By Katharine DeBrecht
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“It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” won Best Song at this year’s Oscars. If that single award doesn’t give mainstream America a complete picture of what Hollywood is selling our kids, I’ll actually pay to see a George Clooney movie.
Hollywood liberals defensively claim they are “out of touch” but wear that as a badge of honor, whole-heartedly admiting they seek to promote their favored types of “social change.”
George Clooney admitted, somewhat defensively, that Hollywood is out of touch and proud of it (and still heralding, of course, his 1997 Sexiest Man Alive title).
Ang Lee, Oscar-winning director of "Brokeback Mountain raved about "the power of movies to change the way we're thinking."
But what part of “social change” besides gay sheep-herders, transsexuals, and sympathy to terrorists are they really promoting? According to statistics from the Parent Television Council (PTC): sex, violence, profanity and incivility (www.parentstv.org).
Most parents can agree that the quality of television and movies has significantly declined over the years as sexual content, violence, profanity and incivility has increased. And it is not a stretch to see how these things have increased in our culture and threatened traditional family values. I guess this coarseness and ugliness is part of the “social change” Hollywood is seeking.
Here are just a few of the “social changes” cited by PTC:
- Sexual content appeared in 64% of all TV programs in sample programming in 2000-2001. Portrayals of sexual intercourse occurred in 1 out of every 7 programs.
- Risks of sexual activity (i.e STDs) and abstinence were portrayed in only 15% of programs containing sexual content.
- Profanity during the Family Hour increased by 94.8% between 1998 and 2002. (PTC website)
Violence in children’s programming is even more astounding.
PTC surveyed eight networks (4 broadcast, 4 cable) over a three week period, focusing on entertainment programming for children ages 5-10. Their results?
- 3488 incidents of violence – averaging 7.86 incidents per hour
- Excluding the old Warner Brothers cartoons (“an anvil falling on Wile E. Coyote’s head”) 2794 incidents of violence and about 6.30 incidents per hour. (PTC website)
One can argue that the majority of the movies and television shows with highly objectionable content are for adults only, yet Nielson’s January 2005 ratings showed the most popular broadcast-network television show for kids ages 9-12 is - unbelievably - ABC’s Desperate Housewives. Not a show I would even dream of allowing my 9 year-old to watch.
Of course I can still click off the tube and monitor what my children watch, but will that be enough to shield my kids the strong influence of their peers?
According to PTC: 66% of children (ages 10 to 16) surveyed say that their peers are influenced by TV shows (PTC Website).
There is no argument that peers are a major influence in our children’s lives. We can be the proverbial good parent and shield them as much as we can, yet when we drop them off at school each morning, it is often a leap of faith hoping that when your child hops in the car at the end of the day, he won’t tell you what he learned from little Billy who watched Desperate Housewives the night before.
As a parent, I can vote with my pocketbook, as many Americans did last year. The top 5 Big Picture Oscar Nominees combined didn’t gross what films like The Chronicles of Narnia did. I find it more difficult these days to vote with my remote when news teasers run stories about the War on Terror coupled with the truly vital question of what Jen thinks of Angelina Jolie. Television news has become more tabloid than ever, and when we constantly hear about a half-dozen cell-phone assaults, a dozen actresses having babies out of wedlock, and several dozen 6-month marriages gone to pot, I have to wonder what messages are children learning from these celebrities?
I liken myself to a “channel safer” rather than a channel surfer, with my hand diligently grasping the remote during a televised ball game for fear of a Paris Hilton burger commercial or another Janet Jackson-like half-time show incident (in which according to PTC, 6.6 million kids ages 2-11 were watching at the time). Personally we skip most half-time shows – I don’t care to see a senior citizen Mick Jagger shake his booty on stage and if I see another rapper grab himself one more time, I may give out a Dean scream.
Ugh.
It is Hard Out Here to Be A Parent.
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