pornography and the MPAA rating system
originally published in the college hill independent
if my great-grandfather sherrill were alive today, i’d have a bone to pick with him. sherrill corwin was one of the founding members of the motion picture association of america (mpaa), the group that created the national film rating system in 1968, at the end of hollywood’s “golden age.” 52 years later, a single shot that includes full nudity still causes a film to automatically be rated r, which drives children under 17 away from theaters and onto the internet. there, they can illegally pirate r-rated films (or sometimes legally stream them for free) and access content as explicit as hardcore porn without parental permission…
illustration by yukti agarwal