Ratings are a sop to parents, pure and simple. They are a way for parents to make a snap judgment about something without having to look for themselves. If a movie is PG rated, they can consider what they know about the PG rating and decide whether their child can see the film without having to bother actually watching the film. It is letting some other agency set age guidelines for what films kids can see.
Let's face it: keeping track of what a kid experiences in popular media and limiting that can be a difficult, time-consuming chore. Parents, understandably, would probably welcome things that would take some of that burden off. But to rely on a rating is to let someone else set standards for you, whether it is the RIAA with CD labels, the MPAA with movie ratings, the video game labels, the largely ineffectual (these days) Comics Code Authority, or Marvel's self-made ratings. If a parent trusts any of these over their own standards, I feel they deserve whatever may happen. In my opinion, the fact that raising a kid is incredibly hard work does not absolve a parent from having to do that hard work, or from accepting the consequences if they fob that work off on someone else.
Besides, the rating thing may be the biggest and most glaring problem with the cover, but it certainly isn't the ONLY problem.
Perhaps not, but that would seem to kind of contradict our earlier exchange:
Suppose Marvel re-rated Heroes for Hire #13 to, say, an 18+ rating?
Then I wouldn't have a problem with it.
If we've dealt with the "marketed to minors" business sufficiently, I have no further beef with anyone who doesn't like the cover - so long as such protest doesn't eventually deprive me of my ability to buy the comics and that cover. Then, it'll kind of gripe me. But your right to express yourself (and my right to respond to that expression) I hold inviolate.
no subject
Let's face it: keeping track of what a kid experiences in popular media and limiting that can be a difficult, time-consuming chore. Parents, understandably, would probably welcome things that would take some of that burden off. But to rely on a rating is to let someone else set standards for you, whether it is the RIAA with CD labels, the MPAA with movie ratings, the video game labels, the largely ineffectual (these days) Comics Code Authority, or Marvel's self-made ratings. If a parent trusts any of these over their own standards, I feel they deserve whatever may happen. In my opinion, the fact that raising a kid is incredibly hard work does not absolve a parent from having to do that hard work, or from accepting the consequences if they fob that work off on someone else.
Besides, the rating thing may be the biggest and most glaring problem with the cover, but it certainly isn't the ONLY problem.
Perhaps not, but that would seem to kind of contradict our earlier exchange:
Suppose Marvel re-rated Heroes for Hire #13 to, say, an 18+ rating?
Then I wouldn't have a problem with it.
If we've dealt with the "marketed to minors" business sufficiently, I have no further beef with anyone who doesn't like the cover - so long as such protest doesn't eventually deprive me of my ability to buy the comics and that cover. Then, it'll kind of gripe me. But your right to express yourself (and my right to respond to that expression) I hold inviolate.