The MPAA has given the drama Blue Valentine an NC-17 rating for a scene in which Ryan Gosling goes down on Michelle Williams. The Weinstein Company is currently appealing the rating, but yesterday Gosling slammed the MPAA for their double standards:
You have to question a cinematic culture which preaches artistic expression, and yet would support a decision that is clearly a product of a patriarchy-dominant society, which tries to control how women are depicted on screen. The MPAA is okay supporting scenes that portray women in scenarios of sexual torture and violence for entertainment purposes, but they are trying to force us to look away from a scene that shows a woman in a sexual scenario, which is both complicit and complex. It's misogynistic in nature to try and control a woman's sexual presentation of self. I consider this an issue that is bigger than this film.
I feel my heterosexuality crumbling in the face of this man's clear-eyed righteousness. Williams added that "the MPAA's decision on Blue Valentine unmasks a taboo in our culture, that an honest portrayal of a relationship is more threatening than a sensationalized one." (I think it also unmasks a taboo in our culture that an honest portrayal of oral sex on a woman is more threatening than an honest portrayal of oral sex on a man, since the latter is a staple of R-rated teen comedy.) Go team Blue Valentine!