Get Rid of Smoke, Violence and Sex Now Please!!!
Why don't we just get together and watch a white screen for two hours?
Sorry folks, but it is rant time again and a new article from CNN has thrown the extra bit of fuel on the fire and turned it into a blaze. Thanks to "parents' complaints about sex and violence in in-flight movies, two congressmen introduced legislation Tuesday calling for airlines to create kid-friendly zones on plane," reports CNN. Yup, our plane flights are getting too violent and too sexy. Someone, tell me where these flights are and how I can get on one! All of mine are boring, cramped and stinky. Perhaps it is just me and my bad luck.
Rep. Heath Shuler, a North Carolina Democrat gave a quote talking out of the side of his face (or the hole in his ass depending on how you interpret it) saying, "The airlines have chosen to put our children in a situation that I don't feel comfortable with," Yeah Heath, they all got together in a boardroom and said, "Fuck it, let's just put these kids in a shitty situation."
The solution to this is a proposed Family Friendly Flights Act, which Heath and Republican Rep. Walter Jones, also from North Carolina are going in together on. The bill calls for the creation of sections on commercial flights where there would not be any publicly viewable movie screens. It would still allow airlines to show the movies they choose on big screens in other sections, or on individual seatback screens.
Shuler posed the question, "How do you tell a 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-year-old, 'Don't look at the screen,' when it's basically all over the cabin?" I guess I would have to ask Shuler if he is talking about a regular flight, because if so the seats are pretty damned high and unless these 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-year-olds are the spawn of Shaquille O'Neal and climbing all over the seats then I can pretty much assume they must resort to watching the screens directly in front of them, screens that should be controlled by their parents.
Oops, I dropped the parenting card. There are two parents mentioned in the article, the first is Katie Kelley, who said she was on a plane last February when an R-rated movie with "a lot of nudity" was shown. She said she was traveling without her children, ages 4 and 7, but was still bothered by the situation. Interesting little fact here is that she doesn't even mention the movie. What movie is being shown on an average flight that is rated R and filled with "a lot of nudity" Katie? Can you please advise?
The other parent is Jesse Kalisher, a man with two kids that has apparently created the impressively non-working site www.kidsafefilms.org/. He got pissed when his two kids were asleep and King Kong was shown on a flight. Good thing those kids were asleep or they would have seen a big ol' monkey. Whew! Dodged a bullet there.
Kalisher said, "Parents were trying to protect their children from seeing images that were really gruesome… The whole thing is completely inappropriate for kids." For the life of me I can't remember images that were entirely gruesome in that movie outside of the Spider Pit, but if parents are paying attention they cover the eyes for 30 seconds and voila, let the movie roll.
For an idea of what is shown on flights click here, looks like American has a good variety.
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The only time in my life that I have ever seen nudity on the plane was when I watched Fight Club on my portable DVD player and got dirty looks from the lady across the aisle. It's bad enough that they show edited versions of shows that air on NETWORK tv, and if anything, people should be complaining about the lack of quality entertainment that you get on domestic flights.
Awesome rant, Brad.
A classic RopeofSilicon.com rant. I couldn't be prouder to be associated with the site. Also, we should ban talking in movies… if you think about it real hard you'll see that mimes really are the safest route.
If you had contacted Katie Kelley like CNN, USA Today and several of her local papers you would have had many of your questions answered.
Katie Kelley quote "When I flew to CA for a bridal shower last February, the in-flight movie that day was "The Last Kiss" which is rated R. The flight attendant accidentally played the unedited version in the main cabin. I noticed that there were other R-rated movies, containing lots of violence, on their list of movies for the month. Delta was very slow in getting back to me (it took 3 months!) so, in the meantime, I wrote to my congressman, who has two small children of his own.
I got a call from his office last week to tell me about legislation that he was planning on introducing, as a result of my letter. The Family Friendly Flights Act would require planes with in-flight movies to create a seating area in the cabin for families with children who do not want to be able to see the screen. As it is now, it is not so easy to "just not look at the screen". The flight that I was on had screens that came down from the ceiling and, from where I was sitting, I could see 9 of them."
You must know the time old saying "Don't assume or you'll make an ASS out of U M E"
Her concerns are valid. You sir are a jackass.
Wow diskobunny, quick to throw out a bit of name calling eh? The key to your little rant is when you write "flight attendant accidentally played the unedited version." Accidents happen, and it also means that a version of the film that was not meant to be played was played, which leads me to believe they have a more suitable version that was meant to be played. If we are going to create laws based on accidents I think we have a lot of other areas to look than the movies played on plane flights. I don't think using an example of an accident makes for a perfect argument.
You think her concerns are valid and that is fine, I think it is just one more example of our government wasting time on things that aren't important. Oh, and Katie Kelley's number isn't in my Rolodex, sorry.
What the hell??? My little kid just read diskobunny calling you a jackass and now he won't stop saying it! How do I make sure no kids have access to people's comments going forward? This madness has got to stop.
And it is accidents like this that create solutions to problems. A kid friendly zone on a plane is nothing to scoff at. Heck, I'd rather have a place for families to go for multiple reasons; crying kids, nursing mothers can have a quiet space, loud obnoxious children can be separated from the general populous, and if a movie that is only supposed to be played in 1st class happens to show in coach, you can be a responsible parent and guard their virgin eyes.
The world today is far to unconcerned with the upbringing of our youth. Uncommon courtesy is rare, that's why it is uncommon and no longer common courtesy. Violence and sex is everywhere. Daytime television shows have more and more explicit natured programming. You used to have to wait until at least after 9:00 pm, not any more. And we, as a culture, wonder why we have shootings in schools. Our kids are inundated with images of violence and sex constantly. Kids are being cultivated to think that all this is normal, to me it's quite sickening.
I'm of the belief, keep them kids as long as you can. I believe this Family Friendly Flights Act is a small effort to make a change. As small as it may be, any positive change is appreciated in this complicated world. It's kind of like merging on the freeway, it takes two people working together to make it happen smoothly.
As for the name calling, I stand behind my comment. In my opinion your's was jackass' view. Opinions are like assholes, we all have them, and that one was mine.
Quoting you: "The airlines have chosen to put our children in a situation that I don't feel comfortable with," Yeah Heath, they all got together in a boardroom and said, "F**k it, let's just put these kids in a s**tty situation."
I think it's people like you that we're trying to protect our kids from…