The double standard against sex and for violence in the United States, as if you needed any further confirmation, is alive and well.

Or, as they put it in the South Park movie, graphic deplorable violence is okay as long as nobody says any bad words.

“Bad words” now includes “porno” for the purposes of this article.  That’s right–once again, Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno (yeah I said it. PORNO.) is on the receiving end of plenty of hypocritical bushwah as a growing number of theatres refuse to show it. Check this out:

Megaplex Theatres, which operates theaters in Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah say that it has refused to book The Weinstein Company’s R-rated Zack and Miri Make a Porno. The theaters are owned by Larry Miller, who in 2006 refused to screen Brokeback Mountain in his theaters, saying that it “crossed the line.” Miller is also the owner of the Utah Jazz. In an interview with today’s (Monday) New York Post, theater manager Cal Gunderson said, “We feel it’s very close to an NC-17 with its graphic nudity and graphic sex.” When the newspaper’s “Page Six” column asked Gunderson why the theater chain had no problems booking the ultra-violent Saw V, Gunderson replied, “No comment.”

So…wait.  You believe that Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which is rated R by the MPAA, is CLOSE to an NC-17 with its graphic nudity and graphic sex, and because you believe that it’s ALMOST rated something higher than it actually is, you’re going to refuse to stock it.  Meanwhile, you’re okay with the ALMOST NC-17 graphic violence of Saw V, probably because you’re making money hand over fist with that one, right Gunderson?

That’s pretty contemptible, you know.  Why don’t you just come right out and say that you’ve got a problem with sex unless it’s going to make you pots of money?

Of course, you can’t blame Gunderson too hard for that one–he probably just got the word passed down from Miller.  Also, you’ve got to consider that they’re out there in Utah, which is pretty far out there to begin with.  Don’t believe me?  Watch SLC Punk sometime.  You show Zack and Miri out there in Temple Country and you’re going to be five-deep in picketers.

This is an unsettling decision, but I suppose the market is making its wishes known.  Not like people out in Provo can’t go to the nearest UA or GKC or what have you and tell Megaplex where to stick its censorship.

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