erilyn | For the record

We now have a dvd player! A lovely Pioneer DV-355. It's not working terribly well yet, and we're running it through a converter, so I need to fiddle and experiment. And we got 5 free dvds with it, including Lilo and Stitch! The other 4 aren't that good, though I've never seen Quiz Show.

"The Block", the combo renovation/competition show, is surprisingly addictive. And the taller member of the gay couple (not sure if that is Gavin or Warren) is adorable in his bounciness and enthusiasm.

Current affairs programs like Today, Tonight and A Current Affair have gotten crappier than they used to be.

Everyone who disagrees with my opinions is wrong, and when I rule the world, it shall be better! And sparklier!

And I have a long, thoughtful post in my head about warnings and classifications on media, especially as related to children, but I don't have the coherence to expound on it at the length I really should. Inspired by an interesting and rambling (in ground covered) debate/conversation with

eponymous.

In short, a) I'm against homosexuality being acceptable as a category along sex, violence, drugs, language that shows have warnings for, even though there is a segment of the community that would like it, as it would say that it is unacceptable to simply be gay, and all other warnings relate to actions or happenings, not people, so I don't feel that legally-mandated media content warnings can instutionalise prejudice against one segment of population;

b) I'm all for informing parents about content to help them, though this should not be taken as reducing their role in being ultimately responsible for what their children watch. Current classifications aren't terribly good in some ways (re: Jurassic Park being PG, while even the director admitted he wouldn't let his young children see it) and perhaps parents (and others) need to have access to more detailed information about content. There are organisations, normally right wing religious types who do this kind of review. Perhaps there should be a way though of helping inform parents on content without being pejorative about what is being listed. However, I'm not sure of an effective way to do this, and who would decide what needs to be warned for. The last thing I'd want is more censorship.

For instance, when I was babysitting, I watched a kids movie on tv with the two girls, about 10 and 7. Nice movie, "Little Princess" or something, where the kid's dad dies and so there's no money for her education, so the school teacher makes her a servant. Kids are fine with the not-nice stuff happening to kid, nothing too bad, everything's going ok, but in the middle of the movie, not-too-graphic scene of soldiers being gassed in trenches in WWI. That took some explaining, and the girls were quite unsettled by it.

Opinions welcome, particularly from people with kids, on classifications and warnings and stuff in media. (Personally, I'd like a product placement warning, a degrading-to-humanity-reality-show warning, and an Eddie McGuire warning.)

But for now, I'm going to go read the instruction manual.