When someone says, "Don't look!", what do you do?

IFC has this fascinating series on film censorship with filmmakers, critics, directors, and actors speaking their piece on the issue. It seems to mostly focus on the censorship of sexual imagery, but they do make mention of the fact that we as Americans are more tolerant of violence than sex in our movies. That is, a movie with gore aplenty can still get a PG rating, whereas a film with two guys kissing--just once--is an automatic R.

But one concept that they really only skim the surface of is that eventually, all kids are gonna see this stuff, whether it's when they're young, when they're a little older, or when they're a full grown adult. But the idea of protecting children now from this incendiary imagery they'll see eventually begs the question of what will happen when they do see it. (Didja catch that?)

It would seem to make sense to me that a kid have an adult nearby when watching a scary movie for the first time, so they can explain it. I remember the first scary movie I saw, "The Shining". My stepdad had taken us over to a friend's house, who had rented it, and there we sat watching the Stanley Kubrick masterpiece. And I was seven. And it scaaaaaared the living fuck out of me. After that old woman in the bathroom scene, I refused to take a bath unless the door was open slightly.

It would have helped if my stepdad had reminded me that it was just a movie, or asked if I understood what was happening in the movie, then explained that this was a haunted hotel, and that the woman in the bathtub was a ghost, that would have assuaged my fears somewhat.

It's that unknown that is as titillating as it is fearful, which is why I think it's so much better to face it and to talk about it, rather than relegate it to some mysterious taboo that oughtn't be touched.