Especially for Parents

News and Commentary by Sharon Secor
March 2006

Break the Hammer

“Art is not a mirror held up to society, it is a hammer by which to shape it,” said play writer Bertolt Brecht, as quoted by the Oscar-winning writer, director and producer Paul Haggis at this year’s ceremony. And, judging from the movies that Americans demonstrate with their dollars that they want to see and the distribution of the Oscars, it seems that Hollywood is a hammer that needs to be broken.

Hustle and Flow, according to a Hollywood Reporter story of February 21, 2006, is “a wonderful movie about the American Dream.” That is, of course, if you define the American Dream as a pimp and drug dealer who struggles to become a successful rap artist. A wonderful movie about the American Dream, if you choose to ignore what a pimp does - exploit, use and brutalize women and girls, if you pass over the fact that a pimp is engaged in profiting from renting out the body of another human being, to be used for the self-centered pleasure of another individual. A song from this movie, It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp, won an Oscar this year.

“I think it just got easier out here for a pimp,” said host Jon Stewart of the awarding of an Oscar for the song It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp. Perhaps, but why?

Study after study has demonstrated that family oriented movies are more profitable in terms of dollars to the film industry. According to a June 11, 2005, article in the Chicago Sun Times, “between 2000 and 2003, the average profit for a R-rated film was a comparatively paltry $17 million when contrasted to the average G movie, which brought in a $92 million profit.”

On March 10, 2006, CNN.com reported that “the number of people actually clicking through movie turnstiles, fell 8.7 percent to 1.4 billion in the United States, the third straight year of decline.” It seems that what Hollywood puts out is not a mirror of society as a whole, and - outside of the money making family films -- that it reflects less and less what people want to see.

Instead, it seems that Hollywood wants to act as a hammer, shaping culture as they see fit. I find it interesting that, on the one hand, Hollywood takes pride in its ability to influence culture and act as an agent of social change, something George Clooney referenced in his recent Oscar acceptance speech. Yet, on the other hand, the industry steadfastly denies that their constant barrage of violence, sex, and general immorality has any influence "on the behavior of the audience, particularly children.

For decades, they’ve subjected us to a parade of depravity that just grows progressively worse, normalizing - or least trying to - a variety of behaviors that the average American finds offensive. Many in the film industry seem committed to constantly putting forth ever more explicit images of violence and continuously more graphic portrayals of sexuality, bringing images that used to be relegated to the realm of pornography to the mainstream screen. Media images that perpetuate racist imagery that civil rights leaders used to actively fight abound, sexist representations of women that feminists used to protest remain the norm, and what used to be near universal standards of morality are consistently degraded. We see children sexualized, prostitution glamorized Pretty Woman style, pimps glorified, and a variety of alternative and fringe, often destructive, lifestyles presented as normal, even ideal.

The film industry continues to put forth these images, even though they are not their http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0613/p11s02-almo.htm">most profitable, because they can count on the superior profits from the family films to help keep them in business. Disney, for example, is the best known maker of children’s films. However, Disney also owns companies responsible for a variety of offensive movies.

The film industry hammer is made of gold, of money. I give none of my money to the film industry, because even if I were to avoid spending my money on offensive movies, only offering fiscal support to family friendly films, I am still contributing to the profits of the corporations that make the offensive ones. However, my way is not the typical way; and some could argue that by not supporting family friendly fare, I am not providing the Hollywood with inspiration to continue making it.

There are, however, a variety of smaller film companies that do focus on family friendly films that are more representative of the basic values that most Americans do still share. Perhaps efforts would be better spent in supporting these companies, helping them to grow and succeed, rather than trying to force Hollywood, which has already clearly demonstrated what they think of our concerns and values, to submit and create tolerable family fare by supporting their half-hearted efforts.

There is too much data to the contrary to believe that what Hollywood presents us with is a reflection of our desires and ourselves. Far more believable is the concept of their ‘art’ as a hammer, something with which to beat our culture into a particular shape or way of being. However, the only way that hammer can work is if we pay for it, and each of us has the power to choose not to. If we stop buying what they are selling, then the Hollywood hammer will be broken.