Blog post by Peggy Alexander, Curator - Performing Arts Special Collections

Library Special Collections has acquired a collection of completed ratings worksheets from Classification & Rating Administration (CARA) and the Motion Picture Association of America documenting the evaluation of some 100 films scheduled to be released in 1982.

CARA defines the intent of the rating system in terms of providing “parents information concerning the content of … motion pictures, to aid them in determining the suitability of individual motion pictures for viewing by their children.”

In this ratings worksheet for the film By Design, the rater, Van Schmus uses “talk re: lesbianism” as a cause for the ultimate film rating of R.

In the ratings worksheet for the Cheech & Chong film, Things Are Tough All Over, the rater, Ron Sigler, justifies a rating of “R” based on depictions of, “Cheech & Chong dressed as women (homosexual implication).”

In a deleted scene from the 1985 film Back to the Future Marty expresses fear that “feeling up his mother” could make him gay (homosexual).  He asks Doc, “What if I go back to the future and end up being … gay?” Doc replies, “This is heavy … why shouldn’t you be happy?” The exchange illustrates studio concern that inclusion of this scene would require an overall R rating and adversely affect box office sales.

Sigler’s evaluation of Back to the Future confirms cultural anxiety about the discussion or implication of homosexuality. “The language problem is obvious,” Sigler writes. “The other elements treat homosexuality in a manner I do not think would be accepted for a PG audience by most parents. I do not believe that most parents accept treatment of homosexuality on the same basis as heterosexual behavior.”

The book Heather Has Two Mommies was published in 1989. The American Library Association reports that Heather has Two Mommies was the “...eleventh most frequently challenged book in the United States in the 1990s.” This fact would seem to support Sigler’s concerns about cultural acceptance (or, rather, anxiety) about the depiction of homosexuality.

Today readers of such popular titles as People Magazine not only accept (but eagerly consume) public announcements of openly gay celebrities such as Rosie O’Donnell, Wanda Sykes, and Sara Gilbert speaking freely about the birth or adoption of children. Many books for children of LGBTQ parents share consumer space on book shelves along-side Heather Has Two Mommies. Today, television shows like Modern Family are popular because the mix of characters represents a real family. The American public has matured, and so has the American motion picture industry.