Movie Ratings Today
When a movie is produced, a rating of that movie’s content accompanies it. In the 1950s, a movie that was categorized as a “R-rated” movie would most likely be considered as a “PG” or “PG-13” movie today. The 1950s and today both market their film industry to the youth. They want the youth to buy their movie tickets and spend their Friday nights watching the movie that they think is better than the next. It is clear that sex truly does sell. The youth would rather see a movie with sex involved rather than something along the lines of a documentary. As the “Motion Picture Association of America” stated, "To ensure our rating system reflects the current sentiment of parents, CARA’s system is constantly evolving" (Motion 1). The evolvement of ratings must continuously progress to keep up to speed with the increasingly drastic appeal of sexuality in our youth.
No Strings Attached Image Sabrina Image
The 1950s film producers knew that sex was what they needed to sell movie tickets, just like they do in our generation. However, they went about showing this so-called sexuality in a different way. A woman wearing shorter skirts and tighter blouses while batting her long eyelashes was considered sexy during this time period. So a movie like Sabrina accurately portrayed the sexiness of the 1950s. This film is a about a playboy who falls in love with his chauffeur’s daughter. A movie of this taste would be considered R-rated during the 1950s and a tad more risqué, but today it would be an innocent romantic comedy. According the “New York Times,” “It is a "Cinderella story” of the 1950s (Crowther 2). Our youth generation views sexuality and being sexy as far more promiscuous then the classiness of the 1950s. Most movies show women constantly investing themselves in hunt for their man. In the movie No Strings Attached the lead female roles feel the need to only have only a sexual relationship with the lead male role. No Strings Attached was rated PG-13, but in the 1950s a film of this sort would not have even been thought of as an option to produce. Both generations are trying to sell the sex, but do so in different manners.
1950s Today
So why does all of this matter? The basic underlying outcome of the progression of sexuality in film causes the youth to model themselves after these films. As stated in “Mass Media Influences on Sexuality,” “Sexually media use among early adolescent girls that suggested sexual portrayals in the media were attended to more when girls were interested personally in learning about relationship norms, strategies for establishing relationships, and tips on how to be sexually attractive” (Brown 43). Our youth today and in the 1950s are fashioning themselves from what they see in the media, and in particular film. The youth in the 1950s found an escape at the movies. They saw this as a time to get away from their parents and explore their sexuality. Today, not much has changed. The youth of today does whatever they can to escape from their parental control, and movies are the perfect outlet. From the movies they become more interested in what the sex is trying to tell them. From that the youth creates their own form of reflection from what they have viewed. So because the sex in films becomes more and more erotic, so does the sexuality in the youth of each generation.