Don't let the MPAA bully us

The acclaimed new documentary “Bully” has had quite an effect in the community, and it hasn’t even premiered. The film focuses on five students and their families as they experience bullying, its aftermath and the backlash from schools and other parents.

It was slapped with an R rating for language by the MPAA.

This is where chaos ensues.

Associating the movie with an R rating limits the potential viewing audience for this film and completely eliminates the possibility of the intended middle school demographic from seeing it in schools.

Students who have had personal experience with bullying have created various petitions that have gained momentum and achieved great success.

Celebrities such as Meryl Streep, Jonny Depp and Ellen DeGeneres have all signed petitions and have spoken out about the issue, advocating that the film should be brought down to a PG-13 rating for more children to experience the documentary.

I think that everyone needs to get behind this movement, especially considering that everyone has had a brush with bullying at some point in life. 

It cannot be denied that we have all been bullied, seen bullying or bullied others at one point in our lives despite how hard we try to be nonchalant and ignore the cases.

We are conditioned to think that bullying is part of the schooling and growing up experience, and we have communally decided to equate bullying with puberty as something that we just simply go through. But this is dangerous and has, as the media have been showing us, clearly horrifying consequences.

Bullying is an epidemic that has to be continuously fought. Even though there was a great deal of attention to the issue last year, the spotlight on the topic is fading, and we are reverting to ignoring the problem once again.

Media such as “Bully” keep the issue fresh in our minds and allows for us to see things from a new angle. We need movies like this, and we need to make them available to the masses.

The MPAA says it does not foresee a change in the rating any time soon, and, with the film set to open March 30, the battle seems lost.

However, this does not mean that we should allow the MPAA to bully us. Children should still be given the chance to see this movie.

Parents, teachers and administrators, consider revising your rules for what you allow your children to see. Just because the MPAA is giving this a rating does not mean you have to follow it.

The strong language used in the film is nothing students have not already heard from peers, other movies or the Internet.

Additionally, it is much easier to undo a bad vocabulary than it is to undo the torment of bullying.

— sjostrow@indiana.edu