BIRTH: shocking double standards

Ros Phillips, research officer for Festival of Light Australia, is shocked at the double standards of SA media. They have not uttered a peep to warn parents of the adult-child sex theme of Nicole Kidman’s new film BIRTH, now screening in Adelaide cinemas during the school holidays.

“The SA community is deeply concerned at growing reports of child sex abuse,” said Ros Phillips. “In recent times, our media have been full of angry headlines. So why the double standards with BIRTH?

“BIRTH’s MA rating contravenes the film classification guidelines, which state that depictions of child sexual abuse or exploitative or offensive depictions involving a person who is or looks like a child under 16 years will be refused classification.

“BIRTH’s theme is about a growing erotic attraction between a ten year old boy named Sean and a widow named Anna who has just become engaged to another man.

“Sean claims to be Anna’s late husband, reincarnated. Later in the film we learn he is able to convince Anna because he has read letters she wrote years before. Anna and Sean discuss having sex together. They have a bath, naked, together. There is another scene where there is a kiss, designed to convey deep but restrained passion.

“BIRTH sends the immature and the vulnerable a message that adult-child sex is ‘thinkable’,” Ros Phillips said. “Its director has chosen an incredible story to make child molestation appear OK in certain circumstances. It is a dangerous film. It has overtones of Mary Kay Letourneau of Seattle who seduced one of her year 6 students, and the recent Melbourne case of Karen Ellis who had sex with a 15 year old boy.”

Mrs Phillips condemned the Film Classification Board which failed to follow the guidelines by allowing a scene of a naked woman and a naked child in the context of sexual discussions. She also condemned cinema chains which have chosen to screen BIRTH during school holidays.

“An MA rating means children of any age can see the film as long as they are accompanied by a parent or adult guardian,” Ros Phillips said. “Paedophile ‘guardians’ would love to take children to see BIRTH to help in grooming them to accept the idea of child-adult sex,” Ros Phillips said.

“And where is the media outcry? Would they remain silent if instead of Nicole Kidman and ten year old boy, it was Russell Crowe naked in a bath with a ten year old girl?

“There are shocking double standards here,” Mrs Phillips said.

Mrs Roslyn Phillips, B Sc Dip Ed Research Officer, Festival of Light Australia Website http://www.fol.org.au

April 2005