Comments about ‘BYU study: Teen movies contain fewer dirty words than in the past’

I am thinking about a group of BYU students, sitting in a dark room watching endless DVD's and counting profanities. Did they write all the words down one column, check them off as they heard them in the movie, and then count them afterwards? How many movies were they forced to watch? What professor would DO this to his students???!!! If my son or daughter had been given this as "work", I would have already been on the phone with the administration to have him thrown out of there.

And, don't get too complacent about things. This study really misses the point, that overall in entertainment, we are much more 'in your face' than 20 years ago. Our High School in Europe just put on a play that was chock full of drug use, vulgarity, profanity and sexual references. Most of the parents thought it was great.

This is important, cutting edge research. Give me a break, is this how BYU professors spend their time? What a waste of precious church dollars.

On the other hand, I have noticed that in the same time period, there has been an increase of profanity and toilet humor in movies targeted at children, esp. in Disney productions - go figure.

Less profanity in movies for our teens... This may be true...but that doesn't keep them from going home and hearing it from their parents. Profanity is now such a common place occurance at home that it has become regular conversation between individuals. Ever wonder why certain profaine words pop up in a teen's vocabulary like it was natural verbage? It's no big deal! Or is it?

The previous comments are very profound. This study ignores the fact that modern Hollywood now markets adult movies to teens, so the fact that there is less profanity in so-called teen movies (which are really aimed at pre-teens) is irrelevant. Further, even if it is true it does not make up for the fact that modern Hollywood fills its movies that are aimed at teens with increasing amounts of violence, sexuality, and nudity. This is hardly cause for the celebration the study claims that it is.

There is a website called "kids in mind" that breaks down the content of box buster movies.

Ooh wow, less profanity. More sex scenes and crude jokes. Out of the two, I'd say profanity is easier on the soul. I swear a lot. It's not like I should and it's far from what is considered appropriate (although I hold my tongue around children and neighbors).

If my child decided to start swearing all the time it would be annoying, yea, but I'd prefer it to them having the moral code many teen-agers in movies have. They already think about sex all the time anyway, why give them the boost to think about it not only in their spare time, but also in the movie theatre? I'm not a mom yet, and I'm not that old. I'm far from what you'd call a "goody goody" or a "prude" but the constant sex jokes in movies that were considered "appropriate" for my age annoyed me and made me uncomfortable. Give me swearing any day.

Having been in the edited movie industry for many years now and involved in the Director's lawsuit, I am encouraged to read this. Every little bit of good news, is a forward step in our demands to to keep our children safe from Hollywood's indecent value system.

re: Fire this professor | 5:08 a.m. May 28, 2009

//I am thinking about a group of BYU students, sitting in a dark room watching endless DVD's and counting profanities//

There are better things to do in a darkroom. I'm not talking about Photography. Hint Hint. Nudge Nudge. Wink Wink. Say no more!

Seriously, the best place to observe and count profanity is the east side of Cougar Stadium on a Saturday afternoon in the fall.

re: John Charity Spring | 8:18 a.m. May 28, 2009

Dude, seriously. Did you get turned down for the cast of Pleasantville and that is why you are so bitter?

Its interesting that someone who uses the psuedonym (Look Ma! I can "use the google") you do raves on about morals & values.

re: Anne | 9:06 a.m. May 28, 2009

Double entendres & innuendo in British comedies are second only to the wit of Groucho Marx.

re: Anonymous | 9:08 a.m. May 28, 2009

Don't rely on others to instill values in yourself, your kids, or society. Pony up, put down the blackberry, and actually moderate your own behavior or those you have stewardship over.

Don't be ridiculous. There were not "endless DVDs." The article states a specific number (I believe 90, but I'm not going back to check). Also, this wasn't a homework assignment; the students involved would have been paid research assistants.

"If my son or daughter had been given this as "work", I would have already been on the phone with the administration to have him thrown out of there."

Right. Good luck with that...I can assure you that the administration does not make its decisions about granting continuing faculty status to its professors based on the rantings of mad (read that as a double entendre--angry and insane) parents. I work in an academic department at BYU, and it's parents like you who can't butt out of their adult children's lives that result in students being emotionally crippled, overly dependent, and unable to make their own way in the world. If this post represents how you actually would act in a real situation, then you are doing nothing but harming your children by your overbearing and ridiculous hovering. They are adults. Cut the apron strings and back off.

Amen.

Do a study on the number of sexual references in CHILDREN films - not to mention young adult films...then your results might be a little bit more interesting.

I could be wrong on this but I believe the seven dirty words were deemed unspeakable on the air by the late George Carlin rather than the FCC.

I am assuming that your comments were not serious, as I am sure that most students already saw most of those 90 movies like Harry Potter, Back to the Future etc.

John Charity Spring, You may want to read the study before you spout off.

Maybe less profanity but more sex, violence and dark imagery!

Ignoring the critics of this study for a moment, our experience bears out the results of this study. We have rented numerous favorites from our youth (e.g., Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Ferris Bueller, etc.) only to realize that the profanity content is far greater than we remembered. However, while quantity seems to be less, shock value may be greater now (e.g., F-bombs allowed in PG-13 movies).

Wow that was great thanks. I'm a student in the psychology department and I totally agree with your comments. I find the average BYU student to be way to dependent on their parents.

Students need to learn to act like grown ups and take care of themselves, but I think that so many of them are pampered and have huge egos and feelings of entitlement.

I would have to agree that mild swear words do appear much less, but in overall content I don't think they are cleaner. I imagine if I read the study they would probably propose some of their own theories for the drop, but I'll go back to the sports section now....