cry to me about how many hours you work, how tired you are at the end of the day, etc. I know single parents who managed to raise kids who didn't become drug addicts, sleep with everyone in sight, shoot people, or whatever "parent nightmare" you can come up with. And do not let your ignorance of the Internet or text messaging be an excuse for YOUR child to create racy profiles & become a target for perverts. You won't find sympathy in this corner and I have a number of friends with children. They would never advocate mass censorship to protect their "little darlings." They'd simply change the channel, not buy the $50-60 video game, not put Internet access in their rooms.

In other words, they'd be a damn parent. It's not the industry's job to cater to your children or create wholesome programming. If a channel or company wants to create wholesome programming, more power to them. They should be able to get some fans. I myself have no problem with wholesome programming if it's not reinforcing all the bad stuff in society or a status quo that shouldn't be in place. For that matter, I don't like ANY programming reinforcing the bad stuff in society or preserving a terrible status quo.

Take a recent movie I keep seeing posters for: Life As We Know It. After seeing the trailer when I went to the movies a while back, the whole idea of that film still bothers me. What is it with all these films encouraging childfree people to breed or have children and never showing unhappiness in them? Why is it that all these films forecast some happy, shiny scene that rational people know wouldn't happen? The male and female lead don't even like each other, but are thrust together to care for a baby.

In real life, a kid thrust in that situation would catch on that (s)he wasn't wanted or the childfree parent resents him/her. Kids are not stupid. Oh, and here's a newsflash: most men don't want to raise other people's kids. Go ask single mothers what dating is like for them and how many men stick by them when they mention their kids.

It also makes anyone who doesn't want to have kids look like some potential convert to the Church of Baby. Guess what? You aren't and weren't childfree if you could be converted.

Oh, and let's not forget that this pisses me off as a feminist. It just reinforces the whole idea that women should just be barefoot and pregnant but can have a little goof off job that never leads anywhere or will be ditched to accommodate the "family." It diminishes any woman who is serious about her career and doesn't want to be thought of as some slacker who'll just leave to get pregnant.

Now what if I went around saying we should censor these films since they harm young girls? I'd be acting to "protect the little children" but wouldn't I just be infringing on the rights of anyone who DID want to see them? Though if you want to see utter pablum, I feel sorry for you. However, I can exercise my right not to watch it. I can choose not to participate in creating a film I find offensive to my feminist sensibilities. I can also create my own content that is realistic, features a good story and counteracts this garbage.

But... I won't try to get the garbage taken off the air since I'm not the world's Mommy and normal people accept that they will not like everything that comes out of the entertainment world. Thankfully, I don't know anyone that ballsy or stupid.

1 comment:

  1. Oh my God I love this post. As someone who doesn't want children and hates that parents insist on making everything "child friendly", I think I may love you.

    Not everything is meant to be G-Rated. Some things are for adults and some things are for children. Plain and simple, and parents should actually do what their title implies and PARENT!

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