What is the right age to allow a child to see an image of a
guy about to kiss a guy on the mouth?
According to Hollywood it’s the age of any kid sitting in a theater,
popcorn in hand, waiting to see the PG rated P.T. Barnum musical biopic, The
Greatest Showman. There is no guy-on-guy
kiss in The Greatest Showman. The
trailer for Love, Simon, which runs prior to the film, is the problem, assuming
you’re a parent not interested in exposing your little kid to a coming-out
story.
Love, Simon looks to be a tender, funny, well-crafted story,
but it’s a story about a gay young man coming to terms with his sexuality. This is not the stuff of picture books, or at
least the kind that kids clamor for. At
seven, a kid’s sexual urge is zero, and, in my opinion, only dirt bags introduce
sex, and sex-related topics, to seven-year olds.
Childhood should be consumed with earning a star at school
for good behavior, building forts, playing Mario Kart, making booger walls, dancing like a maniac at weddings, running down hills, and playing
ball.
Their minds should be free to focus on the simple.
And to those who say sexual orientation is a simple subject,
I say, you gotta be smoking crank. That
is about as adult a subject as it gets.
So, when I take my kid to see a movie that at its sexiest wouldn’t make
a nun blush, I should think, I’ve done my parental due diligence, but you’ve
always got to remember that Hollywood is not concerned about kids (just ask
Corey Feldman.)
Their one concern is selling tickets, and if that means pitching
a PG-13 movie to a PG audience they’re going to do it. As parents, we are the gatekeepers for our
kids. We decide what goes in our kids’ bodies
(immunize or not) and we decide what goes in their minds, which is why the Love,
Simon trailer annoyed me so much. It felt
like a cheap shot. I paid to see a wholesome
movie about the birth of the circus, and they threw an image of a guy about to kiss
another guy. Having said this, go see
The Greatest Showman! It was amazing. Just know, if you arrive in time for the
trailers, what your little kids are going to see. Just giving you a heads up.
Agree with everything you said. It's sad to witness some of the things our young children have been exposed to though no fault of their own other than their environment. Also loved the movie! Luckily I saw it in Utah so I didn't get the trailer for the movie you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteYou go girl! Take them to task. Kids need to be kids and not shoved into grownup quandaries when they should be playing outside. I hope the joy of he Greatest Showman is stuck securely in the kids minds and the trailer a distant question mark.
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