Moral Knowledge and the Politics of Cinema Censorship Erin Elif Alp
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Screen Cleaning: Moral Knowledge and the Politics of Cinema Censorship Erin Elif Alp Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2016 © 2015 Erin Elif Alp All rights reserved ABSTRACT Screen Cleaning: Moral Knowledge and the Politics of Cinema Censorship Erin Elif Alp This dissertation asks how the structure of moral authority and media viewership in America has changed over the course of the 20th century. In order to address this question, I examine the ways in which American films are, and have been, labeled inappropriate or appropriate for public viewership. I ask how censorship, regulation and rating systems work to create and manage moral ambiguity, and what types of ramifications moral ambiguity is thought to have on viewers. I also address the types of problems associated with American cinema over time, and propose several analytical dimensions to capture and unpack the processes of censoring cinema. This framework is built on the notions of filth and moral ambiguity, moral repercussion, a process of responsibilization, and the telos for cinema, all of which influences how an organization interacts with movies and morality. In lapses of symmetry between on- and off-screen worlds, moral ambiguity arises in ways that responsibilize either content controllers or audiences themselves. I show the links between these articulations and how the moral repercussions of exposure to cinema are defined. I also argue that where in the past moral ambiguity was commonly perceived as a dangerous aspect of cinema, especially by censors and Hollywood film production regulators, contemporary movie raters present a film’s moral ambiguity as a resource to the viewer. Moral ambiguity, if probed the right way, can lead to greater awareness of one’s moral boundaries, enabling viewers to effectively censor their viewership practices themselves. Greater responsibility of the viewer is also linked with more transparency and less rigid definitions of filth, moral repercussion, and the overall purpose of media consumption. Censoring cinema was a way in which state censors attempted to shape a “good” civil society, but the notion of how such a society might be achieved through media shifted over the 20th century. By examining the work of Hollywood’s Production Code Authority, New York State censors, pioneering sociologists and educators of the 1930s, the Film Estimate Board of National Organization’s monthly film classification decisions, and contemporary movie ratings at Common Sense Media, I develop several sub-arguments that support the larger argument that moral ambiguity has become a resource as opposed to a danger. In doing so, I expose the connections between the efforts of earlier censors and industry regulators to contemporary constructions of moral authenticity in movie reviews, and highlight in particular the responsibilization of parental audiences. To date, parents are charged not only with monitoring what their children watch, but also with instilling critical viewing skills among their children. This contrasts with previous content control techniques, wherein parents were responsibilized to make decisions for their children but were not expected to foster any specific values or skills in them, and earlier techniques, wherein parents were not responsibilized at all. I end by noting that the contemporary approach to pollution management relies on two conflicting discourses, which have influenced strategies to managing media morality throughout the 20th century. The first focuses on media research and its alleged effects on social behavior, the second on free and intelligent choices by children consumers themselves – but as this dissertation also exemplifies, both registers have echoes in earlier sites and examples of cinematic censorship and efforts to clean the screen. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of figures – ii List of tables – iii Acknowledgments – iv Chapter 1 – Cinematic Filth, Moral Repercussion, Responsibility, and Telos – P1-32 Chapter 2 – Professional Moralism at the Production Code Authority – P33-86 Chapter 3 – The New York State Motion Picture Division and the Meaning Making Practices of Censors – P87-132 Chapter 4 – Good Pictures and the Construction of Proper Cinematic Consumption – P133-179 Chapter 5 – Film Classifiers and the Transfer of Cultural Authority – P180--225 Chapter 6 – Moral Ambiguity as a Resource in Contemporary Media Ratings – P226-277 Chapter 7 –The Shifting Nature of Authority in American Society – P278-302 References – P301-305 i LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1) New York State censors ca. 1930 Figure 2) New York State rejection sheet Figure 3) Balance sheet from Dale’s The Content of Motion Pictures Figure 4) Common Sense Media ratings age bar Figure 5) Common Sense Media ON, PAUSE, OFF Categories Figure 6) Common Sense Media video review of American Sniper (2014) Figure 7) Page from original Common Sense Media Research report, “Children, Teens, and Entertainment Media: The View From The Classroom” ii LIST OF TABLES Table 1) Frequency of Contended Categories among FEBNO classification decisions, 1958- 1966 Table 2) Genre and Frequency of Classificatory Disagreement among FEBNO classification decisions, 1958-1966 Table 3) Disagreements Involving the Mature Young Audience Category by Genre among FEBNO classification decisions, 1958-1966 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing a dissertation is no solitary feat, as most readers of this document are likely well aware. My advisor, committee members, and mentors have provided me with a wealth of intellectual stimulation, encouragement, and research and writing tips. This proved invaluable for continuing to work on the dissertation, even when I could not make heads or tails of it. My parents, close friends, and colleagues in graduate school have been another fountain of encouragement and motivation. I am grateful for, and thankful to, all. iv DEDICATION For my parents, and their parents. v Chapter 1 Cinematic Filth, Moral Repercussion, Responsibility, and Telos 1.1) Approaches to censoring movies in a democratic society It is well known that media wields a large amount of influence in establishing the societal moral boundaries. Yet since the dawn of cinema, movies have experienced some form of censorship. How are the movies censored, especially in a democratic society, and who has the moral authority to decide what is viewable for whom? Moreover, how, as the American cinema industry and its observers shifted from an era of censoring films to an era of rating films, has the role of the viewer changed? Underlying the discussions offered in this dissertation are larger questions, about the place of reality in narratives, and media-based narratives in particular. What expectations for a correspondence between inner and outer, or on-screen and off-screen life, are harbored by those in positions of persuasion, power, and ability to shape the movies that are produced, distributed, and successfully screened for audiences? In addressing these questions across the 20th century and into the present, I will pay specific attention to the role of the parent and their increasing responsibilities in managing the media viewing habits of their children. This role informs the specific entry points into the socio-historical settings examined here. As the viewer became problematized in the transition from censorship to ratings, responsibility became an ever-important duty assigned to the role of viewing and consuming media. The transition from censorship to ratings has been built on a well-developed argument for self-censorship. This dissertation 1 argues that, because no one can censor all, viewers have become increasingly charged with the responsibility to monitor their own viewing practices. Examining the processes of censoring and rating films, I delineate the definitions of moral repercussions associated with viewing inappropriate films, and the assigning of responsibility to specific roles (paying special attention to the rise of parental responsibility), organizations, and industries for enforcing morally appropriate viewing behaviors. I also compare the ultimate aim of classifiers, censors, media raters and educators as they attempt to curtail or amplify a film’s circulation and audience. These processes are essential to deeper understandings of how morality is ascribed to narratives and ambiguity, how certain audiences are matched to certain sorts of movies over others, and how the limits of what is permissible for mass consumption are debated and constructed. This dissertation examines how censors, classifiers, and others manage ambiguity. How are the moral decisions of censors and classifiers justified, or employed as essential explanations and defenses for other media control approaches, such as media raters? I argue that classification systems, while creating clear distinctions between the permissible and the impermissible, also creates spaces of moral ambiguity between demarcated lines, and that moral ambiguity enables further claims for the work of other media control efforts, such as media raters. I examine the moral politics and knowledge of American cinema censorship, classification, and evaluation from the 1930s to the present. In the 2 case of media, and mainstream American movies in particular, moral ambiguity takes on qualities that transform it from being cast as a danger to society into being cast as a resource, a tool by which members of society can come to generate