Rating the Ratings:

How the Motion Picture Association of America Ignores Sexual Violence in Film

Have you ever been so offended by the content of a film that you walked out in a huff? Or have you ever allowed your child to watch a movie with a PG-13 rating, only to find out that the film should have been rated R--or even NC-17? Because the Motion Picture Association of America frequently issues inadequate information about movie content in their ratings descriptions, this has been a frustratingly common experience for many movie goers.

NOW-NYC is currently working to change this. At NOW's National Conference in Dearborn, MI, delegates from all over the country overwhelmingly supported a resolution initiated by members of NOW-NYC that would take the MPAA to task for its silence on sexual violence. And Lindsey Horvath, the president of Hollywood NOW, which is working in collaboration with NOW-NYC on this issue, has met with Joan Graves of the MPAA on numerous occasions.

Research Findings in a Nutshell

• 23%, or almost a quarter, of the films depicted a rape or an attempted rape and did not have a warning in the ratings description.

• Only seven of the films depicted men as victims of rapes or attempted rapes and only four of the films in the sample showed female perpetrators of assault.

• 11 of the films in the sample depicted under-aged girls as the targets of sexual assaults while five of the films feature minor boys perpetrating rapes or attempted rapes.

• Half of the films (those with and without rape scenes) featured characters who engaged in sexually aggressive behaviors like the use of sexually degrading language, street harassment, voyeurism, or kissing or touching someone against their will.

• Sexually degrading language was the most common form of sexually aggressive behavior shown in movies.

You can help!

NOW-NYC needs your help to make our case to the MPAA that current ratings do not accurately reflect violence against women in movies. Here's what you can do to take action:

1) The next time you go to a movie, pay attention to any sexual violence (including rape and attempted rape) or degrading language used in the movie and the movie's rating. Then, email our media committee at e_d_ellis2004@yahoo.com or call us at 212.627.9895 with the information you collected. Please include the movie's title, rating, a short description of any sexual violence (including the races/ethnicities of perpetrators and victims), and your contact information.

2) Sign-up with the Women and Girls in the Media Committee and help complete our movie research project. We need to analyze about 150 more films for sexually violent content before July of 2008.

3) Sign our petition to the Motion Picture Association of America demanding that the ratings don't dismiss violence against women. We are gearing up to collect 7500 signatures before the end of the year, so send the link on to your friends.

4) Send a letter directly to the Motion Picture Association of America at www.mpaa.org

5) Read our preliminary findings - Rating the Ratings: How the MPAA Ignores Sexual Violence in Movies