Censorship of Boy Don't Cry

Essay by natuch01College, UndergraduateB-, October 2009

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Sex in movies is a controversy in itself, there are certain guidelines to what movies are allowed to show on the screen. Movies that show sexual content are more likely to receive an NC-17 rating than a movie that shows blood and gore. It is not a secret that the MPAA censors sexual content movies over horror but the surprising censoring of homosexual acts. When it comes to homosexuality on the big screens, MPAA tends to give harsher ratings than movies with heterosexual acts. Although there are many opposing view points towards sexual acts in the movies, homosexuality should not be treated any differently than heterosexual acts.

The movie Boys Don't Cry (1999) is a true story about Teena Brandon who lived her life as a young man, who called herself Brandon Teena. Brandon did not see herself as a lesbian or a cross dresser but only as a guy.

She falls in love with the character of Lana who later finds out that she is actually a female. Brandon is brutally raped and murdered by Lana's friends who do not accept her for who she.

The director of the movie, Kimberly Pierce, was stunned when the movie was first stamped NC-17 (Dick 2006), meaning that no one under the age of 17 is allowed to see it and no publicity. The MPAA had told Pierce to cut out scenes from the movie, not where Brandon was brutally beaten by 2 males or when she was shot in the head but, the scene where Lana and Brandon make love for the first time. There was a specific scene where Brandon had performed cunnilingus on Lana. The movie did not show the actual act but only Lana's facial expression, Brandon had lifted her head up and wiped her mouth. The MPAA...