In 1968, the Motion Picture Association of America, formerly headed by Jack Valenti, was established as a nationwide rating system for movies. Before the MPAA came into existence, communities, municipalities, religious groups (i.e. the so-called Catholic Legion of Decency and the Hays Code), and sometimes even the government decided what movies were suitable for families and individuals.
The MPAA has the following ratings for films: Rated G (General Audiences) for anyone of any age to see; PG (once GP) (Parental Guidance) recommended for anyone aged 12 or older or if approved by a parent or guardian; Rated R (Restricted) for anyone aged 17 or older to see; and Rated X , strictly for adults. In the early eighties, the rating system was expanded to include PG-13 films, for movies in between a PG and R rating, recommended for children over aged 13. The ratings G, PG, PG-13 and R were all copyrighted by the MPAA, while the X-rating was not. Due to the failure to copyright the X-rating, pornographers soon adopted the notorious X-rating for their own smutty films. As a result, ever since then, any film given an X-rating, regardless of reason has automatically assumed to be pornographic. In hopes of correcting this potential oversight, the NC-17 rating (No Children Under 17 admitted) was announced and copyrighted in the early 1990s, to try to escape the stigma of the X. (to be cont'd)
[The original version of this essay entitled "NC-17 Films" first appeared in Eastern Connecticut State University's Campus Lantern student newspaper in the early '90s and as part of my unpublished manuscript "In Mediocrity We Trust... In Debt We Die" And Other Essays and also later appeared in UMass/Boston's student newspaper The Mass Media in the mid '90s.
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